How many of you hold a “Morning Meeting” with your class? I know many people do Calendar Math, but Morning Meeting is a little more than just that (although it could certainly be a portion of it!). I recently read a few books about running a Morning Meeting in the classroom from Responsive Classroom and I think it is a fabulous idea for ALL grade levels! Of course, I understand finding the time for it may be difficult. Let’s be honest. Finding time for ANYTHING is difficult with all of the pressure put on teachers right now. However, I believe that a teacher could cover quite a bit of information (as well as standards) by starting each day this way.
According to Responsive Classrooms, Morning Meetings should include:
- Greeting (each child)
- Sharing (information about themselves)
- Group Activity (whole-group)
- Morning Message (written, short note from teacher)
Stuck on what to do for each of these? Grab the books 80 Morning Meeting Ideas (there is one for K-2 and one for 3-6)! They are chock full of ideas (20 lessons for each section of the meeting, with ideas for adaptations as well) to make your Morning Meetings meaningful! I don’t know about you, but I love Professional Development books that are a fast read and quick to implement into my classroom….like, tomorrow! I get excited when I read good ideas and I want to do it NOW! Many of the ideas I find take a lot of prep work so they are difficult to start right away and the ideas stay on the back-burner, maybe never finding their way into my class. These ideas can be implemented right away! They are easy ideas with little prep work or materials needed.
Now, having said that the ideas can be implemented tomorrow, I will say that starting a morning meeting will take some work getting your kids in a routine. Maybe you just start doing a Morning Meeting a couple days a week until you can find more time or your kids get adjusted. Maybe it isn’t in the morning because your kids go to specials right away and then your uninterrupted block of Readers Workshop has to begin, according to your principal or district. Instead, it could be at the end of the day to sum up what they learned or make sure every child was addressed that day. However it works for you, these books will give you quick ways to make it happen!
Want to know more? Click here to see some morning meetings in action! You can also find samples from the book on this page, for K-2 or this page for 3-6. Try them out with your class to see if it will work for you!
If you would like to order a copy of your own, you can order from Amazon. The K-2 edition can be found {HERE} and the 3-5 edition can be found {HERE}. Each book is under $20, so they are great values!
Keep following my posts for more information about Morning Meetings, including adding Science ideas into your regular Morning Meeting! Let me know your thoughts and ideas! I can’t wait to hear from you!
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