Welcome back to the blog--I want to talk a little about our mornings today. In my class, there are about 15 minutes from 7:45 to 8:00 where students are in the classroom, but instructional time has not started yet. 

As teachers, we are doing 1 million different things in the morning. Greeting students, accepting notes, collecting forms and money, taking attendance, comforting students, finding breakfasts, and hearing tidbits students have been holding onto since the last time they saw you. Students need to be doing something that is engaging, high-yield, and independent. For me, I hate using paper and making traditional morning work copies, but I also didn't want to go the route of making morning tubs/boxes that would require changing out, upkeep, and planning. I wanted something paperless that would benefit ALL students.

Enter the paperless morning routines! All my students do is come in, grab their journals, and write a sight word sentence with a fill-in-the-blank. This helps students practice sight words, learn new vocabulary, and learn about sentence structure. 15 minutes is the perfect amount of time to fill in the sentence and draw a picture to match. There is also virtually 0 clean-up time required!

For accountability, I call over 1 table each day and give them a smelly sticker or a happy face on their paper for completed work. Students never know which table I will check, so they are motivated to get their work done. They also love the simple pictures and are excited about their topics each day.

For me, no copies, no materials, no prep. Just a PowerPoint slide!

I hope this very simply idea inspires you in your own classroom to simplify your mornings without sacrificing learning!

Yours,

Ms. M