Struggling with Daily 5

This is my second year doing Daily 5 and I have loved it from day 1!!!  Last year my kiddos had no problems with the routines and were very independent. This group is having a hard time and I know that it is because we have not been in school and they are lacking in the routine department.

Last week during one of my independent times instead of pulling a small group I sat back and observed my class, here is what I found.
1. My kiddos were struggling with picking a spot where they could work by themselves with little distractions
2. They were struggling with getting started with listen to read on the computers
3. They were tired of writing their own personal stories for work on writing.

With my data in hand I used my planning time to come up with a plan.

To solve the picking a good spot to work in I decided to put "x's" around the room that showed kids good places to sit so that they would not distract others and others wouldn't distract them.  If students are at read to self they can sit on any of the 5 blue x's around the room.  If they are at word work they can sit on any of the 5 cream x's around the room.  Students at work on writing have to sit at their tables. I know that this minimizes the amount of choice that students get but my plan is to slowly give them flexibility and transition back to letting them choose for them selves. Right now it is working and they are much more focused on their reading.

To solve the listen to read problem I wrote down all of the passwords to the listen to read sites on index cards and put them on a binder ring. I then used 3M clips and hung them on the computers.  This worked wonders!!!

I completely understand that my students are tired of writing their own personal stories considering we have been writing them since Aug.  So I created these simple writing prompts to give kids a break from coming up with their own stories. I can't tell you how excited my class was when I introduced these. I created about 5 to start with and plan to add more based on what we are learning and my students interest.