Daily 5: Listen to Reading

Woof! Kona the pup says, "It's only Wednesday?!?"

Is anyone as tired as me today?  I stayed up way past my bedtime watching the election results! I thought that photo of our puppy, Kona, about summed up how I'm feeling today:).
Onto the teaching stuff...I have wanted to blog about Daily 5 foreverrr.  So, I am going to do a series of posts about each component of the Daily Five over the next few weeks...first up is Listen to Reading.

This is the first year I have converted from literacy centers to The Daily 5---for at least my own Kindergarten-friendly version of The Daily 5!! One of our five daily activities is always Listen to Reading--which I have struggled to find ways to make logistically kid-friendly. I also have questioned whether or not my kiddos are getting learning out of it to warrant it being an option every single day.

Here's what I have discovered that has helped me to streamline the management of "listen to reading":

1. Bookflix-  This is a very cool tool!!  Bookflix is a Scholastic creation...maybe I am the last teacher on Earth to use it, but I just discovered it this year.  They have animated classic children's literature and the words flash up on screen as the book is read aloud!  Each fictional story is paired with a nonfiction selection (usually a Scholastic Let's Find Out).  And the awesome part is that you can likely access Bookflix for FREE through your local library's website as long as you have a library card!  Try it out!  My students love watching their fave stories on the computer and the thing I love most is that the computer is WAY easier for my kiddos to maneuver than a CD or tape player-no need to worry about rewinding, CDs skipping, and whatever other technical difficulties seem to happen every.single.day.  Here is the link to the program overview on Scholastic's website.

2. Storia- Is another Scholastic creation.  I swear I am not employed or even getting compensated by Scholastic-just love these options for Listen to Reading!  Storia is an eReader/eBooks for children.  Some of the books are available as read-alouds which is amaaazing!  Read aloud stories seem to be very hard to find online.  What I love most about Storia is that I can use my book order points to get new eBooks for free!  I was lucky enough to get an iPad for classroom use this year and Storia has worked really well on it.  Kids love "turning" the pages on the iPad.

3. Free iPad Apps- There are a variety of free random read-aloud story apps for the iPad.  Here is a short list of free ebook apps that I've found so far:
1. Bob Books Lite
2. Mee Genius
3. International Children's Digital Library
4. Little Big Genius Books
5. The Berenstain Bears and the Golden Rule book
6. Read Me Stories
7. K12 Read Aloud Classics Lite

4. Comprehension/Listening Check pages- I am in the process of developing a set of these for primary grades to accompany your listening centers.  I think it's important to hold children accountable for showing their understanding of the selection they listened to.  Look for the set on my TpT store this weekend!

5. Parent Volunteers- Parent volunteers can be such a blessing to have in your classroom but let's face it--sometimes it's a mad scramble to find something valuable for them to do!  This year, I have had a parent plugged in at our listen to reading station once a week.  I think this gives some variety to the listening activities, plus it's a super simple, structured activity for a volunteer to lead-no matter what their experience level in your classroom is.  I usually have the parent do some sort of sequencing activity and/or comprehension check with the group.

Hope this helps spark some ideas for your listening center or for your listen to reading time for Daily 5!

Lastly, I hope you will take a moment to enter my giveaway.  It ends tomorrow, so hurry! First prize is a $10 gift card to Target (who couldn't use that!?!) and second prize is my Gobble, Gobble Turkey Sight Word Game from TpT, which I just laminated and got ready for use tonight!  Ahh, the life of a teacher:).

Gobble Gobble-sight word game cards laminated and ready to get cut apart! OH joy!