Daily 5 - Read to Self in Kindergarten

Each year I stumbled on the Read to Self portion of Daily 5. Kindergarteners do not necessarily start school knowing letters, sounds, or basic reading skills, so how will they read to self?!?

Here are some tricks I have learned in my experiences:

1.    When introducing Read to Self, bring excitement and enthusiasm to the task. Many times the delivery from a teacher can really excite students making them more willing to follow directions.

2.   Never let the students practice Read to Self with bad habits!!

When students practice Read to Self, they need to do it PERFECTLY! If I see students not focusing, following directions, or distracting others, I immediately ring the chimes to bring the students back to the carpet. We discuss what needs to happen, regroup, and try again. (Anchor charts are always a big help with this!)

There have been many times my students were up to reading for 10 minutes, but a distraction occurred that set our practices back down to 2 minutes. By remembering the acceptable Read to Self procedures, however, we were able to work our minutes back up.

3.   Create comfortable places for the students to use when reading.

This makes a lot of sense…do you read while sitting on a hard chair with a table? No! So why would a child want to? I have added ‘reading rugs’, which are rectangular pieces of material on the floor for the students to lounge on. This year has been a transformation with the Next Gen furniture added to my room and the students are loving it! I am also a fan of the classroom ‘recliner’. This is used with a student chair tipped upside down on the floor. Then, the students add a pillow for some cushion. This is a favorite for many!

4.   Keep track of the minutes read on a Stamina Graph and display this in the classroom.

Currently, my class is still trying to get to the 15 minute mark. We are motivated! I find many students looking at the graph and telling the others that we have to accomplish our goals - just a couple more minutes to go!

Free Download Here

5.   Display a large timer on the board so the students know how much time is left.

I was worried this would be distracting, but it is just the opposite! I see many students look up at the timer, then quickly grab a book because they know they have time for one more!
There are many free apps and websites that are great timers for the classroom:

Timer 1

Timer 2
App Timer 1

App Timer 2

6.   Finally, remember practice makes perfect!

We know this and I tell my students the same thing. I don’t want them to be discouraged and give up. Every day, I refer to the Daily 5 rounds as “practices”. I hope this reminds my students that we are practicing and will continually improve.

Hope you were able to get some ideas!

Good luck on Read to Self with your Kindergartners!