Kinder Kraziness: Building Stamina and Picking Books

Some commented on my last Daily 5 post about how I've been working on building stamina and keeping track of it. So, here is a break down of my D5 lesson.

We are only on Read to Self. We have been on Read to Self for 2 weeks and 2 days. Each day we come to the floor with our book boxes and review our I Can chart.

Our statements are:
I Can:
Read Slowly and Quietly
Use a quiet, whisper voice
Keep my Eyes on My Own book
Stay in One Spot
Read the Whole Time

After our review, I have one person to model the right way and then the wrong way. I know I said at the beginning of the book study that I DID NOT agree with bad behavior model. But believe it or not, it worked like a charm!

So after that, I'm to the point where I let my girls use a "self-control" spot. Mainly, a place where they can most easily keep their self control. Then I let the boys pick a spot a few at a time (I have 11 boys and need to split them up, other wise, they tend to run over each other).

Once we get to a spot, I read out our previous time that we have to beat and our goal that we want to get to. Then I say, you may begin reading with self control.

They've been lasting 3 to 4 minutes. We almost made it to 5 today, but I had two who could not read the whole time and started talking to each other.

The fun thing though, is that I am giving little celebrations for every 5 minute mark that we hit. So my friends wanted to try again and again. They still didn't make it to 5 today, but I LOVE their willingness to try.

After we are finished we look at our stamina chart, which is on the top corner of my SMART Board. If we gain a minute, I fill it in. After 2 weeks and 2 days, we are stuck at 4, but I have a feeling we'll hit 5 this week!

This chart came from someone, but when I typed in the link it didn't work. So if you know who did it, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!

So, this week I let my kiddos pick their own books. I go to the public library every two weeks and come in with a big ol' bag of about 25-50 books, depending on if hubby goes with me, because I sure can't carry them all.

I decided to make it fun for them. They had NO CLUE what was going on. I started spreading books ALL over our floor and they got to go on a book walk. They walked around the room one time to see what books were available. They were able to touch and open for just a second if they thought it was interesting and then they were able to go back and pick 4 books.

Success!