Morning Message? Why?

[corps2005]

I can't believe I'm going to ask this question, but I'm really clueless about it Forgive, it's only my second year teaching, and I don't have an education degree. I'm working on it now though and I have a year left.

I've heard several teachers mention that they have students journal in the beginning of the day and many have them write the morning message.

Can someone tell me what the purpose of writing the morning message is? If I wanted my students to do that, what is it that I should be doing to the morning message? Is it for handwriting practice? I'm sorry this sounds so ignorant

I can see Journaling, and that's what I used last year. Should I do the morning mesage instead? I'm just trying to think of a short 15-20 minutes morning activity for the students to do, since they come in the room at all sorts of times. Thanks guys

[Mable]

In kdg, my morning message was used to expose students to words, ideas, etc. We would look for words they knew (sightwords, words that begin with a certain letter), it would then develop into the students beginning to supply missing words, punctuation, etc.
In third grade, my morning message would have errors in grammar, punctuation, etc. that students would have to identify and correct. This helped them become better readers and writers. I've also used Daily Geography so students would learn a tidbit of geography on a daily basis. It helps reinforce, introduce, and review necessary skills on a daily basis. I think it also helps bring together the class and start the day off with daily news and build community. I loved my morning meeting in which my morning message was central and will use it in second grade this year.

[jillo9]

In third grade, I do not have the students write the Morning Message. Instead I have them journal in half of a spiral notebook entitled "Morning Dew". I give them a prompt or something to do, which could be copying sentences for DOL, a quick write prompt, or what not. Since my kids come in and then leave for specials right away, I usually make my "Morning Dew" something that ties into my writing lesson for the day and come back to it during that time. Also, I may have the students share what they wrote or encourage them to take one of the quick writes and turn it into a story during writer's workshop.

[Mrs. Schulte]

For your morning messages, do you let the daily news inspire you? Or does your morning messages come from a Greater source?

[silver rain]

See this link: http://www.jmeacham.com/message.htm It does a good job for answering questions about Morning Messages. There are also other links to view listed there. Good luck!

I use Morning Messages daily. I have seen an improvement in my class' writing.

[corps2005]

Thanks guys, this definitely helps out