Morning meetings have been an invaluable tool for me in fostering a strong bond with my students and creating a comfortable learning environment. We start each morning by doing morning meeting activities that allow us to get to know one another even better. For example, we may do some morning stretching exercises followed by sharing something new we learned the previous day or telling our favorite joke. I believe it’s important to build trust within the classroom and morning meeting activities are an effective way to do so. These routines help my students feel seen and heard in our classroom, no matter their differences from one another.
A typical morning in my classroom starts by us saying good morning to each other as they walk in to the classroom. We do not ignore any student, we always say hi, or good morning. It doesn’t matter if we do or do not know them we always say hello.
Morning Meeting Greetings
Once we start the day our morning meeting will weekend. We start the morning by loading up our PowerPoint to see what type of greeting we will start the day with. Try to keep our greetings down to less than three minutes because we want to make sure we are using our time appropriately. We want to build up our class community and greetings should be quick and efficient. If you want to read more about Morning Meeting Greetings- head here!
Morning Meeting Sharings
When students share with in the class, they are opening themselves to conversation. I never force a conversation with a student because they may not feel comfortable yet. I do try my hardest to make sure they’re happy and excited for the day. One way to do this is by allowing the students to have a conversation within the class. I do walk around and listen however I won’t participate in the conversations because I do want them to feel comfortable within the class and with their peers. We discuss many different things some will be easy and some will be more challenging for a shy student. I do try to include thoughtful questions for the students to answer about themselves. More information about Morning Meeting Sharing- head here!
Morning Meeting Activities
This is always one of the favorites in the classroom. The students love it and I love it! However my neighbor does not. We often get a little loud when it comes to our morning meeting activities. This is because we are excited for the day and we are playing a fun and engaging game with each other. There are so many different activities you could do within your class and they could all be Covid friendly. I usually allow the morning meeting activities to take longer than the sharing because I want them to be engaged with each other. However sharing only takes 5 to 8 minutes and this could take 8 to 10 minutes. It’s not much of a difference but it’s enough.
I like to challenge the students with their different activities and I love being able to watch the kids have fun in their own element. When you include morning meeting activities in your day, what you were doing is you are easing the fight, flight, or freeze status with your students. You are allowing the students to feel at home and safe. Below are two different morning meeting activities that we do in our classroom.
All the pictures that you see here are included in the No Prep! Class Meetings – Building a Positive Classroom Environment. This comes with 180 days of greetings, sharing, and activities for you to complete with your students!
