Morning Message for Promethean or Smart Boards

Today I found a fabulous idea! I can't find it again, but I wanted to share what I did because of it. If this is your idea, please let me know because I want to give you credit...I'll send you my entire folder.

I made my own morning message boards for the entire school year. I changed the pictures so that each day of the week has a different picture and the pictures change monthly as well. I had to save it to .pdf file to keep the fonts. So...please give me some feedback. I'd like to open a TpT store, would this be something anyone would be interested in buying? Do you have an idea how much it might be worth? I did spend a few hours on it, but the user will have to make it her/his own to fit her/his needs.

I will add more to my Morning Message when the school year starts and I know what will happen daily, weekly, etc.

We have agendas and our students must copy agenda news each day. This is our form of parent contact on a daily basis. We do send newsletters on our homework (weekly contact) and a more in-depth newsletter bi-weekly or monthly.

My team sends homework on Monday and it is due the following Monday so that the parents can help the children on the weekend if they have Wednesday night church, ballgames, dance, etc. I don't know what our Exploratory class will be on Monday, I just added Compass in as an example.

Click here to download. Morning Message August 13

I'll be happy to share the entire folder with the first three to leave comments who would look over this and help me decide if it is sales worthy and how much it would be worth... Maybe users could download the fonts...here are the ones I used: DJ Doodlers, Chinacat, Kristen ITC, Elizabeth Skinny, CK Handprint, McPhatty, CK Primary, and Bathing Cap. I really don't want it to be more than fill-in-the-blank for anyone who would use this because it's meant to be a time-saver. :)

Thanks!

†~Melly~†

Sentence Recognition

I don't have a picture to go with this one, but it's fairly simple. I have a morning message board upon which I write a daily welcome. I write basically the same message for the first part of the year to familiarize students with some sight words, the date written out, etc. Here's how it looks:

Good morning!
     Today is Monday, November 14, 2011. Layla is our leader. Our exploratory class is at 9:50 a.m. Group 1 goes to Computer Lab, Group 2 goes to P.E., and Group 3 goes to Compass Lab. Remember to be responsible for your day. We are Mighty Titans!
                                 <3, Mrs. S.

This is the perfect place to put Happy Birthday to someone. I always draw music notes around Happy Birthday as if I'm singing (which I do as soon as the birthday child arrives). The reason I am sharing this is... forever and a day I wrote the sentences in two colors of dry erase marker. I didn't last year (can't figure out why I stopped), but started it back today. I am going to point out to the children that I change colors when I begin a new sentence. I also begin having students (who feel comfortable and ask to do this) write the morning message. They know it has to be approved by me before they go home or I will correct it myself.

I have found that sometimes they ignore my message if I don't draw attention to it. About three years ago (teaching third grade and putting more into the message than above), I realized my students weren't reading the message. I added in that the first student who came and told me I look beautiful today without mentioning the message board would receive a regular sized (no snack size for this!) Snickers bar. About 10:30 that morning, a fourth grade teacher walked by and read the message through our door. She came into class and told me I looked beautiful today! I cheered and told her to "Hold ON!! You win the prize!" The students acted like we were both crazy! I gave her the Snickers bar in front of the students. Needless to say, they never failed to read the board again. I didn't even have to spring for another Snickers bar, either! Shazam! :D