Mornings can be a little hectic in the primary classroom. Students are full of energy first thing in the morning and there's always a ton of things to get done, so it can feel a bit overwhelming. Over the years, I have found there is one tried and true way to tame the morning chaos - a classroom morning routine! Today, I am sharing 3 of my top tips for crafting a classroom morning routine that is functional, fun, and works for YOU!
How Can A Classroom Morning Routine Help?
An effective morning routine is such a valuable tool in the classroom. When your students know what is expected of them right off the bat and come into your classroom knowing where to go and what to do, things just run so much more smoothly!
Personally, I know that having a great classroom morning routine will help me make sure I can start the day off on the right foot with patience and clarity rather than chaos!
By adding a morning routine, you can also build in some extra practice for your kiddos each and every day that is outside of your daily lesson plan. Students will get in the habit of working on specific tasks at this time and you can sneak in that much-needed, repetitive practice.
Ready to hear my tips on how to get started? Let's dive in!
1. Consider Goals For Your Classroom Morning Routine
First off, consider why you want to add a classroom morning routine. Consider the current pain points in your room and how you might like to address them. For example...
- Do you need a few minutes to catch your breath, take attendance and prepare for the day?
- Do you want to sneak in more practice for your students on key skills?
- Are your students getting noisy and/or rowdy right off the bat?
- All of the above? Or something else?
Think for a few moments about what you're facing in your classroom and consider this when building your routine. If you're finding you need a few minutes to get things ready first thing in the morning, it's probably not a great idea to start a new group activity routine. Instead, maybe consider some independent activities that your students can work on when they arrive.
In our room, I love using No Prep CVC Word Phonics Pages as our very first activity of the day. When students arrive, they know to put their bags away and grab a worksheet from the daily activity bin by the door. They sit down and get started with their warm-up work while I take attendance, handle lunch count, and any other pressing matters.
These no-prep CVC word pages are fantastic for a warm activity because they are engaging and easy for the children to work on independently. Once they understand how the worksheets are laid out, they can follow the same predictable pattern day after day to complete this first task. Plus, these give my kiddos daily phonics practice first thing in the morning. Grab a free sample of these pages to test out in your room!
2. Plan To Use Familiar Activities
While this also goes hand-in-hand with what I mentioned above, it's worth mentioning again. Having a successful morning routine is highly dependent on making things familiar. Our first activity is always a phonics practice page, but after that, my students move on to morning tubs.
My kiddos are grouped in "tables" and each group has its own bin of morning activities. I rotate these each day so that my kiddos will get a chance to use each set of activities during a week's time. Once my students have finished their sight word practice page, they know to drop their page in the "to grade" file and then grab an activity from the tub.
In these morning tubs, I have 4x6 photo cases with activity cards inside them along with corresponding manipulatives. My students know that they can choose 1 photo box and share any manipulatives to complete the activity inside.
This idea works with a wide variety of activities, but I love using Phonics Puzzles for this! I just prep the cards and divide them among the boxes. I also add enough recording sheets for each student in the class. Students will work on matching the correct word to each picture and then writing them down on their recording page.
Typically, I set a timer right as students arrive in the morning and the kiddos will work on this activity until the timer goes off. If they finish early, they know they can swap their box with a friend in their group.
3. End On A Fun Note
Finally, don't forget to add a dash of fun too! Typically, I like our final activity to be some kind of game, puzzle activity, or color by number worksheet. These types of activities still allow for student independence and are always my students' favorite.
This activity is no-prep and predictable for my students. Once they have done this activity a time or two they can jump right in without any further instructions from me. Our "paper passer" distributes the activity and my kiddos get to work cutting out the pictures and solving the puzzle.
This is a great activity to close out your morning routine as the children can be totally independent while also having fun solving a puzzle. Once they solve their puzzle and attach their pieces, they can take a few moments to color their picture. Ending with coloring is fun for my kiddos and helps them feel calm and "ready" to jump right into our lessons for the day afterward.
Don't Forget Fast Finishers
I usually have one more activity on hand just in case for my fast finishers too! This is where a color by number page is perfect! It's another calming, coloring activity that focuses on important skills. This Subitizing Color by Number Set has a space theme that my kids love! I print a variety of these pages to keep on hand for the week. If students finish early, they can grab one and keep practicing while the rest of the group finishes up.
Start Using A Classroom Morning Routine
So, what do you think? Ready to jump in and start crafting an effective morning routine for your classroom? Having a predictable lineup of activities first thing in the morning has really helped me tame the morning chaos in my classroom and start out the day on the right foot.
Another great benefit to choosing a "framework" for your morning activities is that it makes it super simple to choose activities for each week. As a recap, in our room, we start with a no-prep practice page. Next, we work on morning tubs for the assigned time. Finally, we finish with a fun game, puzzle, and/or coloring activity.
Knowing that we will do these 3 things every morning makes it super easy to plan activities each week. So, what's on your classroom morning routine list?
Have fun building your perfect morning block, and remember - make it work for YOU! Depending on the time you have available you might want to choose just one activity. Or maybe you will need more! Make this unique to your classroom needs.
The important part of a solid classroom morning routine is consistency. Start the routine on day one and practice, practice, practice. Before you know it students will be coming to class and jumping right in.
Save These Classroom Morning Routine Ideas
Don't forget to Pin these ideas to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so that you will be all set when you're ready to start crafting an awesome classroom morning routine!
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