Jun
27
A Different Approach to the Morning Routine…
June 27, 2009 | | 2 Comments
Greetings,
This past school year I experimented with various activities that I have done the same way for my first five years of teaching. I know that there is some comfort to sameness and lessons being tweaked and changed a little from year to year, but I felt that a rut in the road was sure to knock me off course this year if I did not try to infuse some fresh ideas into the mix. This is where the idea came to try out a “Digital Morning Routine” with the students.
For first graders it is very important to have the consistency of a balanced schedule daily, and I knew I could not take the Morning Opening away completely from the children. I also knew that having the children come over to the “Morning Time” carpet daily and sitting through calendar was sometimes not paid attention to by the end of the first semester. I wanted to “jive” up the mornings, without losing any of the basic skills that calendar time provides.
The image above is used as the students come in after greeting me in the mornings. They will walk over to the Smart Board and place their names on what they are doing for lunch that day. This helped tremendously with the students who sometimes forgot that they had just walked into the classroom for the day and were still goofing off by the time the first bell rang for the day. Now the students are put into the routine as soon as they come in.
Having re-read that last sentence, I don’t want you to think that children are coming into a morning boot camp in my room. They are allowed to talk with friends and socialize, but I would like them to get their minds set for a day of learning, and sometimes doing the lunch count and the Morning Math Busters is the thing they need to get into the right mindset.
Once the bell rings, the lunch count is taken and this easily tells me who is absent for the day by looking at who is still left at the bottom of the screen.
Which leads me to the attendance page that I have connected via a link to our school district’s online attendance program we are required to do “Daily Attendance.”
After taking attendance, we move on to the Calendar routine which I have linked to Starfall – Calendar. This resource has been a great find for my students, because they love the interactivity that they have when it is their turn to run the calendar for the day.
After “Calendar Time”, I have recently installed a final component to the “Digital Morning Routine” that I am hoping will become a future staple in the routine for years to come. I have had extensive help constructing a custom made song chooser by Jim Hollis and his Teacher Online Training talent.
There was no better way I thought to end the morning routine and transition into a fun-filled day of learning than by dancing in the classroom. After the child who runs the calendar for that day is finished, they get to go on to the “Brain & Body Morning Shake-Up” page and choose the song we get to dance to that morning to wake ourselves up. I am excited to use this even as I type. The child hits the “Select” button and the chooser does the rest by flipping through songs 1-5 and choosing one of them. Once chosen, all the child needs to do is “click” the musical note next to that choice and we are off and dancing. The good thing about this tool is that you can change up the songs as often as you like just by inserting new music links.
When I post lessons like this one and in the future I will be then posting the lessons onto my Box.net Share folder that is located at this Box.Net Link.
Thanks for stopping by,
Bill
Comments
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Wonderful applications! Your students are blessed to have such an enthusiastic and creative teacher. My favorite idea is the morning dance. I think my 8th grade homeroom students would like that!
Terri-
Thank you for the kind words! I am just starting to scratch the surface I think on how meaningful I can make lessons and resources using the Smart Board and just want to pass along and share as much as I can with others!
Thanks again,
Bill