Book Drawing Countdown
Posted by Diane Badden on 17 Jun 2010 | Posted in: Classroom Routines
Happy Thursday to you! How’s it goin’? My day got off to a bit of a shaky start. I overslept, jumped out of bed, and immediately stepped on my cat’s tail. Not a great way to start the morning. However, all is fine and dandy now. Smiles all around—and, Theo, if you’re on the computer, sorry about your tail! 
Remember, there are only four more days to participate in our free book giveaway. If you missed out on the details, you’ll find them in “Scoop Alert!”
Arrival time is on my mind today. (Gee, I wonder why!) I’d love to hear your tips and strategies for keeping early arrivers actively engaged until school officially starts. Also, how do you handle late arrivers? You know, the children who dawdle on the way to school or whose rides are regularly delayed. (Or the child who tells you she’s late because she stepped on her cat’s tail!)
Cheerfully,
Diane
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21 Responses to “Book Drawing Countdown”
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More Comments Pages: [1] 2 » Show All Comments
I teach 2nd grade. So morning work normally consists of my students completing a small language and math activity. For those students who finish early, I allow them to get a head start on homework or study spelling words. I also allow them to quiz each other on flash cards. For those students who are having trouble or arrive later, the students who finish early and are capable, really enjoy helping those students get on task.
For my Kindergarten classroom I have the early children help take down chairs and then they can do a puzzle quietly on the carpet with a friend until it is time to start. Generally I have had many of my students come to school early as their parents drop them off before work. This year I have had the odd one late but those parents do realize that their child misses out on a key aspect of the day and therefore gets them to school on time to not have their child “missing out.” In the 11 years of teaching so far I have found puzzles to be the best form of keeping their little fingers busy while they wait for school to start.
When my students arrive early, they become my special helpers. I typically give them something to do that needs to be done for the day such as taking down chairs, starting up computers, passing out papers, etc. I used to do all of these things myself, but the students enjoy it and it gives them a sense of ownership over the classroom. I have also found that it makes them respect things more too, since they are helping take care of it. Once more students arrive, I have them work on “bell work” until the final bell rings. This might be cutting out pieces that will be used later in the day for an art project, or it might be a journal entry. It varies from day to day. If I know we have a special event early in the day, then I try to have them work on something independently during this time that would have normally been part of our center time. That way the project is still completed and we don’t have to make it up at a later point. As far as students who enter the classroom late… I still struggle with that issue. It is hard to get students caught up if they are chronically late for school. I am excited to read other comments to get more ideas!
Our students all go out to the pavilion until we go pick them up and bring them to class, so there is no issue with early arrivals. Announcements come on as soon as the bell rings, so late arrivals usually just miss the pledge and a few announcements. By the time announcements are over and we are ready to begin, most of my students are there.
This coming year is going to be a little bit different. First thing in the morning is going to be RTI time. Students will go to different places depending on their needs. I will need to see how that goes!
Best of luck to everyone with this issue of tardy students. It will continue to hound us! LOL
I began the school year with morning work at their seats. Some students finished quickly while others took all day! I later allowed the students to quietly read and take tests on the computers. This allows time for those who are tardy on almost a daily basis time to come in and get situated.
Most of my students ride the bus so I do not have many early or late arrivers, but occasionally, like this year, I have several that are consistently late or early. Our morning routine consists of putting things in lockers, then turning over there name for attendance. After that we do journals to practice writing their name, numbers, letters, drawing shapes, etc. Then they use the bottom of the paper to draw a picture and by the end of the year, they are even labeling it! Amazing for preschoolers! If they do not want to draw that day, they may choose a book to read. My early arrivers can come in no more than 5 minutes early and get started on the routine and my late comers, usually get to do the journal portion, but miss the drawing or they are just a little late coming to calendar. Either way works for me!
I have kids who are first up the stairs, unpacked, and ready for the day when I still have a handful of kids procrastinating in the hallway. I always have two or three things of morning work to do. It is usually a fun grammar/spelling/writing assignment then to silent reading. This allows me to get attendance and lunch count done.
I have tried a different idea nearly every year for the past 5 years in kindergarten. This past year, I had them do a worksheet or a coloring sheet from Crayola. That worked until the last 2 months of school and then they lost it! They wanted to talk and play while they read books. Suddenly a very quiet class became a very noisy class! I decided to let them talk quietly, but if one got too noisy, I would tell that child to go watch the clock for 2 minutes. That play actually helped some of them to remember to talk softly.
Other years, I had students put away their gear, and then immediately come up to the Quiet Carpet and draw on whiteboards. One class really loved it! The next year, those kids could care less whether they did that or not. They wanted to play with Legos…
My third graders have morning work. This usually consists of a math activity. When they finish the math activity, they quietly read a book.
When children are late, they turn in their homework (just like the ‘on time’ children did) and jump into whatever routine we’re doing.
I have the children look at books or play quiet individual activities while waiting for the other kids. We do start on time so if the child is late they miss out on morning greeting, or part of it. I try to make it fun so they will want to get to school on time.
In fourth grade I always provided some kind of morning work (ex: reading, cleaning out desks, review worksheet, etc.). When I was in kindergarten the early arrivals read books and sometimes played with puzzles. My school offers rewards for students for perfect attendance which includes being on time everyday. In individual instances where students are continually late I have set up reward systems using incentive charts. While it typically wasn’t the student’s fought they were late (it was usually blamed on parents) helped them to motivate everyone else to get going on time.
My kids are dropped by their PArents so they wait in the coat room where I have a climber and toys to wait until I open the door.
Late arrivals for me are an issue. I have learned to place the late Children’s name mats at the side the door is on so when they enter they do not interrupt the rest of the class at circle. Most Parents after they start to see what their Child is missing makes a bigger effort to get their child to school on time. But each year I always have a couple children who miss the first 10 minutes of class.