Hi! I'm Jennifer and I blog over at Elementary School Garden! I am in my seventh year of teaching 4th grade and am currently at home on maternity leave after giving birth to my first daughter. I'm very excited to embark on this new blogging adventure with all these amazing bloggers at Who's Who and Who's New.
Today I wanted to talk to you a little about Interactive Morning Messages.
Our district uses a responsive classroom approach. Each morning we have a morning meeting which includes an interactive morning message.
When I first started teaching I would spend my precious morning minutes creating a fun morning message that would often be ignored by distracted students as they arrived. How could I save my morning time and present a morning message in a way that would catch students attention immediately as they entered each morning?
I decided to make my morning messages interactive!
How do I do this? By adding a section at the bottom of each message for students to respond. I keep a little bin of post-it notes and markers nearby. I post my morning message up front by our door so it's the first thing students see when they enter our classroom. They stop, read the message, and immediately respond. Then, we read and discuss our morning message as part of our morning meeting.
To save time I bring the pad of paper home over breaks or long weekends and write out a months worth of messages all at once. I follow a simple schedule:
Monday - Weekend Happenings
Tuesday - Social Studies / Science
Wednesday - Math
Thursday - Language Arts
Friday - Riddles, Jokes, and Fun Stuff
This schedule helps me think of new and creative messages rather than falling into a pattern of the same boring posts.
Here are some examples:
This is the message that I plan to post on the first day back from February Break. This will also be my first day teaching after my long maternity leave.
You can underline key words to make them pop. Use color to make different parts of your message stand out. Place a post-it note on the message as an example of your expectations for students.
Here is another example. This morning message ties in our math content. I am collecting data about students' favorite colors. We will use the tally chart to make a bar graph during morning meeting.
Notice how I left the day and part of the year blank at the top of the message? I do this so I can reuse the message next year. I'll just cut off the bottom and put a new piece of paper underneath it. You can use post-it notes to add the date to the top of your message or have students help you fill in the date during your morning meeting.
Here are some helpful tips to make your interactive morning messages amazing:
Do you use morning messages in your classroom? What tips would you share?
Ooooh I like this idea! I'm now wondering how I could adapt it for non/emergent readers in the early years........
ReplyDeleteFor emergent readers I would use easy sight words and very simple sentences. Maybe you could use pictures or symbols within the text as well. Use predictable patterns in the beginning sentences and practice reading the message together during your morning meeting. Interactive morning messages are so much fun. I'm sure your students will LOVE them!
ReplyDeleteJennifer
Elementary School Garden
Thanks Jennifer! I will definitely be trying this idea out!
DeleteWhat a fantastic idea! I LOVE the schedule you have to incorporate all subject areas. I'd love some of your jokes/riddles ideas too! =)
ReplyDeleteLisa, I add clipart to my morning messages (I teach first) to make them easier to read. I also try to incorporate our previous week's sight words and spelling patterns so they are a bit familiar with them. It took a lot of time to create, but I save them on my computer and just display on my Smartboard so I don't have to write them every year. I'm going to try to modify them to make them more interactive and the kids can just write on it since it's on the wipe-off board. Thanks for the ideas, Jennifer!
The Responsive Classroom website has some good ideas for morning messages. I also have a book called Morning Meeting Messages K-6 that has a lot of good suggestions. As far as the jokes/riddles, I pull from a few joke books that I have. Sometimes I will put some blanks at the bottom of the message and have the children play hang-man, or I scramble the letters of a word and have them try to guess a vocab word for social studies or science. I love how you use the Smartboard to display your morning messages. What a great idea!
ReplyDeleteJennifer
Elementary School Garden
I love this! I teach 6th grade and never thought to do a morning message with my students (I always thought it was more of a younger age thing). However, your interactive approach is fun and engaging for all ages. We do "bell work" each morning and I think I am going to start incorporating this idea.
ReplyDeleteTeresa, I think your students would love having a morning message.
DeleteJennifer
Elementary School Garden
Great post! I think my building is considering adopting the Responsive Classroom approach; I'm really hoping we do. I am going to try this out!
ReplyDeleteDeb
Not very fancy
Deb, we adopted the Resonsive Classroom approach a few years ago and our students and teachers LOVE it. The training sessions are a lot of fun and there are loads of great resources available to get you started.
