This a very late reply to your posting, and hopefully you’ve found a tool to help your volunteers. However, in ran across the attached letter we sent to parents about our spring break that has a description of each Daily 5 component that you might be able to use.

The Spring Break Slide

As our Spring Break approaches, we all worry about any "back-sliding" that might occur with our beginning and developing readers over the 9 days they are away from us.

From this concern came an idea for "Daily Five at Home". Here’s a letter I put together for our parents for Spring Break. Maybe you all could use this--or make it your own by changing it to fit your needs.

Daily Five at Home

Dear Parents:

As you know, we incorporate the Daily Five and Literacy CAFÉ in our classrooms daily. We hope that you have a clear understanding of our goals for building independence for your child through authentic reading and writing activities. As a reminder, the Daily Five includes the following choices:

• Read to Self
• Read to Someone
• Listen to Reading
• Work on Writing
• Word Work

By now, we're sure your child could lead you through the procedures of a Daily Five session with ease.

Here's an idea you might try during your vacation time, whether you are staying at home or traveling. Have a “Daily Five Round” each day. We hope you can see how this could easily fit into your day/evening. It certainly doesn't have to be a “formal” setting, and there are no time constraints. Here are a few examples of what you could do:

Read to Self—Give your child a few minutes to read from the Book Bag choices they’ll be bringing home, or choose books of interest they have on their own bookshelf.
Read to Someone—This is when book bag books can be read to you, with your undivided attention ☺. Or, have younger sisters and brothers be the audience.
Listen to Reading—Perfect for bedtime reading, or “laptop reading” by you--the unplugged kind.
Work on Writing—Perhaps the teacher has asked your child to write a sentence or two about some of the books read over the break in a response journal, or just to write some ideas on their own. It could also be a time to write a letter to grandma and grandpa, or someone else important to them.
Word Work—There’s always word work involved in writing, and there are so many games to play with words (Scrabble Jr and Up-Words are just a couple of examples).

Select one or two activities to do each day/evening. Of course, “Read to Someone” would be a daily expectation. Let us know if you have any questions.

(Teacher’s Signature)

Please feel free to use this as written or change to meet your needs—and enjoy YOUR Spring Break!!
P.S. You can also use this for Thanksgiving or Winter holidays—and certainly for summer vacation.
Note: An earlier version of this idea was posted by me on the Discussion Board on March 8, 2012.

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