Mornings in the classroom can be full of chaos and excitement. Teachers find themselves pulled in multiple directions. Add to that the morning administrative tasks, which can easily turn the morning classroom routine into anything but calm. Although, it doesn’t have to be this way. Luckily, there are plenty of morning work ideas to get kids ready for their day. Plus, teachers will be able to find a little extra time to take care of all those morning tasks. Adding morning work to students’ daily routines requires very little prep and helps students develop important independence skills!

What is morning work?

Let’s start with what it isn’t. Morning work isn’t busywork or time to introduce new concepts. Morning work should include activities to help your students review previously learned information. This can be vocabulary, sentence structure, spelling, math problems, or any subject you want to ensure your students are regularly practicing. Journal writing and silent reading also make great morning work activities.

The goal of morning work is to create a morning routine that allows students to arrive, unpack, and focus on an activity that doesn’t need to be teacher-led. As a teacher, you need just a few minutes at the beginning of the day to take care of parent questions, attendance, lunch choices, and the other things that pop up first thing in the morning. Having a solid morning routine helps this to happen.

My best advice for a successful morning routine is to make it a part of your classroom procedures. If not day 1, then definitely day 2. When your students know what to expect as they start the school day, they can get to work independently.

No Prep Morning Work

Providing a quality skills-based spiral review with ZERO PREP is like winning the lottery! With this Paperless and Projectable Morning Work, you don’t even have to make copies! This is one of my favorite options for easy and sustainable morning work. Just project the slides onto the whiteboard in the mornings, and it’s ready to go when they arrive. Students will simply complete the morning work activities in a notebook. Easy Peasy!

Because the work is organized on digital slides, it’s easy to pull up the slide first thing in the morning. If your students have access to computers or tablets, you can also assign the morning work slides through Google Classroom or another online learning platform.

This Paperless & Projectable Morning Work includes a variety of ELA and Math skills on one slide. It makes for a great review and provides repeated practice of skills and concepts our students need to keep fresh in their minds.

If you’ve never used morning work before, it can be hard to think about adding one more thing. Instead of jumping in, why not just commit to giving it a try for one week? You can grab this FREE WEEK of no-prep morning work and try it out in your classroom. I think you will love how simple it will make your morning routine and free you up to get those morning teacher tasks done more quickly.  

These morning work resources were collaborative projects. I worked closely with TpT Author Shelly Rees to bring you four different grade levels of spiral review. You can find each full set of Paperless & Projectable Morning Work in Shelly Rees’ store.

DOWNLOAD FOR FREE TODAY!

Try it before you buy it! Download a week of morning work for FREE! Save your sanity and your time during those hectic mornings in the classroom! This FREE WEEK’s worth of ready-to-go, NO-PREP Morning Work will save the day! You and your students will love this engaging, helpful, spiral review resource.

Making the Most Out of Your Mornings

No matter how you choose to set up morning work for your students, be sure to pick something that feels doable. Setting your routine early in the year will set you up for success for the next nine months. It’s a great way to set the tone for the day and get your students focused and ready to learn. If you’re looking for more ways to make mornings easier, check out these Morning Greeting Agenda Slides! These morning meeting slides provide structure and routine each day. Give students a heads-up about changes in the schedule or reminders for the day/week.

Save these ideas! Pin for later!

Remember to pin this page to your favorite upper elementary Pinterest board. You can come back any time for some helpful morning work ideas!