5 Ideas to Enhance Morning Work

Hi Everyone! Kelsea here from Teacher Gems bringing you some fun ideas to enhance your morning work time. Morning work should be something that students look forward to each day that also stimulates thinking! Use these five simple ideas to get the most out of your morning work time.

1. Focus on a Different Subject Area Each Day of the Week

Instead of covering just one subject area each day try to add a variety of activities by focusing on a different subject area each day. Use a five drawer filing system labeled with each subject area and day of the week to add activity pages to as you collect them. Then give students one activity page each day that focuses on that subject area. Some students may be better at or more interested in one subject over another so including a variety of subject areas will give students opportunities for success and enjoyment.

2. Mix it Up!

Keep students on their toes by mixing in a surprise activity every now and then. This could be anything out of the ordinary that challenges their thinking or is just plain fun. Some ideas are dot to dots, word searches and crossword puzzles. One idea that I love to challenge students' thinking (or attention to detail) is to throw in a page on following directions. I remember doing a page like this when I was in school where if you read the instructions carefully it told you to skip all the questions. The questions had you do funny things like squawk like a chicken. It was pretty funny watching other students do all the silly things and then read at the end that they didn't follow the directions carefully and could have skipped the entire assignment (and saved themselves the embarrassment). Dr. Erica Warren has some fun pages on following directions to get you started. Click here for a free sample.

3. Journal Writing

You don't have to have a worksheet for students to complete each morning! Have students keep a journal that they can add to each week. On "Writing Wednesdays" post a writing prompt on the white board and have students write about it in their journals.

4. Seasonal Activities

Consider the season and include fun activities that relate. Doing a quick internet or TpT search for seasonal activities will give you lots of ideas! Some of my favorite are color by number activities like my math addition/subtraction and multiplication/division activities (which you can find in my TpT store by clicking on the image below). You can also find lots of seasonal craft ideas by searching on Pinterest.

5. Brain Teasers

Challenge students to think outside the box with brain teasers such as logic puzzles and brain benders. There are lots of great websites that you could use for these. This could also be an opportunity to have students play brain challenging games like SET, Blokus, Sudoku or the like.

Have more ideas for enhancing morning work time? Please share them in the comments below! If you're interested in my color by number activities you can find them here. Thanks for reading!