Going Wild with Morning Routines

Use this activity to find out what your students’ daily routines are from the moment they wake up until the moment they arrive in your classroom. Explore those routines as a class through movement and dance!

1. To begin, have students think about the things they do every day before they come to school. Guide this discussion by asking questions like: What time do you wake up? Does someone wake you up or do you have an alarm clock? What do you do to get ready? How do you get to school? What is the first thing you do when you get into the classroom? As students respond, scribe their answers on the board or large chart paper.
2. As a group, have students physicalize what it looks and feels like to wake up. To guide them in this exercise, ask questions like: What does it feel like to sit up in bed in the morning? How do you stretch when you wake up? Do you yawn? Do you scratch your sides or your tummy? How do you brush your teeth, style your hair or eat breakfast? Note: Feel free to explore these out of sequence at first and then put them into sequential order in preparation for the next few steps.
3. After you’ve explored the physical aspect of what a morning routine looks like, begin to discover the emotions one might feel when waking up and moving through their morning routine! Offer prompts like: When you first open your eyes in the morning, what emotions do you feel? What emotions do you feel when you stretch or yawn? How does it make you feel when you put on your socks, or your hat or gloves? Note: If you don’t already have these posted in your room, it may be beneficial to have a pre-written list of emotions on the board or large chart paper for this portion of the activity. Once you’ve explored all of the aspects of students’ morning routines, put them in an order as you did in Step 2, adding in the emotions! You can build on this by adding verbal sound effects that reflect each emotion. For instance, if “happy” is thrown into the mix, you might do a physical action while smiling and shouting the word “yay!”
4. Now that you’ve gone through physicalizing students’ morning routines and adding emotions into the mix, it’s time to theatricalize them by putting it all together! Using objects and furniture found in your classroom, along with a dash of imagination, create a class campground complete with trees, leaves and tents!
5. Using the set you’ve created, have volunteers show the class their morning routine without words. Encourage the audience to narrate or guess what is taking place and how the student performing is feeling!
6. Finally, have a group discussion about the similarities and differences between everyone’s morning routines.

Reflection Questions:

• What was your favorite part of this activity?
• What was it like to act out your morning routine in your classroom?
• What was it like to learn about your classmates’ morning routines?
• What surprised you about this activity?