I am moving from 2nd to 1st and was wondering what you all have your 1st graders doing as morning work when they 1st arrive. Especially at the begining of the year when they are still very much kdg-ers.
I'm sure this will be the 1st af many silly little questions.
This year I started using "Doodleloops" after they were recommended here on PT. They have about five different books along with sight word poetry by Scholastic. I would back to back them and then review it each day with the students. They LOVED the doodleloops!
My kids quietly read from book bins, answer a message on the board, or do a word sort. I start Morning Meeting about 5-10 minutes after they come in so there isn't much down time because of all the jobs they have in the morning (exchanging books, picking lunch, reading and responding to the message, organizing, etc.).
I have mine do this packet throughout the week: http://www.carlscorner.us.com/hfw.htm
They do a page a day (we do not do sentence writing independently, it is done as large group)
In the past I have done Daily Language Review
I like the idea of handwriting (even throughout the year)...
I'm with happygirl. Students come in, put away their stuff and read quietly until morning meeting. I feel morning work is just another thing I would have to photocopy. I prefer to do language skills and review practice via my morning message during morning meeting.
Our day starts at 8, but students trickle in until about 8:30, so they work in their math journals and then can read for the remaining time... works out really well..
I have my desks tied together with zip strips and in the middle are two empty desks. I keep their "just right" book bags in a desk bank basket and another smaller basked with self correcting math fact cards. The kids can do the following: Read any book in my room, Read from their "just right' book bags and Practice math facts
This way I do not have to prepare or correct anything. I happen to have have a special first thing 3/5 days this year, so we really only do it two days. I collect and take lunch money in the pickup room before I take them to their specials the other three days, so we can get to work right away when they return.
I write the message on the board and they copy it into their notebook (handwriting practice as well). I might give addition problems Sam had 12 blue balloons and 14 red balloons. How many in all? They draw a picture and write the equation. Subtraction. I sneak a little multiplication in.. Dan saw 4 yellow dogs and 2 black dogs. How many LEGS in all?
all of our first and 2nd grade classrooms complete---Drops in the Bucket. reading one side amd math on the other. great skills and its the same format everyday
I have attached a Doodleloops cover. The students have to read a few sentences then illustrate what they have read. I have them label their illustrations to ensure that they are reading. I bought four of these and used them every day in the beginning of the year.
In the middle of the year I started writing 2 sentences on the board with errors. They write the corrected sentence in their journal. I checked them for about 2 weeks and now have a student helper that checks sentences (I check theirs first of course). When I checked papers I modeled how I put a check mark above each corrected error. Now they have 2 sentences and math problems like adding, subtracting, patterns, etc.
Saves paper and time!
Last edited by vateach10; 04-11-2010 at 07:08 AM..
Reason: added
I use something that came from Saxon Math. I got it from a friend- not sure if she modified it, but it has a line to write the full date, a place to write the time in both digital and analog form (taken from my demonstration clock), also the amount of coins I have on the board. There is a word of the day using Imagine It sound /spelling cards. There is a daily count (I start, they continue), a daily pattern, a sentence to copy and correct (or sometimes it's rhyming words, synonyms, etc to reinforce what we are working on). Finally, there is a response. As the year has progressed, I have asked more of them on this. It usually ties in to our story or theme. I didn't start this from the beginning, as I didn't know about it. I think I started it in October. I think I will try it earlier next year.
My kids always come to school with an exciting story of the previous night's events, so I have a "Big News" form. They spend 5 - 10 minutes writing Big News or writing in their journals. Then they can sit on the Sharing Stool with the microphone and read their Big News. In March I changed it to ____________ News so they can use vocabulary-expanding words such as "splendid" news or "dreadful" news, etc. They love this activity and I love to get them writing any way I can! We put the Big News into a binder and I send the writing home at the end of each month.
My students stagger in from 9:00 to 9:15 or later. In September they practice number formation and then letter formation. Then I start morning centers. There are 5 centers and 5 groups so each group visits one center a day. Most are connected to our basal reader and are the guided reading centers I use to do before this year and Daily 5. One is a phonics recording sheet, one is a bingo game with their new vocabulary, one is an ongoing puzzle, one is a scavenger hunt of words or quotes and one is a game stressing some sort of grammar or phonics skill. I usually only have 4 or 5 quick papers to mark from Center 1. It has been great. During this time I can empty folders, mark homework, conference, have the students of the day pick their new Just Right Books, take attendance and lunch count, write notes to parents, pass out the homework, etc.
I have 4 tables of children....and 4 plastic tubs I rotate Mon.-Friday, color of tub starts out matching the table it is on...red, yellow, blue, green....... Each tub has something different......#1 playdo with tools #2 puzzles #3 really special books like I Spy #4 lace ups, writing practice cards etc. I add new stuff and take away old stuff to keep children interestede............ On Fridays they have cards at their tables...I have who has..........They put these tubs up at 8:10......long enough for me to complete daily reports and check homework. Each day before I leave, I rotate the tubs......color coded.
We also have Morning Meeting about 15 minutes after they come in to the class. I use that time to greet that students, catch up on their lives (who has new shoes, a new haircut, who had trouble with last night's homework, what everyone is looking forward to doing today) while I take lunch count, attendance. The Star Student puts up the date, writes the "code date" (4-14-2010) and updates the Calendar Wall. All the other children gather on the rug to read, use pattern blocks, clocks, math flash cards etc etc. I try to keep the activity closely tied to what we'll be doing that day. For example, we just began our Geometry Unit, so this a.m. I put out the pattern blocks and pattern block cards. The other day, I put out geoboards and elastics. They also have to answer the Morning Message question which revolves around academics (review or preview for the day)
It took me awhile to let go of Morning Work. Occasionally, I will still put out a math paper or have them write in their Scientists' Notebook. But I find the morning to be much more pleasant and satisfying for all of us w/o the "busy work".
I am also moving from second grade to first. I have also taught Kindergarten. I was going to start the year out by having them practice writing their first and last names, shape recognition papers, colors, etc. I too was also going to move onto the first grade Daily Language and Daily Math. I am also going to have a sentence starter on the board each morning and have them complete the sentence and write one to two more in a journal.
I really like this idea! How do you decide how many students will get to share daily? I am a student teacher and on Mondays students write about their weekends. But I would really like to use this idea to get them motiviated to write. Do you limit the amount of sentences they can write and are the rest of the students at their desks or what? Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I also don’t give out any paper for morning work. It’s one more thing to run off, correct, and hand back. I am never sure of the quality of the work either. My students come in to the room, follow the posted morning routine and then read from their book box. They can also choose new books for their book boxes at this time. They know that during our literacy block no one is allowed at the library. They always have 8-10 books in their book box so there is no need to visit the library; they are reading the whole time instead of standing around at the library. I also have a variety of student tasks for the morning. Two students write the morning message, 2 students also work together to see how many ways they can name a number, 1 student is the pencil sharpener, 1 student is in charge of ensuring everyone has made their lunch choice, 2 students are in charge of putting papers in the mailboxes (notices and homework), etc.
04-10-2010, 07:19 AM
Read any book in my room,
I have attached a Doodleloops cover. The students have to read a few sentences then illustrate what they have read. I have them label their illustrations to ensure that they are reading. I bought four of these and used them every day in the beginning of the year. 
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