Morning Choice: A soft start with a strong purpose

The bell rings. The hallways are bustling with children as they begin the new school day. Let’s stop for a minute. Re-wind. Zoom in on the child with their head down as they saunter towards their homeroom, thinking about the argument they just had 30 minutes ago with a parent about their outfit. Next, let’s catch up with the friend who appears to be sprinting towards the finish line of their classroom door- they are anxious about today’s math test. Or what about the child who has an ear-to-ear grin plastered across their face? For this child, school is their one constant happy place at the moment.

The list goes on, as the children entering the four walls of our school buildings are dealing with a variety of highs and lows, challenges and celebrations, anxieties and confidences. As educators, we specialize and are skilled at catering to our students’ needs. Now more than ever, we must focus on our students’ mental health. It begins with ensuring that our classrooms are safe and welcoming places where students can thrive, through morning choice. 

What is Morning Choice?

With the uptick in mental health issues, my colleagues and I recognized that we needed to change up our morning arrival routines to accommodate the many needs of the students in front of us. For this reason, “Morning Choice” was established. This scheduled 15-minute block in the morning offers students a way to ease into the school day. While we spend a great deal of time with our students, we must acknowledge that we don’t know everything that goes on in their lives outside of school. Sure, we may occasionally overshare about celebrations and even some challenges, but it’s nearly impossible to know exactly what each child is experiencing 24/7. So why not give them a space to choose how they can best transition into learning mode?

Morning Choice provides students with a smooth transition into the classroom, regardless of how their morning began. Have a student who hardly got any sleep and needs some quiet thinking time? Why not invite them to do some calm coloring in a quiet area of the classroom? Or what about the student who just returned from being out sick and has missed socializing with friends? They could play a game of UNO or create bracelets while socializing with one another. What about the students who are early risers and have a lot of energy? They could use some hands-on materials to collaborate and build something together. 

Choice Customized

Morning choice is just as it sounds, a choice for students to decide how they would like to start their day. While this seems like it could be chaotic, keep in mind that although it has the word “choice” in it, teachers can customize this time of day as they see fit based on their students’ needs. As with any beginning of the year “rules and expectations” conversations, this would be another routine to practice and discuss to establish classroom norms.

For example, in my classroom, we spend several days practicing how to make a morning choice. Students are given time to rotate through stations that replicate the morning choice activities that are made available on a daily basis. This way, students have time to experience some choices that may not always be first on their list. In addition to some of the choices mentioned a short time ago in the article, others that I use in my classroom include: relax and eat breakfast, word puzzles, put a puzzle together with friends, read, write, get homework help, and extra study time.

There is no limit as to what choices you offer, just be sure that there are enough choices to accommodate the different emotions that the students entering your classroom may have and always go through specific expectations for each choice. Expectations should be reviewed often and placed visually for students to refer to as needed. 

Morning choice can be easy to manage. Limit the number of students per choice type. Students select their morning choice when they arrive that morning. In my classroom, each student writes their name on a magnet and moves their magnet to a designated morning choice spot on the whiteboard. As the classroom teacher, these 15 minutes of time allow me to check in with students based on their needs. Maybe someone needs to chat about a tough time that they are having, or perhaps another student had trouble with the homework and needs some re-teaching. This flexible time allows for more one-on-one interactions with students. 

Benefits of Morning Choice

Morning choice has many benefits. Some of these benefits include: prioritizing students’ well-being, building classroom community, and regulating emotions. With morning choice, students are given the opportunity to balance how to build independence while adhering to routines and clear expectations.

Here are my “Top 10” benefits of implementing morning choice (in no particular order-they are all pretty great!):

1. Offers a variety of options (quiet, social, creative, active) to meet a range of emotional and learning styles.
2. Empowers students to choose what they need that day.
3. Creates consistency and structure while still allowing flexibility.
4. Gives teachers a moment to connect informally with students and assess needs.
5. When students feel seen, valued, and regulated first thing, they’re more likely to be focused, engaged, and ready to learn.
6. Helps students connect with one another and build relationships.
7. Gives students time to process their emotions before diving into academics.
8. Encourages kids to make intentional choices about how they want to start their day.
9. Helps ease anxiety, stress, or emotional overwhelm from whatever happened before school (at home, on the bus, etc.).
10. Promotes a calm, mindful transition from outside life into the classroom environment.

Morning Choice = Agency

Morning Choice is one small, intentional way we can give students a sense of agency, comfort, and care at the beginning of their school day. It’s more than just an activity—it’s a mindset shift that recognizes the whole child and meets them where they are, emotionally and mentally. When we create space for students to transition in a way that honors their individual needs, we aren’t just setting the tone for a smoother morning—we’re laying the foundation for stronger relationships, deeper learning, and a strong classroom community. Sometimes the softest starts lead to the strongest outcomes.

Jen Sharples is a fifth grade elementary school teacher in Massachusetts. She has been teaching for over a decade and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Elementary Education, as well as a Master’s Degree in Special Education. Over the past several years, Jen has worked to foster a welcoming classroom community that helps students develop social-emotional learning skills. Her passions include reading and writing. She recently self-published her first children’s book.