Independent Morning Routine Video Tutorial

Hi, this is Sasha from theautismhelper.com, and this is a video tutorial of my AM routine. And this is what I call my independent routine for my higher functioning learners that they do by themselves first thing when they get in in the morning. I've talked about this a lot on my blog, but I realized I haven't really gone into great detail on it. And this is one of the things that makes my day run really smoothly because 6 of my kids are able to work independently for about an hour while we work one-on-one with other learners. So this has been really helpful in the morning to making sure that everyone's where they're supposed to be and I'm not running all over the place. So I don't have a lot of wall space in my room and that's why I actually use the back of a shelf and just put bulletin board paper and a border on to kind of make it look, you know, like a board too. Um, if you have wall space though, I would use a wall. But this is where I keep all of the visuals for my AM routine. And the AM routine consists of the main 4 things are making sure that they turn in their homework, doing a binder page, quiet reading, and a game. So the first thing on the list of AIM routine, in our AIM routine, is turning in your homework. So right on the binder page is a little note that says homework, I did it, I turned it in, and I got new homework. So checking it off. Right under where I keep my kids' schedules, I have a bin for all of the finished homework, and then I have homework mailboxes. And these are different than their other mailboxes. In here I keep their extra packets, and right now we're doing workbooks, so that's why some of them have nothing in there, 'cause they bring workbook home, do 2 pages, and then they move the Post-it for the next day. So this is a nice way to remind them without me having to tell each person and be reminding everyone to check in their homework. The next thing that on their to-do list for AM routine is their binder page. So I have this binder page posted for free on my blog, and it has a few different components. The first thing they do is they write the date, the weather forecast, the temperature, what's for lunch, and today's specials. Each of my kid has— each of my kids have a different job related to these things, which I'll show you that visual in a minute. The rest of this page is a daily sentence. So on the board, this is yesterday's sentence. I write a sentence with some grammar and spelling mistakes, and then in morning group when they are finished, we correct it. So when they write the sentence down, they write it down correctly. The next thing is the daily question. So I post 5 different questions right above here. And I will post some of these questions as well on my blog, but I basically just cut a bunch of sentence strips and sat in front of the TV one day and wrote a bunch of different easy questions they could answer. So there's a big variety, and I have them double-sided. So I made a bunch of them, and then I just store them right over here in a pocket laminated on— that I Velcroed on the wall. So I can just grab them real easy, change them out each day. So they have new questions each day, and right under that they have a journal topic. So I've been using a Lakeshore journal picture set, but I've also used photos of the kids, topics that are seasonal, things like that. So after they answer the questions, they have to do their journal. So the journal today was chicken. They'll write 3 sentences about chicken, and then down here is the daily word sort. For the daily word sort, each of my kids has a labeled pocket on this red pocket chart that's really great, and this is right across from where the AM routine visuals are. And in each set they have a different sort they're doing. So these are part of my sentence building reading centers that are putting the sentences together. I also use Words Their Way word sorts, the previously mastered ones, and I change these up every other day. So they do the same one 2 days in a row and they do a new one. So the other components of this AM routine, that was the binder page and the chunk of what they do on the binder page, but even within there, there are a few visuals on this wall that coordinate with that page. So there are some class jobs that the kids do every day. So some of the part— some parts of the top of that page, the kids need some help on. So writing the date on the board and looking up the temperature and writing it on the board are things that one kid is assigned to do that the rest of the kids will look to them to do. So this is a great way to get them to socialize with each other. For example, if this student forgets to write the temperature on the board and they have to write it in their binder page, everyone's like, hey, go write the temperature on the board, you forgot. So I like that, like they should be reminding each other to do things and have something that one person is responsible for that affects the rest of the group. And I change these up every week or every other week. And these are the jobs they do every day. And then on top it says Friday we do our weekly class jobs. So these are the cleaning jobs. So I just rotate these around, washing dishes, vacuuming, cleaning boards, things that we don't need done every day but are good to be done once a week and to practice life skills. Um, so the next part is quiet reading. I have all of their quiet reading books right next to here. They each have their own basket that they bring to the table. These are at their independent guided reading level and are actually probably significantly below that, so they're pretty easy books. And I let them whisper because a lot of them can't quite silently read, so it's quiet reading, so they can just whisper. And then the next thing is game, and this has gone super well. I was a little nervous about this, but I have Right here is a visual for each day and then who's in charge of the game. And I have a dry erase marker Velcroed right next to it. And I write which kid's initials are in charge of the game that day. So this is, I think they need someone to be in charge because if not, it kind of becomes mass chaos. So one kid is in charge of picking the game, setting it up, making sure everyone is on their best behavior, and they love being in charge. So I keep all of the games that they can independently play in these pink drawers and right here on this shelf. So they're all right where everything else is, and they usually play games for about 20 minutes. And this has gone really, really well. And right here, actually, I also have another visual for when they are in charge of the day. So the different steps on how to be in charge. Um, the last component of this seems really complicated, sorry, but this is why it also takes an hour, because there's a lot of parts to it. So the other thing is typing the journal. So once a week, someone will be able to type the journal. So I rotate the name so they only have one turn a week, and the journal they wrote in their binder, which today's was about a chicken, the 3 sentences they write, they get to type it. And they really, really like doing this. So they can grab this visual that's laminated and Velcroed right on there, and these are the instructions on how to type it. So open, open Word, select new document, type your journal, select file and print, and then they get to hole punch it, and put it in their binder. So this is great to follow steps independently and using technology for academics. Um, I know that's a lot and I talk really fast, but hopefully you got the idea. This is my AM routine, my independent morning routine for my higher learners, and this is a great way to keep a lot of kids occupied and engaged in academic tasks while you take time to work with other students. This is Sasha from theautismhelper.com.