I have had so many morning routines in my classroom and this year I think I finally found the right fit. My students trickle into the classroom in the morning. School officially starts at 8:15, but between parent drop off and bus drop off, students come at different times throughout the morning. The problem has been what do my students do while we wait for everyone to arrive. In the past 4 years I’ve tried a variety of different things that weren’t quite right for my classroom.
- I tried morning play time. This got my students way too aroused and it was hard to get them back to a regulated state.
- I tried singing songs. Students would arrive that needed prompting and I couldn’t leave my group of students.
- I tried diving right into tasks. This had the same problem as signing songs in the morning.
Nothing was working quite right. I was feeling like goldilocks. Then I thought about what I really wanted my students to do. I needed them ready to learn and to practice skills. That’s when this idea struck me. I wanted my students to sign in and practice basic skills when they arrive. I put together worksheets for my students that were leveled based on their abilities. What was super important to me was that the style of the pages at all levels looked similar. My students are famous for wanting whatever someone else has, no matter if it’s too hard for them or not! So I put together Morning Work pages for my students to complete. I made 3 levels, it seems to fit my learners. Each morning these are out on our Red Table for students to complete (side note: I just got a new red table today and I’m stoked!). They find the one with their name, sit down and complete both sides of the page. If students do finish before we’re ready for our morning meeting, I have put together some fine motor task boxes at our Blue Table for them to complete. This system has really been a lifesaver in our classroom!
Check out what the pages look like!
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Your morning work bundle is awesome! I also have students that trickle in and have scrambled for ideas to use during this valuable time. Thank you for sharing your ideas!
You are very welcome! I hope if helps you as much as it has helped me. I started with just having students write their name when they came in. It was a big change from no academic expectation to this, but my students know the routine now and it's fantastic!