August 2016

Dear Parents and Guardians,

            Welcome to a new school year!  I hope you had a wonderful summer and enjoyed spending quality time with your child.  I know that each year of your child’s schooling presents new expectations and routines for you and your child to become familiar with.  I will be introducing classroom routines and structure in a way that removes all the guesswork from the child and allows them to concentrate fully on learning.  In reading, the classroom structure I use is called Daily 5; similarly, in math I use Daily 3.  The purpose of this letter is to explain to you what the Daily 5 and Daily 3 are and what you should expect to see at home. 

            The Daily 5 and Daily 3 are a literacy and math structure that teaches independence and gives children the skills needed to create a lifetime love of reading, writing, and math.  It consists of five tasks/3 tasks that are introduced individually.  When introduced to each task, the children discuss what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like to engage in the task independently.  Then the children work on building their stamina until they are successful at being independent for up to 15-20 minutes while doing that task.

These are the five tasks for Literacy:             Read to Self             Read to Someone             Listen to Reading             Work on Writing             Word Work

These are the three tasks for Math:             Math by Self             Math with someone             Math Writing

            When all literacy and math tasks have been introduced and the children are fully engaged, I am able to work with small groups to confer with the children one-on-one.  This structure is effective, the results are amazing, and the children look forward to Daily 5 and Daily 3 time.

            Ask your child about Daily 5 and Math Daily 3 and see what they have to say.  I anticipate your child will tell you about the class stamina and how we are working toward independence, and maybe you will even hear about some of the fantastic things your child has written or read during Daily 5 or hear about some story problems written and solved or games they played during Daily 3.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Thanks you for your support.