The First Ten Minutes of the Day

5:48 PM

to Read (

Words)

It's been a crazy year, and I can't believe that it's been 178 school days since I last wrote anything here on my blog! I hope you have enjoyed your school year as much as I have!

Today, I am going to share with you how important the first ten minutes of the day are in my Kindergarten classroom. Whenever this routine is changed for some reason (hello meetings), it throws off our day just a little.

Do your students have a routine for when they come into the classroom each morning? This is what the first ten minutes of the day look like in my Kindergarten classroom.

To give you a little idea of our morning schedule, the bell for the students to come into the classroom is at 9:00. Our student council has a morning newscast each morning at 9:10 that we watch each morning, and our tardy bell rings at 9:15.

The most important part of the first ten minutes happens as soon as I open the door. My students are lined up outside my classroom door. As each one of my Kinders walk through the door, I greet them with a "Good Morning!" and a wave. I feel that this is so important so that each child feels welcome in our classroom.

After I greet my Kinders, they head off to their table spots. My Kinders then get out their take home folders and lunches if they brought one from home. I have a total of five tables of students that I call one by one to turn their red folders and lunch cards. (The lunch cards contain each student's picture, name, and barcode that is used when a student buys lunch. I place these on their tables each morning before the day begins.) The students place their folders in the big basket, and their lunch cards in one of the two smaller baskets.

While I am calling each table, the other students are doing a variety of other things. They might complete an activity from the day before, cut out items for an upcoming project, color, and sometimes they just talk with each other. Once all of the folders are turned in, I quickly go through them to look for any notes or papers and take lunch count. By the time all of this has been completed, the student news is on, and we are ready to start our day!

We start this routine on the first day of school. By the end of the first week, my Kinders are completing this routine without any help. I hope you enjoyed hearing about the beginning of our day! What does your class do in the first ten minutes of the day?