The Daily Five: A Kindergarten Lesson for Adults - Beth Beutler
The Daily Five: A Kindergarten Lesson for Adults
If you know a child in K through 2nd grade, you might want to ask if they experience the Daily 5 at school.
While not all schools practice this, for those that do, the Daily 5 is a series of literacy “centers” that the children work through every day. The centers focus on skills such as reading, writing and word work, so that the students are continually strengthening their competency in these vital areas of education and life.
Adults would do well to follow a similar practice.
We all have routines, but sometimes it’s easy to let external sources determine our priorities for the day. However, if we can become intentional and set up “centers” to visit, we can continually strengthen our behaviors, health, and values.
Here are some possible centers for your Daily 5:
Body: taking care of our health is important, because it affects everything else we do. This center would be focused on nutrition, exercise, and other forms of self-care. Examples would be a daily walk (or other form of activity), drinking enough water, and eating nutritional foods the majority of the time.
Mind: in this center, you’d be visiting helpful and stimulating material to keep your mind sharp. It may be doing puzzles or reading some professional development resources.
Soul: Here, you would take time to feed your soul. For me, it’s time invested in Scripture, prayer, and other inspirational pursuits.
Spirit: In this center, you’d allow yourself to spend time in healthy activities such as practicing a hobby, being creative, using your unique gifts on a project, and spending time blessing others and interacting with people who sharpen you.
Environment: This is the one “external” center, but it affects all the others. When in this mindset, you’d be investing some time into your environment, whether home, office, car, etc. It may be decluttering, or rearranging, cleaning, or adding decor that inspires you or that reflects a certain holiday or season.
In Kindergarten, the students visit their centers consistently. For the best benefit, you as an adult would “center” yourself intentionally more days than not. Sometimes interuptions occur, but as a rule, you’d have a routine. And you will likely find that visiting your “Daily 5” will pay off over the long term with better health, increased productivity, and a daily enjoyment of life.
HOPE is honored to help support Learning at the Primary Pond, which specializes in literacy resources for those teaching K through 2nd grade. Check out their resources here.
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