Morning Message

I love, love, love my morning message time! A morning message is a letter that I write to my students. In the letter, we review skills already taught and this is the time when I give them important information they need to know for the day. I like to put my morning message on chart paper but it is easier to put it on the smartboard and then change what is necessary. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to do the morning message. Here is what I do:

*When I write the morning message, I think about what we need to work on as far as behavior, skills that need to be reviewed, and I try to include as many sight words as I can.

*I write each sentence in a different color so my students can see when each sentence ends and another one begins. I also try not to end my sentences at the end of a line. Have you ever had a student put periods at the end of each line? I want my students to clearly see that sentences don’t end just because the line does.

* I start the message asking for a number between 1-10. Then, I pick students to come and circle something they know about the message. This could be a letter, word, number etc. I put a tally mark for each thing circled and when we get to the designated number for the day we stop and read each sentence and fill in the blanks.

 *When the blanks are filled in, we go back and read the message and play quick word. I point to a word and my students say what it is. If students know the word, I circle it. Then, we go back and count how many words are circled and write that number at the top of the chart paper.

*Have fun with the morning message and make it your own! I stop and we sing songs that go along with the reviewed skills so we can get up and move. So, don’t feel like you have to finish it all at once. Also, if you do this on chart paper, I like to tear off each page and fold it and keep them in a basket. When I get enough for my whole class, I send them home! You wouldn’t believe how excited they get!!!

I wanted to show a before and after of my morning message.
I wrote down "there" instead of "their" but I was able to
use that mistake to explain the difference between the words
to my kiddos! I love teachable moments. 

 

Do you do a morning message? If so, what does it look like in your room?

-Shelley