Morning Meeting - Ideas and Activities to Keep Things Fresh

Do you do a morning meeting with your students? Whether you're looking to get started with a morning meeting for the first time, or trying to find ways to liven up what you already do, I've got some ideas that can help!

Morning meeting is a great way to start the day off on the right foot, make connections and have fun together. I have done morning meeting in some form or another for more than fifteen years - and I would never give it up! But I have learned a thing or two about how to make the most of this time. My two biggest tips? Keep it structured and change it up! I know those two things sound completely opposite of each other, but they're really not.

Keeping it structured means having the same general format to the meeting every day so students know what to expect. It doesn't matter what the components are - greeting, sharing, read aloud, calendar, activity, etc. What's important is that each morning meeting follows the same format. At the beginning of the year I post a "morning meeting agenda" that we review as soon as we come together on the rug. That way everyone knows what we'll be doing and when. I have four parts to my morning meeting: greeting, calendar, sharing and activity. You can find out more about each these parts and how they work in this post. (Click the image)

Now that we've got the structure set, we can change it up! That means add in new greetings, different activities and fun new ways to share. Things can get old fast and the last thing you want are students who are not engaged in the meeting time.  Here are the links to my posts about each part of my morning meeting. You'll find tips for making it successful and ideas you can use in your classroom right away!

I also do my calendar time during morning meeting. It's not the same old boring calendar activities, though! We do our calendar activities on the Smartboard and this gives me a chance to change things up throughout the year, as well as differentiate for my students. You can see how I do this in this post.

Morning meeting doesn't have to be hard to do - and it definitely doesn't have to be boring! Work with your students to come up with new greetings, fun activities and different ideas. Pretty soon morning meeting will be your favorite part of the day!