Secret Morning Messages

For the first half of the year, I do a morning sign in process where my kids come in and write their full name and date on a strip of paper for me.  Sometimes I have them add a short sentence or math problem to their sign ins.  Just to spice things up, we started secret morning messages when we came back from break instead of our name and date slips.  It's similar to Deanna Jump's chit-chat messages, but I have them copy down the message into a journal when they come in.  Here's how our process works:  the kids come in and copy the message into their journals, they then read the message and figure out the missing letters and add them in.  We then discuss the morning message during our carpet time and I have kids come up and fill in the letters and read it to the class.  We work in some great phonological awareness when we're done by filling in our blanks with a random letter and I'll have volunteers read our new silly message.