In my class, students have a task each morning. You might call it a bell ringer, morning tub, morning task…basically it’s their first job after their shoes.

We practice a lot at the beginning so that it becomes routine and means I don’t have to worry about them for the first 30 minutes. This is important as I may need to speak to a parent at the door, speak to students privately, sort out issues etc. This also gives me time where they’re fairly independent so that I can read with students.

I read individually with studernts, not in groups, so I don’t have dedicated “reading” time in my schedule. This means I am constantly pulling students so if I can get a few done first thing, I’m already off to a good start. Want to learn more about my system? Click here!

Organization & storage

I like to keep things in one area. This makes it easier for me, easier for students, and easier if I need a sub.

I use a 10 drawer rolling cart for their daily materials.

I pull out what they need and set it out for them to grab at our materials table (just off to the right in the picture).

Even though the material or notebook changes daily, they know exactly where to go and this helps with learning the routine.

Note: I keep other things in this cart too, it’s not JUST morning work.

The morning work bins I need are: calligraphie and lundi-jeudi.

The bins

Pochettes = Dry erase pouches for use in UFLI & CBE

Calligraphie -> Vocabulaire (morning work)

Carte de mots (French frequent word chart)

Carte de sons (French sound chart)

Word chart (English frequent word chart)

Coloriage (colouring sheets)

Pick up table for supplies

I don’t want students in my rainbow cart so I pull out the bins that they’ll need and set them on our round table. This is always the supplies area, from morning work to math materials to art supplies.

They come collect their things and take them back to their own table spot. When they’re done they come show me and then return all materials to the same place they got them from.

This avoids them wandering around looking for things and makes it easy to know that no matter what the day, even if the supplies needed change, it’s always picked up in the same place.

Weekly overview

Each day they have a different task. This is based on a 5 day week and things may get shuffled or skipped with a short week.

Monday - Les mots de la semaine: ordre alphabétique & drawings

Tuesday - Petit travail duotang *

Wednesday - Les mots de la semaine: word mapping

Thursday - Cahier d’activités (vocab packet)

Friday - Ipad (French or math game only) *

PLUS, each day they must also complete a few lines in their printing or cursive booklet. Find them here on TPT.

*these ones are the first to get skipped

Words of the week (needed for Monday & Wednesday)

Each week I have 8 words that come from our target sound. I write these on the board. For example, below is a list I might give while learning about the “on” sound. You’ll notice that there are no articles, this is okay because I don’t need them to use the article in my activities. If you’d like to have them practice with the article, you are certainly welcome to.

They will use these words for their Monday and Wednesday morning work.

Note: Depending on your students, you may want to avoid choosing words with the same first letter. So, not cochon AND chanson. I teach my students to alphabetize and look for the next letter if the first is the same but if your students are younger, you may want to make this simpler during the alphabet day by choosing words that all begin with different letters.

Monday: Les mots de la semaine (ordre alphabétique & drawings)

In my class we don’t do a traditional dictée with a list of words that are tested on Friday. Instead, we have words of the week that come from our target sound, then there’s a check-in at the end of the week. This means that students don’t know which words they’ll be asked to spell, but they have seen all of them through various activities throughout the week. I don’t want memorization. I want to see if they can apply what we’ve been learning about all week.

Each week I pick 8 words and write them on the board. For example: chaise, aime, mitaine, maison, laitue, balai, fraise, éclair

In their duotang they have a page for each week. They must write the words in alphabetical order and draw a picture.

Note: if it’s a word that you can’t really draw (parce que, for example), it would be noted that they wouldn’t need to draw that one and we’d just talk about it instead.

*I print this by term so in September I count the weeks we’ll be doing it during that term and print that many pages. It saves the headache of remembering to print new sheets each week. Students just get their duotang. For term 2, we’ll take the old stuff out and add a new batch.

Alpha draw template download

Tuesday: Petit travail du matin (duotang)

Students will complete two pages. This is from Mme Caroline on TPT.

This includes things like writing, vocab, drawing, reading, mapping etc.

*I print this by term so in September I count the weeks we’ll be doing it during that term and print that many pages. It saves the headache of remembering to print new sheets each week. Students just get their duotang. For term 2, we’ll take the old stuff out and add a new batch.

Wednesday: Les mots de la semaine (mapping)

Back to our words of the week, students will use those same words they wrote on Monday and map them.

For example: ch-ai-se/m-ai-s-on

I like to do these on dry erase pouches where I have a sheet with mapping boxes inside so that we reuse the same paper every week. Students come show me their work, it’s easy to erase and fix if needed and then erase it once complete.

You can absolutely do these on regular paper and have students colour code the target sound or even all complex sounds.

*the first picture is from when they were learning to map, so there isn’t a consistent sound. We’d use the same pouches and sheets though!

Mapping chart download

Thursday: Vocabulaire - Cahier d’activités

Students receive a little packet that they’ll use each Thursday that month. The focus here is on thematic vocabulary. I print this once at the beginning of the month and then just keep their packets until we’re finished. These don’t go in duotangs, but they could if you wanted.

I use various “cahier d’activités” of my own and some from French Buzz.

To save paper, I print them two sheets per page. Students usually need to complete 4 of these mini pages.

I print it all at once to be ready for the month. They need 4 mini pages per week so if there are 4 weeks, I need 16 minis. I write the # at the bottom so I can remind them that they need to do #5-8, for example.

Friday: Ipad (French or Math)

We have access to Ipads in my class so on Friday mornings students are allowed to do any French or math app of their choosing. Obviously you have to set expectations around this. If students are caught not using a French or math app and are playing with the camera, using Siri etc, they will lose their privilege and have to do reading for the rest of the period and the following period.

Which apps? Well, that is sort of dependent on what your school has access to. My students love: FunFrench, Math Town, Math Bingo and Marble Math

What they do when they’re done their task

The task isn’t designed to take them 30 minutes. Their 30 minutes gives them enough time to enter the room, get themselves situated, do their task and finish.

First, they come show me their work. Since these are fairly simple tasks, I mark them on the spot. If I can’t mark it on the spot (like on Thursdays), they put it my “fini” bin that sits in front of my desk. I’ll mark it later.

Next they return their materials to their designated spaces. Put away their duotang, dry eraser marker etc.

Now they are an early finisher! They need to check the “pas fini” bin to see if they have any other unfinished work that needs to be completed. If they’re caught up, they are welcome to use any of the early finisher bins, read, draw or colour. If their choice of activity is something individual and quiet (like reading), many will return to their seat. If they choose a game to play with another peer who’s finished, they are usually asked to go do it on the carpet, allowing their peers to continue their work at their tables without nearby disruption.

Learn more about my early finisher system