Morning Meeting

How many of you use Morning Meeting in your classrooms? It is definitely the best part of my day and most of the time, if you ask my students, it is there favorite time as well. I have found that my students become better listeners, more respectful, and genuinely interested in each other. I always have the problem of my class being "too good of friends" - which means they love to talk to anyone and every one! I blame morning meeting on this problem. :)

If you walked into our classroom on any given morning, you would find my students sitting in what we call a "Morning Meeting Circle". While we are in our morning meeting circle, we have a greeting, share/question time, and read a morning message.

For example, our morning meeting this week is started off with the ball toss greeting. In this greeting, my students and I are standing in a circle. A student tosses a ball to someone in the circle, greets that person by saying, "Good morning, ____" and they greet them back by saying, "Good morning, ____". After our greeting, I ask a volunteer to read our morning message. We discuss any happenings of our day. A morning message is great, especially at the beginning of the year when everything is new! It gives them ease to have a peek at our day. After the message, I ask if anyone has something they would like to share. If a student shares something (it can be anything they want), there is a chance for up to 3 questions from anyone in the circle.

The last part of our morning meeting is the "News Book" (which actually comes from Jill Eggleton). I record something that someone has shared during morning meeting, write it down in the News Book, and the next day that student will draw a picture to match what they shared. See pictures below:

I have found that the News Book is a great re-read for students - especially struggling readers. When the News Book is full, it is put into our library and kids can read it as they please... and they love it!

How do you run Morning Meeting in your classroom? What would you do differently? I would love to hear how it looks in your room!

If you don't have The Morning Meeting Book by Roxann Kriete & Carol Davis, it is a must read when beginning morning meeting in your classroom!