Are you looking for an easy, quick way to build community in your classroom? Today we are going to talk about my favorite way to do this and it is through using something called morning meetings.
Prefer to watch instead of read? You can watch the full video here.
Table of Contents
Morning Meetings Take Too Long
Now you might be thinking, I’ve heard of morning meetings before, but honestly Heather, I do not have enough time to get through everything that I need to get through, much less add on an additional thing like morning meetings.
I would say I completely understand. It actually wasn’t until my fifth year of teaching that I decided to add on morning meetings because I just honestly couldn’t get through everything and I could not add on another thing. But as soon as I added morning meetings into play, I really saw the value and the sense of classroom community building that it did. And after that I was all in.
How I Keep Morning Meetings Short
Yes, morning meetings can take a long time. They can go long just like a session of show and tell. Which can make us as teachers think we should just skip them instead.
My solution to a long morning meeting is that I like to make sure my morning meetings are kept to 10 to 15 minutes. Sometimes I have to set a timer. I’ll set a timer for the amount of time that we have and when the timer goes off, the meeting is done even if we didn’t get to everything.
How to Get it ALL In
As the year progresses you’ll start to get faster and better at it. Of course, as if it’s new for students, it’s going to take a long time, especially the sharing aspect. But as the year progresses, the students get a lot quicker at it and you can actually get through a lot in those 10 to 15 minutes.
The 5 Components of My Morning Meeting
I like to include five quick, easy components in my morning meeting.
These five things consist of:
- A greeting
- a group activity / a game
- students sharing
- morning message
- a closing
1. Greeting
Alright, so first off, we always start with some kind of a greeting. This helps students to get to know each other’s names.
This should be the quickest part. Students walk around, you give them a fun way to greet each other, and they say good morning to each other for about 30 seconds or so.
2. Group Activity or Game
After they’ve done their greeting, we all sit down and we talk about what our group activity or game is going to be for that day.
Use Morning Slides or a Weekly Routine
I usually have morning slides where I’ve already come up with what we’re going to do for the week.
Sometimes, to make it even easier on myself, on Mondays we always play the same game, every Tuesday we play a different game, and so on for the whole week. Then, as the year goes on, I trade activities out.
Simple Activity Ideas
Some ideas are things like a name game or some of the self-control games that I shared in this video. These are great activities to practice skills that your students are needing in a short, timely manner.
3. Morning Message
After I’ve done my group activity or game, we go into some kind of a morning message.
The Letter Version
You might have seen messages that look like a letter to the students about what you’re doing that day. Sometimes teachers incorporate sounding out different words or a little activity in the letter.
My Version
Personally, that got to be too much for me. I did not have time to write my students a letter every single morning.
So instead, I moved into more of an educational slide connected to something we learned the week before.
Examples of My Morning Message
- If we’ve been practicing adding, I might throw up a slide where students are adding, then we tell each other the answer, go through it really fast, and move on.
- You can also do a question of the day for students to discuss, which gets them orally communicating with one another.
Basically, you’re practicing an academic skill in a very short way in your morning message.
4. Sharing
By this point we’re probably about five minutes in, so now we have about five to ten minutes left. This is where we go into the sharing aspect.
Sharing is really important, but it’s also the part that can take the longest amount of time.
Set a Time Limit Per Student
I take the amount of time we have left and divide it by the number of students, subtract a few seconds, and come up with about how long students are allowed to talk for, especially in the beginning of the year.
I tell them they only have about that long to share. I set a timer and when the timer goes off we move onto the next student. Students learn to talk fast or share something short.
What Students Share
Students can share positive things that are happening. Sometimes they share struggles or harder things in their life, but it gives them time to talk with their classmates.
And if you’ve ever been in a kindergarten classroom with students sharing, you know there are moments where they will talk on and on about something that doesn’t even have to do with anything. So you have to cut them off or you will never get to the next person.
5. Closing
After we share, we go into a closing.
I like to do a short class song or a class cheer or something like that. We close up our meeting and then we go on with the rest of our day.
Why Morning Meetings Work
I love morning meetings because they help build a consistent routine where we get together as a whole class and as a whole community, and it helps build those family-like friendships within our classroom community.
Final Thoughts on Morning Meetings
Morning meetings can take a long time, especially when they’re new, but keeping them to 10 to 15 minutes makes them doable. With a simple structure (greeting, group activity or game, morning message, sharing, and a closing), you can build classroom community without it taking over your morning.
I hope that you will give morning meetings a try. If you need ideas for any of the things I explained, feel free to drop me a comment.
Save These Morning Meeting Tips
Save this post so you can come back to these morning meeting ideas whenever yours start creeping past the 15-minute mark. Just pin it to one of your favorite teaching boards on Pinterest. That way, when you need simple, structured ways to keep your morning meeting meaningful and efficient, the plan is right there waiting for you.
