Morning Work for Kindergarten: Tips, Ideas, and Resources

Morning Work for Kindergarten

An engaging morning work routine can completely transform your classroom! In this post, I’m sharing tips and ideas that will help you plan effective morning work for kindergarten.

Kindergarten Morning Work

Morning work, seat work, bell-ringer: It goes by many names, but kindergarten morning work is simply a learning activity for your students to complete independently at the very beginning of the day. 

A student is drawing a picture on a worksheet

This routine can look different in every class, but the outcome is the same: Giving students a solid start to their school day. 

Benefits of Using Morning Work for Kindergarten

There are many benefits to having students engage in a morning work routine. Other (more casual) morning routines for kindergarten students just don’t pack the same power in prepping your students for learning. Here are some of the reasons why a morning work routine is so beneficial for young kindergarten students:

1. Skill Review

One significant benefit of structured, academically-focused morning work time is that it gives students an extra opportunity to review and practice previously covered material. Young learners need a lot of repetition with new skills, so the morning routine is a great place to include that important review! 

2. Increase Confidence and Independence

Since morning work assignments are designed to be completed independently, this is a great opportunity for students to practice being more independent learners. Over time, this can really give their confidence a boost!

A student colors a picture on a worksheet

3. Reduce Negative Behavior

Transition times, including morning arrival time, can be a challenge for behavior. Without structure, students will often demonstrate negative behavior. A consistent morning work routine can help with that! Students who are engaged in rigorous and meaningful activities are not apt to look for (or find!) early-morning mischief.

4. Improve Other Skills

We also see that structured morning work can serve to improve listening skills, help students learn to follow directions, and provide peer-to-peer assistance and cooperation. 

5. Create a Positive Classroom Environment

When the morning is chaotic or unstructured, it’s usually followed by a cascade of negative behaviors.  This can lead to a negative start to the day, which causes an unproductive day, and an overall negative learning environment. All this can result from the domino effect of unorganized mornings in the classroom. We owe our students more than this! 

Research tells us that with the routine and structure of morning work, the learning environment becomes more positive. From that positive learning environment comes a HAPPY domino effect of benefits to our kindergarten students.

A student colors a picture on a worksheet

A positive classroom environment helps students to become more successful with academics, as well as socially and emotionally. “There is general consensus among researchers in the field that students’ sense of belonging is one of the basic psychological needs that when this need is met, positive educational outcomes can occur.” (Sari, 2012, p. 2)

Simply put: Morning work equals a positive learning environment, and a positive learning environment gives students a sense of security and comfort. When those needs are met, the potential for learning goes through the roof! So, in a sense, we owe it to our students to set them up for success at the start of every day!

My Top 3 Kindergarten Morning Work Ideas

Now that we know how important it is to use morning work for kindergarten, it’s time to talk about the actual learning activities that are best for this part of the daily learning routine. It’s important to choose activities that will wake up your students and get them ready for a day of learning! Here are my top three favorite kindergarten morning work ideas:

1. Read, Trace, Glue, & Draw

This activity is truly one of my favorite kindergarten morning work activities, and I always had it as an option for my morning work. It allows students to practice reading, handwriting, sentence structures, punctuation…and a little art! This activity is also an excellent way to practice high-frequency words.

A student traces the word "Look" on a worksheet

At the beginning of the year, I like to provide the tracing option for students. Forming letters in the beginning of kindergarten is hard! But we know that developing those fine motor skills is essential!  So, for a few months, students practice tracing the sentence. Once students develop strong letter formation by doing these types of activities, they begin writing complete sentences on their own.

A student is gluing a word onto a dinosaur themed worksheet

Check out this resource here:

2. Roll, Read, and Write

This editable resource is used for students to practice letter formation, sight words, and spelling. Students will roll a die, read the word that matches the number they rolled, and then write the word in one of the blanks on the paper. Students are always so excited to see which word “wins” by having all of the boxes filled in first.

A student is completing a Roll, Read, and Write morning work activity

This activity is editable, so you can add your own letters or words that you’d like to target during morning work time. Since time is at a premium for kindergarten teachers, this resource was created so it doesn’t take a lot of time to customize for your students!

A student is completing a back-to-school themed morning work activity

This activity also has various themed options, including the holidays and seasons of the year. The themed activities keep students engaged in this skill practice all year long!

A student writes the word "the" in a blank space on a worksheet

You can find these units here:

3. No Prep Printables

Ink-saving, no-prep printables are another great option for morning work. They are perfect for when time is short and you need something engaging that’s also no prep! Just print and copy for your students. 

A student writes the word "the" in a blank space on a worksheet

I have put together Save My Ink monthly units that are filled with a plethora of math skill activities and literacy skills plus activities that are perfect for morning work!

A student sorts different representations of a number on morning work activity with a Christmas theme

You can find these resources each with hundreds of pages here:

Save My Ink No Prep Math and Literacy for Kindergarten

This kindergarten morning work bundle is large enough to last for the whole school year and this set also contains a Summer-to-First set that is meant to keep skills sharp over the summer!

More Kindergarten Morning Work Tips and Ideas

I know that time is precious for a kindergarten teacher, but when you have a moment, I know you’ll find some great nuggets of wisdom in the other blog posts listed below. The ideas I shared for morning work routines in these posts offer engaging activities and ideas to keep your morning running smoothly. They are brimming with great ideas for morning work options, your morning meeting, fine motor activities, and even important social skills, all of which are very important components of any kindergarten curriculum:

Morning Work for Kindergarten

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Deedee Wills

My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!

Hi, I'm DeedeE.

My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
 

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One Response

  1. Thanks, I get it and I’ll pay attention to it. Keep sharing info like this.

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