Mini Lessons using Morning Work booklets

Today I'm going to share with you how I use my morning work resource.

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This is a 30-week series that will take you through the school year.  I usually start it with my students the day we come back after Labor Day.  By then, they are becoming familiar with the rules and routines of school and are ready to start focusing on the academic aspects.  I start off by making this the first thing we do together in the morning for the first few weeks so they get the idea of how to do the work.  It should only take about 10-15 minutes in the morning.  Once they have the idea of the routine of the morning work, I set it up for them to do independently when they arrive at school in the morning.  This is where the mini-lessons come in.

After doing the work independently, we check the work together.  I project it onto the SMARTBoard, and write in the correct answers.  The children check their own work, fixing errors as necessary.  I believe this is an important part of the process because if I correct their error, it will mean nothing to them.  But if they correct their own errors, it is more likely to be meaningful to them, and they will remember not to repeat their mistake the next time.  In theory...but that's a post for a different day.

As we correct the work, I choose one thing to spend a few extra minutes on. I try to choose a different area each day of the week.  So  Monday, I might choose to focus on capitalization at the beginning of a sentence, Tuesday the focus might be phonics, Wednesday the focus might be numbers from 1-120, Thursday the focus might be adding basic facts, and Friday, the focus is always on responding to a writing prompt.  On this day, I will write my own response to whatever the prompt of the day was, and we will discuss main idea, responding to the prompt, and as the year progresses, adding detail sentences and a conclusion. Following this procedure last year, I saw a great increase in the effectiveness of my students' writing ability.

Each mini-lesson gives me the opportunity to focus on a skill, and the skills gradually spiral up to the next level.  It is a great way to work more curriculum-based practice into our daily routine.  I spent some time looking at other morning work series out there, but none of them were quite what I wanted, so I designed my own.  Hopefully it will fit your needs, too.

You can try the first week for free.  Just click on the picture below and download it.

Thanks for checking in!