Morning Routine in First Grade: Morning Greeting and Morning Meeting
How do we start the day in first grade? How can we take a room full of eager, excited students, and create a calm, safe learning environment for these firsties to start learning? It starts with an individual morning greeting at the door, a routine of putting our things away and getting set up for the day, beginning our morning meeting, and then the morning routine ends with our morning work. Our morning routine is SO important! My firsties know what the morning will look like- they expect the same thing every morning. Working in a low income school this is important for many reasons. First, getting to school on time can be a struggle for some of my families. Doing my morning routine helps pause the days’ new learning to ensure my students are able to be present for it. Secondly, these students (and I would guess ALL students) need a sense of sureness in the school day. Knowing how the day starts lets them warm up to the school day without any big surprises or expectations first thing. And thirdly, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, my morning routine is filled with opportunities to connect with all of my students- building that ever so important relationship of trust and caring.
MORNING GREETINGS: Entering the Classroom
At my school, our morning entry was for teachers to walk outside and pick up their students waiting in a line on the blacktop. Before entering the classroom, I would greet each student with a “Good morning Jackson, hand shake, hug or high five?” We’ve all seen the videos of more elaborate greetings and I think they are amazing! Individual handshakes or little dances look like so much fun, but for my classroom we did a simple hug most days. Students would then enter the classroom and take care of the morning business of putting chairs down, backpacks away, lunches, etc.
Click on the image above to access this free printable!
MORNING MEETING
If you haven’t read The Morning Meeting Book by Roxann Kriete and Carol Davis, you need to add this to your list of books to read! It’s an easy read with powerful information about the importance of holding a morning meeting.
The Morning Meeting Book by Roxann Kriete nad Carol Davis
I keep mine very simple! The following is an overview of my take of a morning meeting:
Handshake and Greeting
Our morning meeting starts with all my students standing in a circle. We choose a starting place and the first two students turn to face each other, shake hands politely (lots of modeling), make eye contact and greet each other with the same phrase every day “Good morning, Sam” “Good morning, Jessica”.
2. Speaking Prompt
We then sit down in a circle. Using a pointer as a “talking stick”, the student with the talking stick have the opportunity to share the day’s speaking prompt. On Mondays we always share a quick synopsis of our plan for our weekend story. On the remaining week days we share an opinion or short story. I could of course create these daily, and do if I have something I want to discuss in our classroom community. But on the days when I just need a quick topic, I have Tara Wests’ Kindertell Prompts printed and stored in a jar to grab as needed.
3. Morning Work
After our circle morning meeting, we wrap up our morning routine with independent morning work.
On Monday’s we write our Weekend Story. Possibly one of my absolute FAVORITE writing pieces my students do all week is their weekend story! It is just so special to have them share their weekend with me, something they felt was important, and classroom management wise I have opportunity to read each students’ story individually. This is one writing piece I kept track of all year, making up students who missed Mondays or were chronically late Monday mornings. At the end of the year I bind their weekend stories and send it home as a first grade artifact!
Click the picture above to find my Weekend News printable on Teachers Pay Teachers.
On the four remaining days we do a Morning Work worksheet. This worksheet follows a pattern for the whole week, making Tuesdays’ our teaching days and then rest of the week a repeat of the same layout with different content.
Click the worksheet above to access this resource on Teachers Pay Teachers.
It is always nice to wrap up our morning routine with some quiet, independent work that would keep the tone calm and ready for the day!
To recap, morning routines are NECESSARY for keeping your students in the know of the first few items you will do in a school day. They LOVE being part of a classroom community that is welcoming and where each student is acknowledged each day by name and two built in verbal greetings.
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:) Katelyn from Teaching Primary with Katelyn
