The Morning Work Board

My sweet friend, Johanna, has a great blog where she shares so much wisdom and experience in her homeschooling journey. Unlike myself, she has experience teaching preschoolers and draws from that experience at home.

Recently she posted her breakfast board. And because we all went ga-ga over it, she had to give us more details later on. WOW! I knew this was an idea that would work for us. So I stole it! (Thanks Jo!)

Here is our Morning Board in all its homemade glory:


Every morning after breakfast and our morning chore, we gather around this board with folders in hand. We start our time by singing our hymn and opening our day in prayer. Then we say the pledge. Clearly, we need to add a flag to the top of our board.

We begin our work on the left side of the board:


We recite our bible verse for the week. Then we fill in the date on our calendar. (each child has one in her folder, so they fill in their own) Next we add a number to the 100 chart, keeping track of our school days so we will know when we hit the 100th day of school! (each child has one of these in their folder too)

Then we moved to the right hand side:


We fill in the weather for the day with a little picture! So far this week has been all sunshine! The girls have this paper in their folders as well and they fill it in. We will transfer it to their science journal when it is complete.

Wondering what is behind that TV remote and Magic Treehouse book? That would be our address and phone number, which I thought that maybe I should cover up. The remote and book happened to be near me when I went to take the picture. We'll move on to cell numbers and work numbers next.

Then we move to our memory work in the middle of the board:


The date you see is our history sentence, which we know through a song. I also try to creatively draw a picture that serves as a reminder, using the year as a basis. This History sentence is, "In 1492, Columbus (the one is a man) took the first of four (point to the 4 in 1492) trips to the Caribbean (those things on the 9...they are beans...for CaribBEAN) on three Spanish ships (see them on the 2?) named the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. (notice that each ship has a letter for its name)

To the right of the History Sentence is our Science question and answer for the week. This week is, "What are the four types of tissue? Connective, Epithelial, Muscle, Nerve"

Then we add a state to our map. The girls have this same US outline map in their folders. We color in the next state while naming the capital. I read a few fun facts out of a library book about the state. Our goal is to know the names and capital cities of the entire US this year.

Next we add a penny in the money bag and write the new dollar amount. Once we hit 5 cents, we'll exchange for a nickel. Then we can save up 10 cents for a dime, etc.

The purple list at the bottom is the order we are doing things. It serves to remind me, but as we get going I don't need it. I might remove it.

Finally, we flip the pocket chart (attached to the board by rings) over to practice our math skip counting.


This week we are working on the ones and twos. Our Classical Conversation audio CD has skip counting to music up to the 15's tables, so that is what we will work on this year.

Thanks Johanna! We love our morning board. This has been the perfect way to kick off our day and set the tone.