By October (if not sooner), my students have mastered our morning procedures and could pretty much come in and get the day started without any help from me. It is amazing to watch their independence and it's great for when I have a sub.
First things first, I am sure you are wondering how I get this independence to happen. LOTS of practice. We practice our procedures multiple times throughout the day the first couple weeks of school. I know it may seem like I am taking valuable time away from our day to practice these procedures, but the pay off in the long run is well worth it.
Then I create a flowchart with each step of our morning procedures. This way I can easily reference to it when a student is unsure of what to do. This is always a great visual for a substitute.
Lastly, I make sure to stand where the students are moving their lunch name and grabbing their morning work to monitor and make sure they are following the procedures. Once they are independent in this I am busy doing other things during this time.
This year my morning procedures are especially important as we come in from the playground at 7:50 and have to be at a specialist some days at 8:05. That doesn't give us much time to hang up coats and backpacks, do lunch count, attendance, and put away our lunch boxes.
What do you do for morning procedures? Do you practice them and use visuals? I would love to hear how you handle it in the comments below.
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Procedures are so important and I agree that getting your morning routine down pat early is a must! I Love that you use student pictures on your visual cards. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteKelly
Lattes and Lunchrooms