K - Castiglia, K.

The Daily 5

boy at desk   Girl with pencil

This is a literacy program that works with our current reading program.
It gives the children the opportunity to practice what they are learning.

It includes:

1.  Read to Self - The best way to become a better reader is to practice each day, with books you choose, on your just right reading level.  It soon becomes a habit.

2.  Read to Someone - Reading to someone allows for more time to practice strategies, help you work on fluency and expression, check for understanding, hearing your own voice, and share in the learning community.

3.  Listening to Reading - We hear examples of good literature and fluent reading.  We learn more words, therefore we expand our vocabulary and become better readers.

boy listening to reading  I would love to have a selection of parent read books available for the children to use at the Listen to Reading center.  Just pick any children's book and record yourself reading it on a tape or CD.  Send the book and tape or CD  to school in a large baggie with your child's name on the baggie.  We will add these books to our center.  We will return your book and recording at the end of the school year.  (Story length can vary from 3 to 5 minutes all the way to 12 to 15 minutes.)

4.  Work on Writing - Just like reading, the best way to become a better writer is to practice writing each day.

5.  Spelling/Word Work - Correct spelling allows for more fluent writing, therefore speeding up the ability to write and get thinking down on paper.  This is an essential foundation for writers.


The goal is to teach independence and give the children the skills needed to create a lifetime love of reading and writing.

We will work on the three ways to read a book first.
     1.  read and talk about the pictures
     2.  read the words
     3.  retell a previously read book.
Then move in to teach: Read to Self. 

There is a lot of modeling done with the children to teach them what each task looks like, feels like and sounds like when done correctly.

I will add more information as we work our way through this Literacy Structure.  I am excited to see this in action.