Daily 5, Smarty Pants, and Freebie!

Before I blog on the 2nd chapter of the Daily Five for the book study (chapter 1 is HERE) on Wednesday, I thought I would address questions I received about my file folder system to organize student work.  After trial and error, I decided that this was the best organizational tool for ME!  I started the beginning of D5 with trays where students turned in their work. By Friday, there was a huge stack of papers and I had to sort them and it was just CRAZY!  So I got a crate for around $4... one like this...

 and filled it with hanging file folders.  Each file folder had a number on it (my student's numbers for their papers).  ANY work that was completed for the D5 was to be turned in to that student's hanging file folder.  That way, I could grab it on Friday, staple it with the checklist, slap a grade on it, and I was done!  As far as grades, I just did completion for the 6 items that had to be turned in.

I made posters for my classroom to display what was mandatory to be turned in by Friday.  If it's mandatory, I put a star beside it.

Read to Self-

Read Classroom Library Books, Library Books

Book Browsing

AR Tests

*Scholastic News

*IDR Tasks (any independent reading tasks for their notebooks that I give them for the week)

Read to Someone

Listen to Reading

Word Work-

*Poetry

*Fun Spell

*Word Wall Words  - I use the form HERE.

Writing-

*Journals

Your Choice

I have a simple checklist that I use and check when each of these is turned in!

I've created another "Beginning the Year Pack" but this one is using the adorable clip art "Smarty Pants" from Scrappin' Doodles!  Check it out HERE or HERE!

And grab your freebie to match it HERE or HERE!

Well I am going to work on some writing pieces for my writing class!

Smiles and Snapshots,

Courtney