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Morning Meeting
In
order to develop social skills and a classroom community, we will be
having a daily "Morning Meeting". This is a time when we
come together to learn, celebrate our classroom family, and cheer
one another on during learning activities.
Our
Morning Meetings will follow the same format each day. Providing a
predictable routine is one of the ways to develop a feeling of
safety for students in the beginning of the year.
We
begin by gathering on our rug and sitting in a circle. We choose a
greeting and each student greets the person next to them (or
whatever the greeting requires). To make remembering the steps to
greetings easier, I compiled them into a set of
greeting cards that I
laminated, hole punched, and put on a ring. I keep this with our
easel and other meeting materials.
In
the beginning of the year, we spend time doing a "normal" handshake
greeting. Students learn how to look the person they are speaking to
in the eye, speak clearly, and give a firm handshake. They also
learn how to politely ask a person's name if they have forgotten.
After students are comfortable with the "normal" greeting, we move
on to other greetings.
After
the greeting, we participate in an activity. I also have a ring of
activity cards that stay with our materials for easy access.
I don't stick to just those activities. Often the activity
reviews a grammar or math skill we are learning. We also do
trivia, Mad Libs, comprehension activities, and task cards.
However, the
activity should not take longer than 5 minutes. This is a great
opportunity for students to laugh with one another in a
non-threatening way.
After
the activity, I move from being a part of the circle to a chair so
that I can facilitate shared writing during our "Morning Meeting
Message". This is an interactive writing where we write together
about our day or school events. Students share writing
responsibilities and they also get to come up and lead us in reading
the message using a fun pointer! During this time I always
incorporate the grammar skill that our reading series is focusing on
for the week. We end with a read-aloud of a picture book that
focuses on whichever writing trait we are studying. This leads
naturally into writing, as students leave to practice the skill we
have just talked about during grammar and studying author's craft.
Here's our easel and the box that I sit on
(it holds all my bulletin board stuff inside!). You can see my bins
of "stuff" on the bottom of the easel. The table below gives more
information about my PM Meeting essentials- that's what you see on
the bottom of the easel.
This is one of my favorite times of the day
and my students love it too. It is a great way to build community
and work together as a group.
PM
Meeting Essentials
*Easel and
paper
I love my easel from
Teacher Direct!
*Markers in various colors to
make things stand out- smelly markers or the Sharpie markers
for chart paper work wonderfully!
*Fun pointers for
students to use as they read the message!
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Tubs with
supplies for different activities:
I store these
under my easel- see picture below!
*Soft ball (ball toss
greeting, "Pass the Chicken" activity)
*Items for "It looks like a...
but it's really a..." activity
*Picture books to use for
quick activities
*Student name cards for
various activities
*Small items (I use bells) for
"Stuff Greeting"
*Some type of word cards
(sight words, antonyms and synonyms, vocabulary, etc...) for
"Find Your Match" activity
*Sometimes I use the
comprehension beach balls to tie our activity in to our
reading
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Professional
Books:
*Morning
Meeting & Afternoon Wrap-up by Donna Whyte
*The
Morning Meeting Book by Roxann Kriete
*99
Greetings and Activities by Melissa Correa- Connelly
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*Here are some of our activities-
comprehension balls, Mad Libs, and trivia cards. These
are stored on the bottom of my easel. |
*More activities and mini-lesson
materials- comprehension wands, task cards to do as a group,
"I have, Who has" games, and other group activities to
review grammar, math, and reading skills. |
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