Morning Meeting - Lessons By The Lake

Morning Meeting is my favorite part of every school day! No matter the schedule, I always manage to squeeze it in so I make sure we start the say with social, emotional connections before we launch into our academic learning. Hey, some days I can even connect the academic into it! (more on that later…) The best bonding, memorable, special moments I have with each of my classes happened during this time.

Responsive Classroom regards Morning Meeting as a purposeful way to:

set a tone for respect and engaged learning in a climate of trust
builds and enhances connections among students and between students and teachers
merges academic, social, and emotional learning
motivates students by addressing the human need to feel a sense of significance and belonging, and to have fun
through the repetition of many ordinary moments of respectful interaction, enables some extraordinary moments

{The Morning Meeting Book}

The four parts of Morning Meeting include (click for more details):

Greeting

Sharing

Activity

Message

When you intentionally plan this time, it can be magical. However, my first few years implementing morning meeting were also my first few years teaching, so my planning for it was not as strong as I wanted it to be. Most days I quickly grabbed my activity and greeting cards of the ring to pick what matched best! So in an effort to hold myself accountable and I am going to be sharing my plans every week that I will use with my kiddies, so check in on the blog to inspire little minds and little hearts together!

Here is the planning template I will use, enjoy it as a FREEBIE! Click either image below to download.