Beyond a Morning Message
Promoting Literacy and Numeracy with a Meaningful Morning Routine (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 0: Foundation for LiteracyStage 1: Beginning Literacy
Ages:
4-7
Grade Range:
K 1st 2ndFood Groups:
Primary: Writing Conventions , Classroom Tips Secondary: Knowledge Building
Transcript
One of the things we do in first grade is the morning routine. It's extremely important to have a routine because they feel safe. They feel comfortable; they know what to expect. The concept that we are working on you will see here such as temperature, or money, or things that we're working on. Every day I have a special day person. Here you see that it was Jamie and it was his special day so he gets to print his name. We all look at the way he's printing his name: top to bottom, left to right. The students will give suggestions. As you can see, we are working on temperature so we check the temperature at that moment. Is it sunny? Is it rainy? Is it snowy? Then they get to write those words there and fill out the blanks. In math, one of the things we learn in the first grade is temperature. Today is 73 degrees Fahrenheit. We will compare the temperature that was here the previous days. Let's say yesterday was 69 so I ask them, "today is 73. Is it warmer or colder today?" So they will tell me "oh, it is warmer. Last time was 69, today is 73." They do the math and it will be 4 degrees so this will go up to 73. Then we leave it at that. The other thing that we do in the first grade is we count the days of school. One of the tools that we use in the morning routine to count the days of school is this tool here. As you can see, today was the 140th day of school. The way my students develop the number sense is I tell them here, how many straws do we have? We don't have any, so that's going to be a zero. So tomorrow, this will come here, and then this one will change to a one. That will make it the 141st day of school. What happens when I have 10 of these? There's a rule. You're welcome if you are from one to nine but if you are more than that, you're welcome next door so we make a little bundle of ten. They already know that there are 10 there, meaning that they don't have to count again from one. That's how they start understanding the place value of numbers. Also, they understand that these four here means that there are four groups of ten. This one here means that there is just one group of 100 and this one here means there is one.
Related References
Additional Links:
Reading Rockets: How Do I Write? Scaffolding Preschoolers' Early Writing Skills http://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-do-i-write-scaffolding-preschoolers-early-writing-skills
Activity Objective
The goal of Beyond a Morning Message: Promoting Literacy and Numeracy with a Meaningful Morning Routine (Virtual Tour) is to work on spelling, handwriting and math while completing predictable morning activities that provide a comforting beginning of the day for young students. This teacher has a special student-of-the-day read the morning message and fill in the blanks. The class also determines the temperature and the number of days they have been in school with a focus on place value.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- The morning message is a great way to start every day so that students know what is expected of them. Use this opportunity to remind students about upcoming events, to ask them how they're feeling, and to work together as a community.
Other Recipes by this Teacher
What are We Doing in Class Today?: Motivating Beginning Readers with a Daily Schedule (Virtual Tour)
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Literacy CAFE in First Grade: Fostering Independence using a Menu of Strategies (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
The Daily 5 in First Grade: Engaging Students with a Balanced Literacy Approach (Virtual Tour)
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Predicting and Inferring: Scaffolding Comprehension Strategies using an Explicit Framework (Virtual Tour)
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Revising and Editing in First Grade: Using Success Criteria to Focus the Writing Process (Virtual Tour)
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