Favorite Part of My Classroom and Morning Routine

I'm cheating and combining Wednesday and Thursday in a desperate attempt to catch up on the #Kinderchat Blog-A-Day challenge. 

Here is what I liked best about my classroom: 

 

Our back door opened out to the sledding hill. This led to our morning routine in preschool. In the winter, I coach the parents to send their kids all ready dressed in their winter gear and we start the day outside sledding on the hill. We can get a good 30 to 40 minutes of high energy gross motor time when the Vermont temperature cooperates. 

Then, we go in and have the rest of our preschool day. The kids are really ready to buckle down and do the preschool routine. The best part is, we only have to help kids get their winter gear OFF. When they go home from preschool, they do not need everything. 

That makes out morning routine go something like this:

1. Meet me outside for sledding as you arrive in the classroom.

2. Everyone helps put the sleds away after the "last time down the hill."

3. Line up and go back into the school.

4. Remove wet boots before we go into the classroom.

5. Take off snow clothes, jackets and put them away and change into indoor shoes

6. Wash hands

7. Do name writing practice

8. Choose an activity from the morning choice board

9. When everyone is ready, we have morning meeting.