Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Without it your day can spiral out of control in no time. I have lived to tell the tale and let me tell you, it isn't pretty! I have had a lot of questions lately about classroom management and how to get into a good routine so today I will give you a few ideas (and remind myself) of some fool proof morning routines to start from day one.
As soon as my students walk in the door I greet them with a handshake and a smile (essential!) and they go straight to their seats for their morning work. Everything they need is already at their tables so there is no need for any dilly dallying! We learn this routine very quickly and our morning work is super consistent so I don't have to give directions every day. It has handwriting practice, letter naming and sight word practice, grammar skills, and sentence writing that builds with them throughout the year. It is a really important part of our day that I want them to really do a good job on.
It would be great if everyone worked at the same speed every single day and there was never any waiting, wouldn't it? Actually that may get a little boring but the point is you need to have something for students to do when they finish. Bonus? If it's super hands on and really engaging they will WANT TO do it so they will work really hard on their morning work! I have 12 Hands On Stations (fine motor work) and they have an assigned partner they work with every day. I blogged about that HERE when I started these last year. A simple rotation chart tells them which station they go to each day.
Start your day with a solid meeting time. If you want to read a great book about Morning Meeting I blogged all about the Responsive Classroom approach HERE. Having a morning meeting planned out (and they know it's coming) calms our morning down. They all know there will be a sharing time soon so students aren't following me around while I am taking attendance to tell me that their puppy peed on the floor this morning. (I wish I was making that last part up...but...true story). They save it for our morning meeting.
Our morning meeting transitions into our calendar time. Early in the year this is when we talk about our letter of the day (along with basic calendar components.) Keeping anchor charts of our learning up gives us an "anchor" and creates a smooth routine. My students love it when we add words to our letter posters and they are READY first thing to share a new word with me. I love it when I can tell they were thinking about it all night and they are trying to stump me by giving me something difficult to draw. We rely on these routines, they do too!
Once we finish our morning routines we are all set to get started with our day and start our center rotations. I try to keep my center routines really consistent too so I don't have to stop and give a million directions daily. After calendar time they don't have a whole lot of stamina left for more listening. We keep consistent cut & glue centers, spinners or daubers, stamping, and write the room available daily. The words and skills switch out, the procedures stay the same. We start with only 2 options and work our way up to multiple choices daily.
How long does it take to have a super smooth morning? I'd love to say a day or two but in reality it takes weeks to build these routines. The key is to start from the very beginning. The more consistent you can be the better. Here are a few tips about the first week of school.
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