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To... Morning
Message and Poems
What is a Morning Message?
A morning message is most
often in a form of a letter that a teacher writes to his/her
students. It begins with a greeting and usually it is signed
by the teacher. These messages are written before the students
arrive and are read by the whole class at the start of the day.
Usually a morning message contains an overview of the day's
activities. Some of the activities could include a birthday, special
program, a highlight of something to come in the classroom, or just
everyday activities.
In this respect, a morning
message is one form of a shared reading (a text that the teacher and
students orally read together). In addition to the oral reading
aspect of shared reading, there is often a follow-up lesson. These
lessons are performance tasks for individual benchmarks. This is why
you will see many morning messages that will have things circled or
underlined or have text written after them. The lesson following the
reading of the text is interactive. Many, if not all students should
have opportunities to work with the message.
Most language lessons, and
many writing lessons, can be effectively taught in the context of
shared reading. The following are some examples.
| Dear Class,
As you see Mrs. Stein is
missing! I have looked all over for her. I can't
find her! She is lost.
I would like you to get out your
journals and write about what could of happened to Mrs. Stein.
We will share these at
10:00am.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Clock
(Substitute Teacher) |
Or...
There are spelling
mistakes and the class has to find them when we meet as a group.
That is when they circle each word and 'give it a go' to correct
it.
| Benchmark: Use
correct grammar, punctuation, and capitalization.
Body of Knowledge: Edit writing
for correct grammar, including run-on sentences….
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Dear Clas,
Toda iz Munday, September 27th, 2004.
We have rt at 11:40am.
Hapy Birthda, June. Toda
you are ate youll find your birthda pensil at the round tabl.
Lunch toda is tacos please dont
forget to order you're lunch?
love
mrs stein
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Or still...
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Dear Class,
Yesterday when I go home my dog
Gizzmo had a turtle in his mouth. He wanted to bring
it into the house. I told him he couldn't and took the
turtle away. I decided to put it back behind the
fence.
When I returned to the house,
there was Gizzmo, again! He had another turtle in his
mouth and was walking up to the back door.
So I needed to once again trek
back to the fenced area and place the turtle with his
friend.
I felt so sad for Gizzmo
that I went out and bought a stuffed turtle for him!
You know, he carried that all
around with him every where he went. I'm sure I saw a
smile on his face!
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Benchmark:
Understand how authors use elements and techniques in
literature
Body of Knowledge: Identify
story elements
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After the class reads
the story aloud, the teacher might say something like,
"Class, my story contains the same elements that most
stories contain. Let's talk about some of these elements."
The class would then
look for: characters,
setting, events, problem, and resolution,
possibly underlining
the elements with different colored markers.
Book to
order from Amazon:
Getting the Most
Out of Morning Message and Other Shared Writing Lessons
(Grades K-2)
by Authors: Carleen Dacruz Payne , Mary
Browning Schulman
Released: 01 January, 1999
ISBN: 0590365169
Paperback
|
List
price: $12.95
Our price: $10.36 (You save: $2.59) |
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Poems:
Legs
by Aileen Fisher
Two legs for birds
And you and me
Four legs for dogs
And for squirrels in a tree
Six legs for beetles--
Away they go
Eight legs for spiders
What do you know!
The Mitten Song
Traditional
Thumbs in the thumb place
Fingers all together
This is the song we sing in mitten weather
Teddy Near ,Teddy Bear
(I used to recite this while jumping rope when
I was young. We followed the actions on the bear sayings.)
Teddy bear,
teddy bear,
Turn
around,
Teddy bear,
teddy bear,
Touch the
ground.
Teddy bear,
teddy bear,
Dance on
your toes,
Teddy bear,
teddy bear.
Touch your
nose.
Teddy bear,
teddy bear,
Stand on
your head,
Teddy bear,
teddy bear,
Go to bed.
Teddy bear,
teddy bear,
Say
goodnight,
Teddy bear,
teddy bear,
Turn out
the light.
Teddy bear,
teddy bear,
Wake up
now,
Teddy bear,
teddy bear,
Take a bow.
Poetry- I would write a
poem on chart paper and then laminate. Therefore you can
have the students write on the poem and it can be erased or washed
carefully. You can also duplicate poems for the student's Poetry
Notebook. Many techniques can be used for learning.
You can have
students point out the words that rhyme by highlighting them with
a colored crayon.
You can circle the words
and change them to create a new poem.
You can have students
follow a pattern and write a new poem.
You can teach parts of
speech by using poetry in your morning message. Visit my website
on Poetry
Themes or Poetry
Links.
You can hang up the poem
for a center activity such as Read Around the Room.
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