Elementary teachers, what type of learning activities are your students doing when they come in your classroom each morning? How do you engage them in meaningful learning the minute they walk in the door? I teach 3rd grade and have done a variety of activities in the past, but am always looking for new effective ways to make the most of those first 15 minutes of class before we start our core subjects.

I have tried a couple of different programs too for morning work and have found that it really depends on the students. Some students can get into the habit of coming in and doing journal writing right away while other students do better with a skills review sheet. Currently, I am using the skills review sheet. Basically it consists of 5-7 skills (reading/ math or a combination of the two) on one page. We might review spelling tricks, punctuation, fluency, comprehension and graphing one day and phonics, money, problem solving, spelling words practice and sentence structure on another day.

Great ideas, thanks for sharing.

I was in middle school, but I liked to do start with a tic tac toe type of review sheet. The students were completing review or basic skills for math. Once the students got one row of work done, they knew they had to complete more. Most students would get several tic tac toes within the week before it was due on Friday when we either went over it or turned it in. I would also put an extended response on the back. It was more basic math but made them practice their writing in math.

Thank you, nice story.

Due to many of my students going to breakfast, I decided to try something new this year for morning work. I have problem solving activities set up around the room that I change periodically. Some of the activities include: puzzles, design and building area (k'nex , magnets), Osmo ipad activities and interactive smartboard activities.

What a great idea. How has it been working this year so far?

This sounds like a great idea.

How has this been working out at this time of year?

My students contribute to a morning meeting message which is placed on my board. They are fun, creative ways to get students talking and having structured conversations. Students either write directly on the board as they enter or I use sticky notes they can place on the board. Below is just an example of a week in my classroom:

Monday-What happened Monday? Tell me about your weekend

Tuesday-Tell me a story Tuesday (Begin a story on the board and have each student contribute 3 words to keep it going)

Wednesday-What would you do Wednesday? You can use a bullying scenario to get students talking about how to handle it.

Throwback Thursday- What was your favorite Kindergarten memory?

Favorite Fri-YAY!- Ask students about their favorites, food, music etc.

Pinterest has hundreds of ideas for each day of the week and students are always excited to see what they get to talk about each day!