Morning Meetings Build Skills: Reading, Writing, Math and more…

Why Morning Meetings? Practice oral language skills. Practice listening skills. Time to share something special and possible connect with subject matter being taught. Incorporate the daily news. (ex. Election coming up…) Morning meetings is a great way to review past lessons and make connections to learning and the students real life. Making connections make s learning relevant and consequently the students retain the information more effectively.

Make it Work Morning meetings should last at least 10 minutes. Make students responsible for parts of the meeting – collecting data, recording data, changing dates, weather update, etc. Possibly lead an activity that is a routine. Circle time – assign spots on the floor a number and have students solve math problems to take them to a number on the floor. I Spy Reminders – recognize appropriate behavior be saying “I spy (student) sitting quietly, and waiting patiently.” Quiet Butterfly – flies and touches the students who are very quiet.

Management Taking turns: Chart for the week when students will share during morning meeting. Sharing wand / Talking stick / small stuffed toy: The student who has the item is allowed to speak, and then pass to the next student who would like to share something. 2 pennies for your thoughts: Students take 2 pennies from a jar, when the student makes a contribution to the morning meeting they drop the penny back in the jar. Collect any left over pennies when discussion is done. Are you Listening: Have students do something silly like pat your head if your listening. Have the letters for We Are Listening to put up a letter when they make this goal. Stretch: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes game, Pantomime, Silly movement songs.

Making Connections Greetings around the world: Write the greeting on a sentence strip and practice, use it for the week, or the month, and have students locate the country on a map and place a star. Attendance with a twist: Have students answer a simple question instead of having them respond “here” ask each student their answer to one question. Example – “We are studying Ocean animals, what is your favorite ocean animal?” News of the Day: Daily newspaper – complete the date, weather, and review information taught the day before, and goals for that day. This Day in History: History.com has today in history and connect to things that happened in the past, discuss them briefly.

Math Connections Taking surveys and Graph data like lunch count. Compare/contrast attendance how many girls to how many boys present, or present students to absent students. Temperature: Record the date, graph daily temperature for a week, and then compare the days or compare weeks. Calendar activities – connect place value, passage of time, odd and even, and understanding sets (week, weeks, months)

Language Arts Connections Who Can Find…? In Morning Message Use phonic skills, word recognition skills, syllables, or parts of speech. Spelling Stars Write a word using the phonics skill being taught and place it on the Morning Meeting Chart. Vocabulary Roundup Using word of the day one student reads the word, write the word and highlight specific traits for the word (blends, digraphs, suffix, etc.), draw a picture that represents the meaning, and use it in a sentence. The review the list at the end of the week. How Many Ways? Put an object in a bag that is not see through. Pass the bag around and have students use describing words to figure out what is in the bag. When everyone is done, guess what’s in the bag.

The End Motivating Messages: Motivational sayings, discuss the meaning and how to apply it to their day. Display the message for the day. Daily Goals: Have students write what they want their goal for the day to be and then share their goal and how they will achieve it for the day. One by One: Have students leave morning meeting by letting them answer a review question, and when answered correctly they can go back to their desk.