Morning Circle is a time for us to come together as a classroom family, asses the day, and put our learning hats on! It is a very interactive whole-group lesson where everyone does their part. We work on turn-taking, requesting, sharing, movement, music, AAC, and pre-academic skills. Watch my IGTV for a full in in-depth look HERE.
Morning circle starts off by referencing our morning circle schedule. First on the list is a welcome song. We have a choice of three songs. All songs include greeting your neighbor and saying hello. After we sing, each student takes a turn signing in. This is a wonderful time to practice identifying self and friends’ pictures/names. We count the total number of students at school and list our total attendance.
After we are all signed in, we move onto our classroom rules. We always start our day by reviewing the expectations of classroom behavior. Students take turns putting together our Classroom Commitment Adapted Book (bonus works on body part identification!).
Next comes calendar and weather. We check the Month, number day, day, day of the week, and take a peek outside. We also have a fun songs that accompany our calendar and weather. During this time students work on requesting, AAC, fine motor, and identification.
When we are finished with the weather, we move on to our Focus wall. Our focus wall has our weekly letter, number, color, and shape. These items rotate out weekly. Our focus wall contents also carry over into our Rotation Station work. Materials for our focus wall can be found HERE. We follow the Handwriting Without Tears sequence.
Following the Focus Wall is our name letters. Each student has a turn to knock on the box and “wake their letter up.” Every student has a chance to identify their letter. They get to stand up in front of the class and make their puppet dance while we sing a song. This is a fun and interactive way to reinforce letter identification!
Last but not least, EXERCISE! Students take turns rolling the dice and identifying a movement. Students than imitate the motor movements until everyone has a turn. Jumping is always a class favorite! You can grab these visuals HERE!
AAC & Morning Circle
Don’t worry, we did not forget about our AAC! During circle, we are always implementing personalized AAC devices as well as our large communication board. Reinforcement is provided through our large communication board and our amazing assistant!
