Starting school or back to school next week? Here’s a lovely activity/craft to try at home to help with the impending morning routines!

Routines are important for so many families and having a set routine can help make parts of the day, such as getting ready for school much easier and smoother.

We’ve been creating a morning routine chart with the kids in preparation for getting ready for school next week. They enjoyed personalising it and they helped make it tactile and sensory using different materials.

What do you need?

• Paper
• Card
• Pens
• Scissors
• Any craft materials you have to hand to make it tactile- ribbon/tissue/lollipop sticks/ foil etc.
• Bostik Micro Dots*

How do you make it?

It’s such an simple activity. We wanted it to be nice and easy so as not to add to the stress of preparing for school and make it fun.

• Ask the child to choose a coloured piece of paper and stick a piece of plain paper, cut slightly smaller, and stick in the centre

• If able, encourage them to cut our 3 squares of paper (you can do more for more stages)
• Draw on each square a picture of a stage of your morning routine.
• We used Bostik Micro Dots to stick the squares of paper down, as it meant the children could do it really easily themselves. I just cut and attached the Microdots and they had fun pressing them in place.

• Write next to each square which part of the routine it is. Depending on ability, your child may do this themselves too.

• Here’s the fun bit- get the children thinking about the materials they could use for each part of the routine. For example, we chose ribbon for the picture of the school shirt so it was nice and smooth. And cut up wooden sticks and glued them down to make bumpy porridge: we also use foil for the spoon. We chose to stick them down using the Bostik Microdots.

What are it’s benefits of this activity ?

• Opportunity to discuss the routine whilst creating the chart- we enjoyed having an informal chat about how our mornings would be when school begins. It allowed the children time to process the change from the summer holidays and think about and verbalise any concerns.

Practise scissor skills

Opportunity to practise writing/ drawing

Personalised- by creating it themselves children have real ownership over their routine and are often more likely to want to follow it.

Sensory- It’s tactile elements are lovely and sensory.

Reinforces routine- provides a visual and tactile reinforcement for children of what their routine is. It can be put up on the wall as a reminder and referred to regularly.

*Please note we were provided with a sample of the Bostik Microdots.