Part 1 will give an overview of the four components of Morning Meeting and also my opinion of the positives to conducting Morning Meeting every day.
Morning Meeting is a part of Responsive Classroom. Morning Meeting is not necessarily a program, but a philosophy of how to start each and every school day. I had always wanted to do something like this, but could never find the time. I'm lucky that at my current school they dedicate the first 25-30 minutes each day to Morning Meeting in every grade (preschool - 8th grade).
Here is a book with many Morning Meeting ideas...
In my classroom, Morning Meeting starts after students unpack and attendance is taken. School starts at 8:00 so I aim to start it around 8:05. It lasts about 20-30 minutes depending on the day and our schedule. Students and teacher sit in a circle either in chairs or on the floor. I prefer the kids sitting on the floor especially since I teach 2nd grade.
The four components of Morning Meeting are: greeting, share, activity, and morning message. It is important to complete all four parts as they go together and also important to complete them in the correct order. The greeting gives everyone a chance to say hi to each other and gets the students pumped up. The share brings things down a notch and focuses on listening and speaking skills. The activity gets kids moving again and then morning message slows things down and gets kids focused before we start into the rest of our day.
Here are some huge positives to Morning Meeting:
- Morning Meeting is a positive way to start the day. Gets every student engaged and provides teachers a chance to take the temperature of the room. You can see whose a little tired, whose fired up, who might not be feeling well, etc. Getting this vital info about your students each day right away can help you make choices to make the day successful for all.
- Morning Meeting is empowering. Greeting starts off with students greeting each other by name. This gives kids a chance to feel welcomed to school and each student feels important.
- Share gives students an opportunity to practice listening and speaking skills. These skills are a part of standards, but also important work skills for the future.
- The activity focuses on curriculum but in a fun way - group activities, games, etc.
- Morning message also focuses on the academics and again provides each student with a chance to respond to a message or question.
- This eases everyone into the today and really gives a sense of classroom community. It takes build-up at the beginning of the year, but by the end of the year your kids can run it.
- It's a great way for your kids to get to know each other and find common interests. Share has been an important part of that. Through share some of my students found that they have similar interests with kids that they didn't think they had things in common with before. This is great for building new friendships and helping classroom community.
- Morning Meeting is a great way to address concerns and problems in the classroom. This past year students had some difficulty at recess playing with some of the equipment we had out there. I used Morning Meeting as an opportunity to share and discuss the issues and also work with the kids on how to come up with a good solution.
Stay tuned...next up - Morning Meeting Greeting...
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