Teacher’s Brain

5 Reasons to Use Morning Work in Kindergarten

Picture this: It’s a bright, bustling morning in your kindergarten classroom. The tiny tots are shuffling in with sleepy eyes and contagious energy. As a teacher, you know that the first moments of the day set the tone for everything that follows.

morning work

That’s where the magic of kindergarten morning work comes into play. It’s like the secret ingredient in your morning routine that can transform chaos into calm, hesitation into confidence, and groggy minds into eager learners.

If you’re looking for morning work ideas for kindergarten or morning work worksheets, you’re in the right place! 

But first, let’s discuss the advantages of having morning work in your kindergarten classroom.

Smooth Morning Transitions

Morning work is like the secret sauce that makes our mornings smoother than a fresh jar of peanut butter. It gives our little ones a structured start to the day, helping them transition from home to the classroom routine with ease. Less chaos, more focus!

Independence Boost

You know that feeling when a kindergartener proudly completes a task on their own? It’s like a warm cup of coffee for our teacher hearts! Morning work encourages independence. They’re tackling challenges right away, building confidence as they go.

Skill Reinforcement

Think of morning work as a daily dose of learning vitamins. It reinforces the skills we’ve been teaching. Whether it’s reviewing letters, numbers, or shapes, these quick exercises keep their growing brains engaged and active.

Time Management Skills

In the real world, time management is a superpower, right? Well, morning work helps our little ones develop those skills early on. They learn to manage their time by completing tasks within a set period. It’s like a mini time-management boot camp!

Teacher Prep Time

Last but not least, morning work can be a lifesaver for us teachers. While the kiddos are busy, we can take a moment to assess their progress, prepare for the day, or have a quick chat with parents. It’s like a small gift of time in a busy morning schedule.

You may be wondering what to do for kindergarten morning work? 

This resource is all you need! 

morning work

This engaging morning work for kindergarten covers reading and math skills and is super easy to implement. These no prep packets are perfect. They will help keep your class calm while reviewing skills at their own pace for the entire school year. 

You’ll never find yourself scrambling for morning activities again!

This resource  covers:

❀ Handwriting Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

❀ Sight Word Practice 

❀ Beginning Letter Sounds

❀ Months of the Year

❀ Days of the Week

❀ Handwriting Sentences

❀ Word Families

❀ Silent /e/

❀ Digraphs

❀ Number Sense

❀ Ten Frames

❀ Counting

❀ Number Lines 

❀ Writing Numbers 

❀ Counting On

❀ Shapes

❀ More and Less Than

❀ 3D Shapes

❀ Graphs

❀ Place Value

morning work

What’s included? 

Pg 1-42 – Aug. and Sept. (Handwriting, Letters, Numbers, Colors, Sight Words, Counting)

Pg. 43-84 – Oct. and Nov. (Handwriting, Letters, Numbers, Ten Frame, Counting, What Comes Next)

Pg. 85-126 Dec. Jan. (Word Families, Vowels, Counting, Greater than, Less Than, Handwriting)

Pg. 127-168 – Feb. and March (capital letters, lowercase letters, word families, shapes, counting on, less than)

Pg. 169-210 April and May (digraphs, tens and ones, 3D shapes, graphs, and silent /e/)

Each page has an extended activity for students to do on the back of the page for early finishers. It is designed to model once to the whole group, and students should be working independently for each set (4 Weeks.) 

There are only mild changes in this packet each month to make it easy for students to follow the pattern each morning. I provide different fonts, so students get used to seeing letters that look different. 

morning work

The number and the number word is used so students get familiar with number word recognition. I tell students to look at their crayons to find the color word to help them figure out the color on their own to create independence. 

I print my pages out to create a journal to easily store papers, leaving the back blank for the extended activity. My students could move on to the next page if they finished. You can just give one individual sheet, if you like to ensure students don’t move on to the next page.

Check it out here! 

For more kindergarten morning work activities, check out my post here!

Everything You Need To Survive Teaching Kindergarten

It’s time to start preparing for the next school year! If you are a kindergarten teacher and you are ready to get ahead of the game this year and stop the lesson plan scramble once and for all, I have you covered.  

I created a bundle that has everything you could possibly need to survive teaching kindergarten! You’ll get engaging activities to do with your students for every subject. 

kindergarten

Here are the subjects included in this kindergarten bundle: 

  • Monthly Writing Themed Journals
  • Morning Work Journals
  • Kindergarten Math Centers
  • Science
  • Social Studies
  • Guided Reading

Reading Curriculum

kindergarten

Teach students to read with these activities, lesson plans, and assessments over phonics, phonemic awareness, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. Your students will be confident in their reading by the end of the year. 

Math Centers

kindergarten

Who doesn’t love math centers? In this resource you’ll get tons of math centers that cover counting, numbers, sorting and classifying, addition within 5, measurement and data, word problems, graphs and data, 2D and 3D shapes, teen numbers, comparing numbers, addition to 10, subtraction to 10, telling time, and money. Every kindergarten math topic is included at a center with task cards or worksheets to use with manipulatives.   

Science Activities

kindergarten

Teach your students the wonders of science with these fun lesson plans, activities, and assessments! Topics covered include the scientific method, five senses, state of matter, energy, sound, and light, force and motion, push and pull, day and night, animal life science, plants, real vs. make-believe, weather, and sun, moon, and earth. 

