MORNING MEETING Moore Public Schools

WHY WOULD YOU DO A MORNING MEETING*? Is your classroom lacking cohesiveness? Do your students argue and bicker with one another? Do you spend a large portion of your day acting as a referee with your students? If the answer is yes…then Morning Meeting might be just the answer. Morning Meeting helps students begin each day as a community of caring and respectful learners, by getting to know each other, practicing academic and social skills, and looking forward to learning together in the day ahead. The following slides will teach you the basic format of the morning meeting and will give you resources to help you start the Morning Meeting in your own classroom. *Many of the ideas for Morning Meeting are attributed to the program and book: Responsive Classroom.

THE KEY PARTS OF THE MORNING MEETING FORMAT… Greeting: Teach students to shake hands and to greet one another by name. Academic Focus: You can use your science/social studies topic or you can use any academic focus you choose to be a part of your morning meeting format. Sharing: Remember Show and Tell? Sharing is similar. You can let everyone share one thing (usually just verbally) or you can pick four/five students to share each day. Activity: This is a quick group game, song, or dance. Perhaps you would like to introduce poetry into your classroom. Your activity time would be perfect for that application. Morning Message: This is key to your Morning Meeting…my students were sure I loved them simply because I ended every Morning Message with “Love, Mrs. Glover”

GREETINGS Greetings are important because you can teach manners and how to introduce one’s self to others. This time can also be fun as many creative teachers have come up with lots of fun greetings that you can do with your class. Don’t forget to teach how to correctly shake hands. Many of our students do not possess this common social skill. This book contains many different greetings that your students will enjoy!

ACADEMIC FOCUS You can choose to use your science or social studies topic for your academic focus during the morning meeting. This would be a mini-lesson or it could be asking the students what they remember from the previous day’s lesson. If you know that you have some reteaching to do, this would also be a good academic focus for your meeting. These documents are some “I Have Who Has” games to playfully add an academic focus to your meeting.

SHARING THIS WEB SITE FROM THE RESPONSIVE CLASSROOM WILL GIVE YOU DIFFERENT METHODS TO ALLOW YOUR STUDENTS TO SHARE EACH DAY. Sharing is a rich and vital part of a daily Morning Meeting, a key Responsive Classroom practice in which all classroom members—grown-ups and students—gather in a circle for twenty to thirty minutes to greet each other, share news and ideas, do an activity together, and read a message written by the teacher. Sharing, another of four components that make up Morning Meeting, plays an important role in building a positive classroom community. Just as important, sharing offers ample opportunities to practice and reinforce the speaking, listening, and thinking skills that are so crucial to school success.four components that make up Morning Meeting Morning Meeting sharing not only gives students a daily arena for this crucial communications practice but also enables them to practice in meaningful ways that are integrated with the academic, social, and emotional content of their lives.

ACTIVITY This slide show offers many ideas for fun activities to do with your students during Morning Meeting. This slide show offers musical activities to do with your students. This links to many fun and different activities that you can use for Morning Meeting. greetingshttp://betterlesson.com/community/document/68382/morning-meeting-games-and- greetings If you only have time for a song, dance, or quick chant with your students, it gives them a fun way to begin your day! Give it a try!

MORNING MESSAGE This link gives several ideas related to different morning messages. In classes that use the Responsive Classroom approach, morning messages play an important role in the last segment of Morning Meeting, when the class reads and works with the message together before moving into the rest of their day. The message is also often integrated into activities and lessons later on in the day. Well-designed messages can anchor the day’s learning. Students look forward to seeing and discussing them each morning. Teachers rely on them to launch their day of teaching. Remember to end your morning message with a personal message of affection for your students. If they love you and know that you love them, they will move mountains for you!

VIDEOS OF CLASSROOMS WHO USE MORNING MEETING Morning Meeting using Sparkle as the activity Toe to toe game Practicing procedures Easy way to practice introducing ourselves, shaking hands, and greeting your friends.