DeleteJennifer
Elementary School Garden
Jennifer, I'm so glad to hear that! I tried to add an interactive component to my morning message--you can read about it in today's post:
Delete<a href="http://not-very-fancy.blogspot.com/2014/01/morning-meeting-fun.html>Not very fancy--morning meeting fun</a>
Thanks for the inspiration! :)
link attempt take 2:
DeleteNot very fancy
I love that you have a schedule of what you write about each day! Why didn't I think of that! Great post! Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHilary
Second Grade is Out of This World!
WOW! What an amazing plus brilliant Interactive Morning Messages that are looking beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing
Cheap Assignment Writing Help
I love this idea! I've been using a morning slide up on the projector each day to tell students what they need to do. It has helped, but some have been skipping it, thinking they don't need to check. By adding a question they need to respond to, I can make sure they REALLY do read it. I may move where the question is too so they don't just skip to the end or only read the first thing.
ReplyDeleteThe information which you have provided is very good. buying followers on instagram It is very useful
ReplyDeleteI want to thanks to admin, Epilator Pain
ReplyDeleteYou can use large, lined chart paper or an interactive whiteboard to display the morning message. Items to use as pointers are also needed. you may get more ideas from gogoanime website here you can get ideas from different blog and animation at free platform
ReplyDeleteYou can use large, lined chart paper or an interactive whiteboard to display the morning message. Items to use as pointers Kissanime watch online guide are also needed. you may get more ideas from gogoanime website here you can Cheap Vacuum Cleaners get ideas from different blog and animation at free platform
ReplyDeleteYou can use large, lined chart paper or an interactive whiteboard to display the morning message. Items to use as pointers season 2 of prison school are also needed. you may get more ideas from gogoanime website here you can affordable vacuum Cleaners get ideas from different blog and animation at free platform
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing such a great and informative post.
ReplyDeleteQuantum realm hoodie
I love that you have a schedule of what you write about each day! Why didn't I think of that! Great post! Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleterokudenashi majutsu koushi to akashic records
watch from here latest episode ofwatch Dragon ball super episode 109
ReplyDeletewatch new season of watch overlord season 2,
ReplyDeleteHND business management assignment help, is a way by which you can get higher grades in a easy manner. We have a vast numbers of professional writers that can write any business management assignment whether it is related to planning of the business or virtual implementation of business.
ReplyDeleteYou can reach us at-
Email:- ozpaperhelp@gmail.com
https://www.ozpaperhelp.com/
https://www.cheapassignmenthelp.co.uk
https://www.freeassignmenthelp.com
https://cheapassignmenthelp.blogspot.com/
Whatsapp :+61-451442632.+91-7503070001,+44-7437875635
English Subbed and dubbed anime streaming DB DBZ DBGT DBS episodes and movies HQ Streaming. Free Episodesdragon ball super episode 109 countdownNO REPEAT MOVES OR DRAGGING IT OUT. IT WAS A PERFECT BATTLE WITH A UNIQUE ENDING
ReplyDeleteI'm talking about rokudenashi majutsu koushi to akashic records kissanime, I really enjoyed that anime and it easily made it into my top favorites, and I wonder if it’ll ever get a season 2, the anime itself came out in 2017 and I want to know if there will be a continuation to it or something, I’ve seen people say it’s been confirmed while others saying the opposite, but I really don’t know..
ReplyDeleteif you bet on big you're a degen in its purest form.Read moreBuzznor is a blog managed by coaches of life, we provide daily lifestyle tips in tech, education and other useful topics to help you to spend a easy life.
ReplyDeleteThe latest news, trends, and tips in social media. ...Marketing blogThe first stop on our list is Social Media Today, a news publication and blog ... media marketing, and one of the ways we do so is via our blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing such a great and informative post.
ReplyDeleteThe Leather Makers
Thank for sharing article such a great informative post..
ReplyDeleteNancy Wheeler Jacket
God's Antique Roadshow is a unique title somehow. As a reader i need to post this blog writers per hour sites just to aware the students about the new ideas. I would like to share this blog with others. caffmos
ReplyDeleteOh I Am Tired To Found This Type Of Excellent Article.my Friend Told Me And Send Me This Blog Link..well This Blog Give Some Related Information About Fitness. I Really Inspired Your Posting..keep It Up And Update This Type Of Marvelous Information. Naked
ReplyDelete