Early Morning Activities KS1

Looking for early morning activities for your KS1 children? Here are some simple ideas and free resources to help get your mornings off to a fun, calm and productive start.

KS1 children doing early morning work

Early Morning Word Games

Early morning activity time is a great way to consolidate new vocabulary, practise spelling skills or simply have fun with words. Here are some ideas for early morning word games for KS1 children:

  • Display a set of words on the board that all have the same letter missing. For example, you could display the words ‘th_r_’, ‘tr_ _’, ‘h_n’ and ‘s_cr_t’ and challenge children to identify the missing letter.
  • Jumble up the words from that week’s spellings or vocabulary linked to a topic you are studying. Challenge children to unjumble the letters to reveal the words.
  • Display a word from a topic you are studying and challenge children to find as many words as they can using letters from that word. For example, from the word ‘dinosaur’, children could spell ‘sand’, ‘sad’, ‘rod’ and ‘undo’.
  • Create a word search of the week’s spellings for children to complete, or provide a word search related to a topic being studied.
  • Provide a set of words relating to a topic or weekly spellings and ask children to put them into alphabetical order. You could also use this Alphabetical Order KS1 Puzzle.

👉 Check out more FREE English Resources

Early Morning Number Games

A firm grip on the basics of maths will help your KS1 class thrive. Use your early morning activity time to help children practise key skills with these fun activities:

  • Display three or four different numbers and ask children to decide which is the odd one out. There may or may not be a right or wrong answer; the important part is encouraging children to think about the numbers’ properties.
  • Challenge children to improve their times table knowledge by testing each other. These Multiplication Wheels are a great way to do this. Cut them out, stick them together, then lift the flaps to check the answers.
  • Display a number on the board. If this is the answer, what was the question? Challenge children to find as many possible questions as they can.
  • Put sets of coins on the children’s tables, or use these free cut-out coins. Display an amount on the board and challenge children to find different ways to make that amount.

👉 Check out more FREE Maths Puzzles

Early Morning Art Activities

  • Colouring can be a great, calm way to start the morning. Try these Alphabet Colouring Pages. Each page has a letter of the alphabet to colour, plus space for children to list things that start with that letter.
  • Put playdough on children’s tables and challenge them to create models based on what they are currently learning about. For example, they could create playdough minibeasts, Tudor houses, foods or number sentences.
  • Provide children with different types of pencils, such as HB, 2B and 2H, and give them time to explore the different marks they can make. Which pencil would be best for drawing fluffy clouds? Which would be best for drawing an apple?

Early Morning Brain Teasers

Working through a fun puzzle is a wonderful way to fire up children’s brains first thing in the morning. We have a selection of brain teaser packs linked to common KS1 topics, giving you a ready-to-go library of activities to display on the board. Some popular options include:

👉 Check out more FREE Brain Teasers

Year 1 Morning Activities

Year 1 morning activities should be simple, independent and designed to help children settle quickly into the school day. Popular Year 1 morning work ideas include phonics games, word searches, counting activities, handwriting practice and simple puzzles.

Year 2 Morning Activities

Year 2 morning activities can help children build independence while revisiting key English and Maths skills. Early morning work for Year 2 children might include times tables practice, spelling challenges, brain teasers and comprehension tasks.

More Early Morning Activity Ideas

  • Handwriting practise: Help children understand letter formation by playing an example of letter formation on loop. Writing Repeater is a good way to do this.
  • Secret Sentences Puzzles: Practise identifying initial sounds by creating a secret code where children write the first letter of each picture to reveal a sentence. Try these free Secret Sentences or Secret Words puzzles to get started.
  • Animal Answers: Display a photo of an animal on the board and challenge each child to write three facts about the animal in full sentences. They then pass their facts to a friend, who has to write what they think the question could be if the fact was the answer.
  • Mood Checker: Encourage children to check in with how they are feeling in the morning by asking them to draw a face that matches their mood. They could also add words or pictures around the face to express more about how they feel.