Mornings can be a bit hectic. You've got all of the students coming into the classroom, unpacking, and doing needed tasks all at once. It can get a bit crazy if you don't have set routines in place.
Morning routines are a great way to ensure a smooth start to the day in the classroom. Here are a few ideas for establishing a successful morning routine:
Be Consistent
By having consistent routines that students do every day, you won't have students lined up 5 deep asking you what they need to do. They'll know what they need to do because they do it every day. My students choose their lunch on the lunch board, turn in their homework, and then start on their morning work.
Morning Work
It's important to have work for students to do once they've done their morning tasks. This will give you time to do your morning tasks such as lunch count, attendance, or collecting papers. It could be a worksheet on their desk, an assignment on their Chromebooks, or morning task boxes. Whatever morning work you do, once again, keep it consistent so that you don't get a lot of questions while you're trying to do your morning tasks.
Have a Visual
No matter how consistent you are, there will still be those few students that will ask every day what they need to do. That's why I project morning slides that have the daily routine tasks as well as the morning work. I also put the lunch choices on it, so that when they get to the lunch choice board, they already know what the lunch choices are. I fill out the morning slides for the whole month and also add student birthdays to it as well. This helps to make sure that I don't miss student birthdays (I used to be awful about that before I started doing the morning slides). I also add reminders of any upcoming events such as spirit days or projects or papers that need to be turned in.
Post Your Daily Schedule
Make sure to post your daily schedule. This will help avoid spending the morning getting the question, "What are we doing today?" I keep a very consistent schedule so when we move on from our morning routine to reading, students often already have out what they need because they know from the schedule that we're doing reading next, and they know what they need to have out for reading.
Play Soft Music
I keep a playlist of soft music that I've found on YouTube. I've found that usually when I play soft music, it helps the students to work more calmly, helping students to start their day off with calm minds and bodies.
Morning routines in the classroom can help your day start off on a positive and less hectic note, setting a positive tone for the day.
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