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
Our students get dropped off at our school playground. They have fifteen minutes of free play to get all of their “wiggles” out. Because they know that they will get free time with their friends, there usually is no trouble with students being late to school – they’re all there early!
Early-usually are held in the cafeteria with whomever is on breakfast duty but Morning work, reading AR books or even helping me set up for the day. Late I try to catch them up with what we are doing sometimes the work has to be sent home if it’s something that a parent can help with or they complete sometime during the day. To be honest sometimes we just might not get to it.
Hmmmm… I usually try to do something a little more active than a coloring page or worksheet — usually a math manipulative activity (sort, pattern block designs, patterns), playdoh or clay, or free choice book time. On Thursdays and Mondays we’re resetting the classroom, as we share with a church, so early-early arrivers usually enjoy helping to set up the library books, putting chair pockets in place, and redistributing school supply boxes. OH — and sharpening your pencil BEFORE class begins is a MUST!
As for late arrivals, I encourage students to step in and take care of their bookbags, etc. with minimal disruption, and for the most part we just keep going on with whatever activity we are doing at the time.
I really, really want to win some new books!! 🙂
I have a set morning routine,after they have visited the bye bye window to say their goodbyes.Everyone must get their names and sign in then replace them. They may visit centers and play, then I have a short learning activity for them to do which pertains to our theme.
The late arrivals must follow our routine also.
Our earlys wait in the cafeteria until the bell rings. When they come to the room, after they have put up their backpacks, lunches, etc. They have 15 minutes of Read to Self time where they choose a book among levelled readers. Late-comers come in quietly and put up their stuff and then go get a book also.
My early birds get extra playtime in centers. They love being able to explore and have time to talk to their friends before having to do any kind of work. Late arrivals are greated but we continue with the lesson or task at hand. I do have several parents that do not seem to care that we are in the middle of lessons and have walked right into the middle of circle time. I handled it by addressing the issue at open house in general I compared classtime disruption to me walking into a meeting in their office. They got the message and from then on it was a push into the door and a wave goodbye.
My third graders have journals they write in daily. Each day I welcome them with a new topic…sometimes it’s something to draw or diagram, sometimes it’s writing. Latecomers usually don’t get as much time to write, which means they don’t get as much time to share later in the day either!
the early ones get free play with class activities and may help me with whatever i am setting up. sometimes it may be an art activity etc.
as for the late ones…io try to discourage it as it is always catch up time for them..
My students do a table activity when they come in. Each student has a tray at their place with a sentence strip with their name on it and an activity, which is geared toward things that can be done independently and on their level. When they have finished, they put their tray away and then they put their name tag in their mailbox. In their mailbox, I keep another name tag with their name on it for them to put on our attendance board. For this, I often use the clip art from the Mailbox magazines that they can color. I put their names on it and a magnetic strip on the back. When all of this is put away, they go to the block center or housekeeping.
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.
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.
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.
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 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…
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.
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 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.
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
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!
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.
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.