Wake Up Work!

I am sooooo procrastinating cleaning my house right now! That is the BEST time to blog, right??!?! It is thundering here in Bama, so we are home from the pool and I am not quite up to being productive...so here I am! :)

Ok...confession! I think I forgot how to teach for like 2 minutes! I am starting a little summer school camp tomorrow! Yes, TOMORROW! My reading coach (who is a dear friend!) and I are teaching 12 presh first graders this week. We are doing phonics, reading, and writing. Y'all...I really had to *PAUSE* last week! I was like, okay, WHERE are the sharpened pencils??? HA! My room is all set up (or so I thought!), but not for actual KIDS! I had not put out paper, journals, pencils, crayons, markers, etc! REALITY time! We are all set now and ready to see their sweet faces bright and early! :)

I am going to take a *brief* pause from my Math Menu posts to chat about Wake Up Work...aka Morning Work! I tried something new last year that I loved and some of you have asked about it! :) I know some teachers aren't big fans of morning work and like to hit the ground running, but I HAVE to have it! I check their SAFARI books while they work, and I feel like I have to check these binders first thing...since there are absence notes, notes to the PE teacher, lunch money, etc and I like to deal with those things FIRST thing before the morning slips away! I also think it gives the kids a chance to wake up and warm up! :)

At the beginning of the year, I start off with Silly Sentences where I type a sentence with spelling and grammatical errors and the kiddos correct the errors, write the sentence correctly, and illustrate the sentence.

Example:

thu blak cat sat one thu matt

The kiddos will write the incorrect sentence in their journals. Then, using a highlighter (kind of like glitter, they can't get enough!!) they circle the errors in the sentence. After circling all of the errors, they rewrite the sentence, correcting all of the errors. Finally, they add an illustration! This is a great spring board for discussing editing our writing during The Daily Five.

I usually do Silly Sentences for at least the first month or two (depending on the group of firsties!) They like stability in the morning at the beginning of the year! :) Then...somewhere around October 14...just tossing a date out there :), Wake Up Work starts to become sort of STALE! So...I tried this:

Monday ~ Math Monday
After unpacking, my firsties know to grab their math journals! I type a Number Talk type prompt on the Promethean board. A sample prompt might be: Write all the ways to show the number 12. They can use numerals, number words, a clock, money, tally marks, dominoes, dice, pictures, etc. A few friends share during our Morning Meeting!

Tuesday ~ Tally Tuesday
Another math journal morning! Sample prompt for Double Venn diagram in November: Do you like pumpkin pie? apple pie? or both? The kiddos write the question and then answer the question in the form of a sentence and add an illustration. During our Morning Meeting on Tuesday, we fill out the Daily Data graph for the week. After the graph is completed, we do a quick show of the data with tally marks!

Wednesday ~ Wow Word Wednesday
We have 3 sight words each week. On Wednesday, the fab firsties write 3 sentences with the 3 sight words. After circling the sight words with a highlighter, they choose one sentence to illustrate.

Thursday ~ Theme Thursday
This is where I incorporate Social Studies and Science! Depending on the unit, they will either write facts in their journal about our unit for the week (Example: Write 3 facts about the life cycle of a frog) OR highlight sight words and illustrate a poem related to our unit.

Friday ~ Fun Friday
We have a Mystery Reader visit us on Friday mornings, so our Wake Up Work is short and sweet! I like to have a word search related to our thematic unit! :) They LOVE word searches...some of them take it soooo seriously!!! It CRACKS me up!

I ADORE this Wake Up Work rotation for several reasons....it changes daily, but still follows a pattern, so it fresh and predictable all at the same time! I also HEART that it incorporates writing across the curriculum. One more reason...I do not have to make a lot of copies! Most weeks, the only copy I make for Morning Work for the week is a word search! :)

Do you do something similar??? I would love to hear about it!
Okay, okay...time to CLEAN! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!