Let's Talk About Morning Messages

Hey friends! Today, I wanted to talk to you about morning messages. Now, I have a easel/whiteboard that I LOVE and spend big bucks on. I envisioned writing wonderful morning messages on it before students arrived with pretty handwriting, maybe even some pictures drawn on there. I think we all know how long that lasted. I wanted meaningful morning messages that were centered around what we were learning. I spent one summer creating morning messages centered around themes of study. I ended up with over 50 weeks worth of messages.

Here we are FIVE years later! Using those morning messages has saved me so much time! Every morning, all I have to do is open the PDF for the theme I'm on(it's usually still open from the day before) and scroll to the message I want. Easy peasy. This is a time that we talk about days of the week, read the message together, target and find specific sight words and then (my favorite part) discuss the message. Depending on the message, I may have my students partner talk, each have a turn in front of the whole class, we may create a thinking/bubble map, create a graph or write about it. It involves absolutely NO prep. This gives your kids a chance to communicate with each other, have interesting conversations and help with your classroom family atmosphere.

I still use these messages every day. 

Here are some pictures of what it looks like in my classroom.

Here, I read the message with help, asked students to find specific sight words and circled them and then let them talk with their designated partner to answer the question. After some think and talk time we created a bubble map together.

Below is an example of how to tie the morning message in with your unit of study for the week. This gives students a chance to talk about what they are learning and connect it to other things.

 With this message students had the chance to talk to a partner and then write their response in their journal.