Morning greeting time in preschool

I always start my day in preschool off with a morning greeting time which includes exploring the calendar, weather, seasons, and a brief review of basic concepts. Let me show you some of the ideas that can be included in a simple morning greeting time.

Sing the Hello Song!

I love to sing the Hello Song every morning. It lets the children know we are ready to begin the "learning" part of our day.

Who is here today!

Next I take "attendance" by letting the children move their name to the "I am here today" chart!



Calendar

Then we talk about the day, date, and year!  I break it down to very basic terms such as having the children say: "Today is Monday"   and "The date is April 20, 2010"

I also have the children count the number of days that we have had so far in the month  and tell me what number will go next. If there is a special day coming up, such as a birthday or holiday, then that day is noted on the chart in advance and we count how many more days until it will be that special day.

Then we say (or sing) the days of the week in order.



Weather
Next we choose a weather helper to look out the window and tell us what the weather is. We sing the song:

Weather, weather,

Weather, weather,

What will the weather be today?

(sunny and warm)

(sunny and warm)

That's what the weather will be today.

I then have the weather helper draw a weather symbol on a square of paper and we place it up on the bulletin board. The older children print the word of the symbol on the square as well. Each day a new weather symbol square is added and we look for patterns in the weather.  We then count the number of rainy days in the month, sunny days, and so forth. For each new month we start a new set of weather symbol squares.

Seasons
We then sing the Four Seasons Song and identify each of the seasons on a chart. Sometimes we will spend more time on this by reading a book about seasons or talking about a particular season. For this month, we would talk about the signs of spring.

Helpers
I also choose our helpers during the morning greeting. I have used helpers that include:

• Weather helper
• Door holder
• Line Leader
• Caboose
• Snack Helper
• Lunch Helper
• Plant and Fish Helper

I have also just assigned one Helper of the Day. It all depends on the age of the children and what they can handle.

Review of basic concepts
We then review many of the basic concepts. I simply point to the letters or numbers or shapes on the chart and we all say them together. Not a lot of time is spent on this - just a quick daily review and over time the children get better and better at their recognition of each letter, color, or shape.  Since we use the numbers on the calendar, we do not repeat numbers again.

Morning Exercises
Finally we choose some music and movement activities for the children to stretch, run in place, and  so forth as our morning exercise routine.