Morning Routine

It is so important to start our mornings on the right foot. In my 10 years of teaching, this is my 11th, I have always had the kids start their day off with telling me things they are grateful for- verbally, or in a grateful notebook! This year I told my students to find a notebook that they love. It can be one that they decorate with things they love, or it can be a notebook with an inspirational quote, or an animal that they like! 

With my dyslexic students, I have my teachers assistant sit down and help they write 3 things they are grateful for and they can explain to her why, for my other students, this is a part of their handwriting time- 3rd grade is when they learn cursive! 

Each day we watched a Kid President video to get us amped up for the day! I was able to stumble across this book of his- 100 ways to be awesome! This is so perfect to learn how to be awesome 1 day at a time! We will do one a day and write them down in our grateful journal- in the back- the “How to be Awesome” Journal! It’s really fun to talk to the kids about the advice kid president gives, for example, the first and second way to be awesome is to...

1. Put your phone down and 

2. Take brain pictures

This is a conversation we had to have about times when we should use our phone and times when our phone should be put down!

After watching the Kid Presidents Video- Pep Talk- we brainstormed ways we could be awesome! This is another paper that we used post-its on because I would like to use this again! 

I never know what kind of morning that the kids had before they came to me. I am not sure if they woke up late and rushed all morning to get to school on time. I am not sure if their sibling ate the last bowl of their favorite cereal that they were so looking forward to eating, I am not sure if they had a rough night the night before or got in trouble or yelled at. I am not sure if anyone had a kind word for them that morning.

I want my classroom to be a place they can come too, a place where they can find comfort, a place that is safe. So, every morning, with every class I have had, Houston, Guatemala, Bennington, Goddard, and here, I will greet them with a hand shake, a smile, eye contact, and I will say their name  and that is it so wonderful to see them, because I may be the first person to do this. We will go over things we are grateful for and talk about ways we can be awesome, and I hope then, if I have brought a smile to their face, that I can turn their day around and start it on the right track, show them that I care that they are there.

 I want to teach the whole child. 

-Sunshine