Social Studies 

Teach students about American history, geography, community helpers, civics and government, money, and needs vs. wants with these lesson plans, activities, and assessments. 

Kindergarten Writing Prompts

Get your students comfortable with writing with a full year’s worth of writing journals. You’ll get one journal for each month with writing prompts for each day. Never search for a grade-appropriate writing prompt again! As a bonus, you’ll also get my silly story starters!

Kindergarten Morning Work

Create a class routine and simplify your mornings with morning work activities. In this bundle, you will get morning work for each day of the school year. Activities included are letters, numbers, math, sight words, and more! 

This bundle truly has everything you need. All that is left for you to do is teach. Your students will love these fun and engaging activities and they will be meeting standards with ease. 

Check it out here! 

Want more kindergarten tips? Check out my post on how to have a stellar first day of kindergarten here!


 

Kindergarten Morning Work Activities

Kindergarten is a very big deal for young students. For many, it is the first time they are away from home regularly. While it can be scary, there are ways we can help ease the stress of the unknown for them and show them how fun school can be! 

One way to do this is to establish a classroom routine early on so they learn what to expect. Setting a daily schedule and routine can be a huge relief because they know exactly what happens and when.

 Morning work is a great way to ease students into the daily routine. As soon as students come in the door, have morning work on their desk ready to complete. They can work on their morning work independently while you work on other tasks. This is a great time to respond to parent emails, address student issues, and otherwise prepare for the day. 

kindergarten morning work

Here are some benefits of kindergarten morning work 

  1. It is great for review. While at the beginning of the year, kindergarten students won’t have much to review yet, as the year goes on, you can focus morning work on the crucial skills they need like sight words, letters, and numbers. Circling back time and time again will help increase retention of this vital knowledge. 
  2. It helps with classroom management. As mentioned above, having assignments ready to go when students come in for the day helps free up time for classroom management tasks. Having that time really does improve the flow of the day. 
  3. It teaches independence.  As we all know, students learn so much more in kindergarten than just letters, numbers, and reading. They learn social skills and independence too. Kindergarten students are very young so they have likely not had much experience with doing tasks independently at home yet. Morning work is a great way to teach this. 

Ready to try some morning work? Try my kindergarten morning work packets for August and September!

kindergarten morning work

This no prep morning work resource includes 40 printable pages of meaningful morning work for your kinders! Model it once and then they should be able to work independently each month. 

This packet covers handwriting, sight word practice, color recognition, number sense, tally marks, counting, number lines, and writing numbers. 

Looking for more tips for kindergarten, check on my tips for the first day of kindergarten here! 

Do you assign morning work? Let me know in the comments!

 

Kindergarten Morning Work Ideas

Morning work is a necessary part of most classrooms, especially in the early grades. As students enter the room, teachers often need to deal with lunch choices, parent notes, stuck zippers, and plenty of other things that require their attention. Morning work is the perfect way to get kids learning independently as soon as they arrive! 

Kindergarten students who have morning work daily learn how to follow a routine.

This is an invaluable skill to help the classroom run smoothly and effectively. Once the routine is introduced and practiced, your students can jump right in each morning without any help! 

Not only can this improve your mornings as a teacher, but in the event of having a substitute teacher the students will know what to do as soon as they arrive. Those first few minutes of time to review lesson plans and acclimate to the class will be so appreciated by any substitute. 

Morning work is also the perfect opportunity for kindergarten students to practice foundational skills daily.

They can practice letter formation, finger spacing, colors, reading, and math skills each and every day. Teachers can provide direct instruction at the beginning of the year on how to complete the tasks, and soon students will be able to work on their own.

 Worksheets that are predictable in its presentation helps students know what to do, and they can immediately start practicing when they sit down. As they use these skills daily, they will become more confident and comfortable. They will also feel independent as they walk in and successfully begin their own work like bigger kids! 

I know it can sometimes seem overwhelming to have a fresh morning work assignment for each and every day. So I created my no- prep Kindergarten Morning Work Packets to give you one less thing on your to-do list.

kindergarten morning work

 These packets have been carefully created for the kindergarten classroom as an easy, organized, YEAR-LONG resource. Simply print the packets for each day, week, or month, and you are ready to welcome your students! 

Students will get practice with: 

  •  Handwriting Uppercase and Lowercase Letters
  • Sight Word Practice 
  • Beginning Letter Sounds
  • Months of the Year
  • Days of the Week
  • Handwriting Sentences
  • Word Families
  • Silent /e/
  • Digraphs
  • Number Sense
  • Ten Frames
  • Counting
  • Number Lines 
  • Writing Numbers 
  • Counting On
  • Shapes
  • More and Less Than
  • 3D Shapes
  • Graphs
  • Place Value

In addition, each page has an extension activity that early finishers can complete on the back!

Compiling morning work is also a great way to see your students’ growth in their skills as the year progresses. 

Here’s what teachers are saying about these Kindergarten Morning Work Packets:

“I love this!!! My kids did the sampler and they really enjoyed it! I love that it has literacy and math skills together. Thanks!” 
Was looking for something for my students to have has practice work for all their skills. This looks fabulous covers all areas and is something they might be able to do independently. Can’t wait to use it!”
“The best morning work! Perfect for so many levels!”

Here’s to scramble-free mornings for the entire school year!

For more kindergarten tips, check out my post here!