19 Ideas For Your Morning Meeting

How do you start your morning each day? Do you walk into your classroom, drop your bags, and make a beeline for the copy machine so you can get your morning meeting work ready for your students? I have a better solution for you. You can use no prep, paperless Morning Meeting Slides. Or, you can have access to thousands of ready-to-print morning work activities with just the click of a button.

Join ETTC Premium and have morning meeting activities at your fingertips for the entire school year. Even better, you’ll have plenty of options that align directly with the skills you want your students to review.

Do you have a morning meeting every day?  How do you structure your meeting?  What do you discuss? Daily morning meetings are a great way to “check in” with your students.  They help to start the day off “on the right foot”.  Morning meetings can happen in a variety of ways… some talk about the schedule for the day, others review skills learned from previous lessons, and some allow for class discussions on certain topics. We polled our colleagues from our Fearless Facebook groups, asking how they run their morning meetings.  Here are some of their great ideas and suggestions…

Morning Meeting as a Discussion Circle

“We sit in a circle, I pull out the talking piece (some kind of object) and review the simple rules that are laminated, then I share something and kids take turns sharing. It might be related to a prompt or issues we need to address. I try to keep it within minutes and urge it to move quickly.” ~Katie A. “I started off my first year having circle time, where all the students answer a get-to-know-you question. Then as the year progressed, I would do daily check ins and ask if anyone had things they wanted to share to build our sense of community.  This upcoming year, I plan on doing some of the same things, but also including some phonological warm-up games so they’re still practicing their skills.” ~Erin F. “I do a modified one, with just a greeting and an activity. I also use that time to address anything we need to talk about, like a goal for the day or changes to the schedule that day.” ~Robin K.

“We always start with “Morning News” The kids can get their stories out and then I can share the schedule, and happenings for the day. I love starting my day like this.” ~Mary M. “I like to take this time to connect with my students and learn about one another. We start with a greeting, then move on to a question of the day. This is where we learn about likes, dislikes, and things we may have in common. Next, is a discussion and this can be about an issue that’s happening on the playground or in the classroom that needs to be addressed. It could also be a celebration.” ~Julie T.

 As Daily Skill Review

“We start out with a review, sign language, Heggerty, then move into the ELA skills. We add a lot of movement then they go to their seats.” ~Lola E. “Morning meeting is my favorite time of the day!  We do a greeting, discuss the events of the day and then an activity (usually Bingo or I Have… Who has….). This year I plan to add calendar and math problems.” ~Sandy A.

“I write a message making sure I’m using words most students can read on their own and it’s posted as soon as they walk in. There are usually simple errors such as capitals or missing punctuation that I ask students to look for and I try to use the phonics/HFW words we are currently working on. Try to tie in something social/emotional that could be relevant to what’s happening in class. And always end with a joke of the day.” ~Amanda S.

“We do a large variety of things including retelling favorite stories, showing what we made during our soft start, telling one thing they did over the weekend, sometimes we talk about the news if it relates to us and then there is the tell me what you can do well.” ~Marsha H-D. “I have my class review the class rules during each morning meeting. My student of the day helps to lead the reviewing of the rules. They love being the leader.” ~Sha W-R.

Morning Meeting as Schedule Preview

“We mainly discuss what is happening that day and focus on social-emotional growth activities.” ~Sharon T. “Hello Song to learn names, then look at our calendar and schedule, and finally the pledge and our class pledge.” ~Vicky G-J. “We do a check-in where each student comes to the smart board and moves their name behind the picture of the day. Then we do date, schedule changes and special activities, weather, songs (that go with the activities), naming the city, state, country, continent, and the planet, the menu for the day, days of school count, and end with the Pledge of Allegiance.” ~Joelle C-T.

“We greet one another, answer a morning “share question,” go over our calendar and sing the Days of the Week song. Then we read our morning message (daily agenda).” ~Hannah S. “I always asked a discussion question each morning and reviewed what we had on the agenda for the day. It was a great way to get warmed up and prep the kiddos for any schedule changes ahead of time.” ~Janessa F.

 As Calendar Time

“We sing a ‘good morning’ song and greet each other. We then do basically “calendar time”, I still think the kids need to know the days of the week, the months, etc. The students also count the number of days in school using a place value pocket chart. After that, we count the days with coins, we count quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies.” ~Tara U-G.

“We sing our days of the week and months of the year songs, count the days of school using straws, stickers, and numerals, discuss the weather/season/temperature outside, I select the daily helpers (2 a day), we put up our daily schedule and discuss the day’s activities, I do “housekeeping” where I go over any concerns or rules that need to be addressed, then I read a book or two usually themed for the day.”    ~Ashley B. “Calendar, Money counting, Story, Weather, Songs, Brain crunchers, Seasons, Clock practice, Counting the number of days in school in ones, tens, hundred.” ~Betsy D. “Calendar, the date written three different ways, poem of the week, spelling (phonics review)weather calendar, a bar graph of weather, the line graph of temperature, time from analog to digital, number of the day in four different ways with coins, number of the day with straws (hundreds, tens, ones), number of the day on a number line (odds black, evens red, fives with a blue dot, tens with a green box, twenty-fives with yellow star) then skip count on whatever today’s number falls (ex: day 20 skip count by 2s, 5s, and 10s), number talk for the number of the day, and word of the day.” ~Ariel M.

Introducing Paperless Morning Meeting Slides

What if you combine some of these amazing morning meeting ideas into one simple, no prep resource?!  Introducing our newest resource… PAPERLESS MORNING MEETING SLIDES!!  We have put together some of the wonderful things you do every day into an easy-to-use resource for morning meetings. Each of the 45 weeks included in the set follows the same daily routine:

• Math Mondays: students will practice a variety of math skills that cover all topics and get harder as the weeks go on
• Task Card Tuesdays: students will have the opportunity to practice writing skills by answering a variety of questions.
• Word Work Wednesdays: students will practice a variety of phonics and word work skills that get harder as the weeks go on
• Three Things Thursdays: students will list three things related to the given question or topic
• Feelings Fridays: students will have the ability to write down and/or discuss with classmates their response to a given question (centered on social-emotional learning)

Written by: Janessa FletcherAt Education to the Core, we exist to help our teachers build a stronger classroom as they connect with our community to find trusted, state-of-the-art resources designed by teachers for teachers. We aspire to be the world’s leading & most trusted community for educational resources for teachers. We improve the lives of every teacher and learner with the most comprehensive, reliable, and inclusive educational resources.If you enjoyed what we have to offer at ETTC, be sure to join our email list, so you won’t miss a beat. We are here to help with all your resource needs. Become a Premium Member of Education to the Core and receive immediate access to thousands of printable activities. For one small monthly or annual fee, everything ETTC can be at your fingertips all of the time.