Morning Messages!

I am so stinkin' excited to share this with you today.  It's been a "work in progress" for the past 10 years!

I am a fan of the morning message, however, NOT a fan of writing on chart paper EVERY.SINGLE.DAY or every other, etc.  I don't know about you, but the past few years have been quite crazy with meetings after school and rushing to get things done before... I never knew when to fit it in to begin with!

When I first started teaching, we had a morning message for our kids-but it was typed and each child had their own.  Through the years I have evolved mine, however, up until recently---I could never really share it because it was in 3 different pieces to copy!  It was always a P.A.I.N. to get ready and copy, but it was invaluable.  At one point, I was able to copy a few weeks at a time!  (Then, the snow would hit and the messages would be off....  so I learned from that too!)

Well, what do I write?  I start the year off with the message being very similar from day to day, so that those hesitant readers begin to feel more confident.  It is only a message and an analogy for September.  (analogies are SO much fun!  My kids LOVE this from day 1, and they think they are SO smart---cause they are!) ;)

I always start the letter with Dear Boys and Girls, in the beginning.  Then I start adding other ways... Dear First grade, students, etc...

Next in the letter---I always say "Good Morning!  Today is...."  and I head into "it is day A.  We will have....." (we have cycle letter days for our specials)  Then I will type something about what we will be doing that day, or a few things.  I also might add in there that it's Picture Day, or a Field Trip, etc.  This REALLY helps parents know what is going on in the class on a daily basis, even if it's one thing.  That one thing can help them start a conversation with their parents that night!

Once they are used to the routines, I add in more work at the bottom.  I alternate things about Reading and Math.  Right now I have "Math Monday" "Word Wednesday" and "Fix it Friday."  Tuesday and Thursday are anything goes! ;)  Again, routines!  By the first full week of school, my students are trained to come in, put their stuff away, choose their lunch and sit and read their message!  I can't tell you enough about how orderly my mornings are!  They come in and get right to work!  You can hear the announcements.  They are in their seats!  It is BEAUTIFUL I tell ya!

ALSO-once mid-October hits, I start making mistakes in my letter for the kids to "discover" and fix!  Kinda like a Daily Oral Language bit, only MUCH more meaningful!  (and sometimes it's mistakes that I didn't mean to make!  oops!)  ;)

My exciting new creation!  I now have them created in an editable PowerPoint file for me (and you too!) so that all I have to do is type in the letter at the top----the rest of the bottoms are there for me (they cannot be changed)----so all I have to do is print it out, lay it in the top tray of the copier and hit 22.  No more getting my 3 sections, lifting up the copy top, making sure everything is lined up....  ahhhhhhhh....  I know most of you can't feel my pain on this, as I haven't come across too many people who do their morning messages quite like me.

What I have to share is a week's worth of messages for you to give it a try!  See how you like them!  I would love to hear what you think!

If you do like them, I will be putting them up on TPT to purchase.  I will have a combo of literacy bottoms and math bottoms, but I will also separate them so that you can have one or the other.  If you get the combo--it will be a Marking Period's worth.  My first set is actually going to be called Packet 3.  The separate sets will have 25 literacy and 25 math.  I tried to think of what we'll be covering this marking period, so it will still be a work in progress----but as I fix and/or add, I will re-upload and you can get any revisions I do make.  (That is one of the beauties of TPT!)

Here's an example of what my message will look like NOW (and this is actually one that will be next week--notice I also have kids filling in things in the message as well!):

{Click HERE to grab yourself a week's worth to try out!  You'll need to download the "PREVIEW" at my TPT store.}

What you will get is the analogy part on down.  The top part will be able to add in, with any font you like, your message!  You will need Power Point to use it.

****I ALSO HAVE PACKS 4 AND 1 AVAILABLE IN MY STORE NOW.  PACK 1 IS GREAT FOR BEGINNING FIRST GRADE, OR END OF KINDERGARTEN!  ALL have a week's worth of messages for you to try!  {I'm not 100% sure that pack 4 has a different one than pack 3.  I'll check into that later.  I DO know that Pack 1 has a week from Pack 1}

PACK1
PACK 4