MORNING MEETINGS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
by Charlotte Hewson

This feature was first published in Journeys Winter 2019.

This article was written by communications writer Charlotte Hewson.

Morning meeting is one of many practices used in elementary school
 to develop social emotional skills. As part of the Responsive Classroom approach that aims to build a safe, joyful, and engaging learning environment, morning meetings help students feel known and cared for within their classroom. Morning meetings boost empathy and teamwork, prepare students for the day ahead, and support all aspects of learning— academic, emotional, and social. There are four components to a morning meeting:

GREETING
Students and teachers greet each other, ensuring every child is seen and heard.

SHARING
Students share something about themselves or their lives, and the rest of their peers listen, then ask follow-up questions or offer comments.

ACTIVITY
The group completes an activity that encourages teamwork while re-emphasizing social or academic skills.

MESSAGE
Students read a short message from their teacher, usually describing what is to come in the day ahead.

Let's take a look at some examples of how our elementary teachers incorporate these fun and purposeful practices into their morning meetings:

“A huge bonus and component of our morning meetings is that it is a time when our students practice and live the DSLOs of collaboration, cultural competence, communication, character, and of course content knowledge.”
—Ms. Gray, kindergarten teacher

ACTIVITY
"123 pop" is a great activity that we play. We stand in a circle and simply count around, and pop sits down. I sometimes pull in academic content, for example counting by tens or using the alphabet to sit down on a vowel. Morning meeting activities are fun and build social skills, while also enabling us to weave in academic content. 

SHARING
At the start of the school year, the sharing component of our morning meeting is about getting to know one another and making connections. Later in the year we may share ways that we have demonstrated kindness to others. Morning meeting includes developing skills of how to be a good listener, how to be a good speaker, how to share information, and how to connect with that information. It’s about building community and getting to know each other better. Sometimes you can also pull academic content into it. For example, we may share something learned from math yesterday, or something that we found challenging in class yesterday. The DSLOs and core values really come into play in morning meetings. 

GREETING
We like "hey there neighbor" which is a partner activity in which children face each other and greet one another using some actions and a song. It starts with a partner, then expands to a group of four, and then we try it as a whole class.


“It’s really important to have time in the morning to build community. Morning meeting provides an opportunity for children to build relationships with each other and interact in a comfortable space. I really value that time in the morning to establish relationships, gauge how children are feeling, and set
a positive tone for the day.”
—Ms. Burant, kindergarten teacher

GREETING
We like "hey there neighbor" which is a partner activity in which children face each other and greet one another using some actions and a song. It starts with a partner, then expands to a group of four, and then we try it as a whole class. Morning meeting presents opportunities for all students in the class to have a voice and agency in different capacities. While it is guided and structured, children have the opportunity to choose a certain greeting and determine what that might look like.


“During morning meeting, children learn to be stronger listeners, to problem solve, and to process feelings about life outside of school. They learn to interact with every other student in their class.”
—Ms. Bokaer, first grade teacher

GREETING
My students’ favorite greeting is the shoe greeting. We all put one shoe in the center of the circle. One by one the children choose a shoe, find out who it belongs to, and greet that person. That person, in turn, gets to choose a shoe, and so on, until we reach our lucky last person to be greeted!

ACTIVITY
We play team-building games like "coseeki" whereby one student leaves the room, and another is chosen as the "silent leader." The leader will quickly and silently change their movements, and the rest of the group follows suit. The person who went out has three guesses to figure out who the leader is. If the group is really working together, it can be tough to guess! We also play "pass the pulse" in which students work together to gently squeeze first one hand and then the next. We see how long it takes for the pulse to get around the circle, and then we try to beat that time. It takes a lot of focus!


“Starting the day with morning meeting helps students make friends and get ready to learn. It also gives a sneak peek of the academic content to come that day.”
—Ms. Angle, second grade teacher

GREETING
Our class does greetings in different languages, silent greetings, and fun and silly handshakes! Our class loves the ball roll greeting, where we roll a ball across the carpet to a friend and greet that person.

SHARING
One way in which we share during morning meeting is to have one person share a story while two others ask questions. This may be a funny story, or a tale about family or friends. At the start of the school year, we share the history of our names. This is written by parents and students together at home, and students bring this information to class to share with their peers.


“In our community, the benefits of morning meetings ground us in our purpose for spending time together each day. We take the time to acknowledge each member of our community by allowing opportunities to share and participate in ways that allows us each to meet our needs.”
—Ms. Burrows, third grade teacher

ACTIVITY
"Mind reader" is one of our favorite activities. There are three gestures and the goal is to read your partner's mind and do the same gesture after counting "1, 2, 3" and turning to face one another. The three gestures are pirate (hand over one eye), body builder (flexing both arm muscles) and hula dancer (hula dance). If you match your partner, you have successfully read each other’s minds!



"The skills you can teach during morning meeting are so explicit that students will then use and practice them throughout the rest of the day. Something as small as choosing the person to sit next to during morning meeting can lead to students being more thoughtful about who they are sitting next to during the rest of the days activities."
—Ms. Williams, third grade teacher

ACTIVITY
"Entourage" is a version of rock, paper, scissors. Two people play rock, paper, scissors, and the person who doesn't win the game joins the other person's team.
The winner moves to play with someone else, and again whoever loses the game joins the other player's team. Eventually, the activity ends up with two teams supporting one another and there’sone winner out of the whole class. This is a lesson about how to use kind and supportive language with others as the activity involves working on compliments and kind things to say to the person playing on your team.

SHARING
Sharing may include one person sharing a story with others asking questions, as developmentally we want our students to listen and think about others. Today students shared about collaboration and a time they have collaborated with others. Sharing is an important part of morning meeting and introduces the idea of being a good listener or showing interest in others.


“Morning meetings are an opportunity for children to connect, to acknowledge each other as people! They give a venue for building community by sharing similarities and valuing differences.”
—Ms. Christiansen, fourth grade teacher

ACTIVITY
This year my students love playing the activity, "going on a picnic" which challenges them to “find the rule” of what each player is allowed to bring on an imaginary picnic. Last year, students loved "fidget family," a silly story with sounds and movements. Another favorite is "guess the leader" which requires students to be keen observers of body language and eye contact.

SHARING
Whenever possible, I try to link the sharing component to the content of the day. Doing so offers a way for students to make a personal connection to the upcoming learning. It could be something as simple as, “Name your favorite healthy snack” during our nutrition unit, or, “Which animal adaptation do you find most interesting?” during our structure and function unit.


“Morning meeting reminds me daily to build and reinforce the classroom culture.When our classroom culture is strong and supportive, students collaborate more easily. They are willing to take the risks necessary for learning.”
—Ms. Sedro, fifth grade teacher

SHARING
Some sharing is designed to help us get to know each other better, such as, “How many pets live in your household?” or “If you could have one superpower, what would you choose and why would you choose it?”

Some sharing is problem-solving, such as, “Birthday people get to use the yoga ball as their chair on the day that we celebrate their birthday. However, we have two days this year when we will be celebrating two birthdays. How should we handle this? Be ready to share your opinion, or use your talk moves to build on someone else’s idea.”

Some sharing is a kick-starter for what we will be learning. For example, as we start our migration unit, one-day sharing might involve sharing the places your ancestors migrated from. Another example is, “We have our end-of-unit math test today. Based on what you learned about yourself from the review test, what is one thing you are going to make a point to do on today’s test?”
 

  • activity
  • elementary school
  • greeting
  • message
  • morning meetings
  • responsive classroom
  • sharing
  • social emotional

 

 

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