Strong Start & Close
Rituals to begin and end the day
Strong Start is a set of rituals and routines that get students ready to learn by fostering a sense of safety, belonging, community, and self-efficacy. The routines begin as students enter the classroom and continue through a group meeting.
The Strong Close whole-group routine is the formal conclusion of your day. It provides a sense of closure to the day and a transition to something new.
Strong Start
Strong Start includes these components:
Greetings
Breakfast in the Classroom & Independent Work
Group routine: Purposeful Partnering, Community Building, Breathe & Focus, Goal Setting, Optional Elements
For more details and resources on these classroom structures, check out the full Strong Start Implementation Guide.
Learn more about the components of Strong Start below.
Greetings
Teachers greet students individually at the door of the classroom.
Breakfast in the Classroom
Breakfast arrives at the classroom according to school-wide procedures. Set up food on a designated table or counter. Students serve themselves and take their food to their seat. Provide clear instructions for students in how to serve, eat, and clean up after themselves. Designate a student job for cleaning tables after breakfast.
Why this works:
Having breakfast in the classroom helps students build emotional connections in a warm, calm, community setting.
Having a flexible activity like eating breakfast allows for longer individual welcome greetings and a more gradual transition to school.
When students feel in-control during breakfast time (vs. overwhelmed), they are more likely to eat, which provides physical fuel for learning and prevents hunger-related upsets.
Independent Work
If students choose not to eat, or when they are finished, students engage in independent work. To start with, independent work should be easy to take out and clean up, and not require any specific amount of time to complete. As you feel out your routine, you may try to integrate assignments like Lexia or small-group interventions.
Why this works:
When students finish breakfast, they will have something productive to do, which helps them have a sense of direction.
Some children will not need or want to eat, and will need something to do while the teacher is greeting other students.
This extra instructional time is valuable for activities that can be difficult to fit into the day.
Strong Start Group Routine
Purposeful Partnering
Purposeful partnering is a ritual that fosters peer connection between all students through an engaging partner activity.
Community Building
Community building is a whole class ritual that fosters community by giving students a shared joyful experience.
Breathe & Focus
Breathe & focus teaches strategies for self-regulation, including deep breathing, meditative moments and full-body stretches.
Goal Setting
During goal-setting, students set a daily goal for living out the classroom agreements.
Strong Start Activity Banks:
Optional Elements
You may want or need to include other elements in your morning routine. Here is a non-exhaustive list of elements to consider:
Other unpacking routines
Visual schedule review
Morning announcements
Morning Message/Newsletter
Strong Close Group Routine
Strong Close includes these components:
Goal-Setting Reflection
Celebrations
Closing Ritual
Goal-Setting Reflection
Students revisit the goal they set at the beginning of the day and reflect on whether they fully met, almost met, or did not meet their goal.
Celebrations
Students celebrate each others’ community-supporting behaviors.
Closing Ritual
Students engage in a closing ritual indicating “we are all in this together.”
