The way you start the day with your students can have a huge impact on the rest of the day. I have become a fan of morning greetings and morning meetings. After a bit of trial and error, I now love starting the day with an engaging classroom meeting. Today I’d like to share our morning routines. You will want to read to the end to find out how you can get your free morning meetings slides templates!
What makes a good morning meeting?
I have found morning meetings to be most effective if they include three components: a greeting, a share, and a review of the daily schedule. Read on to get ideas for all three of these valuable components.
Morning Greetings
Morning greetings are a great way to build classroom community right from the start! I love to provide a wide variety of options, but I have seen fewer choices work just as well. Morning greetings are a great way to provide students with choice from the minute they walk in the door. Some students will stay consistent with their greetings on a daily basis. Others will take a minute to ponder their choice each morning. You can click here to see a variety of options for morning greetings in my TPT store.
Another fun way to incorporate morning greetings into your classroom meetings is to have one student pick a greeting for the class. This is a rotating job in my classroom. I give students 30 seconds to greet their classmates using the “greeting of the day”. This is a quick way to make sure everyone in the class feels welcome.
Daily Themes for Morning Meeting Slides
Each morning, we start our meeting by counting the days of school. We clap the tens place and snap the ones place. Next, we go through the checklist to make sure everyone is ready for the day. Building a strong classroom community begins by being prepared for our day. After that, we are ready to share!
Every Monday, students have the opportunity to share and/or celebrate anything they would like. I hear mini-celebrations like, “I sharpened my pencils this morning.” We also share big things like, “I have a new baby sister.” Taking this time to learn more about what excites your students is a great way to build classroom community.
Tuesday’s morning meeting share involves students answering the question of the week. At the beginning of the year, I work with students to come up with a list of questions to ask the class. Most questions start with, “What is your favorite…” However, some are more creative like, “Where do you think water comes from?”
“Would you rather Wednesday” is a great way to get to know your students. Students share by saying what their choice is and why. I included five “Would you rather” questions in the free morning meeting slides below. There is also a template for you to make you own.
“Things for Thursday” is a student favorite. Students are invited to bring in an item they love and share it with the class. I have two rules for the items. First, it must fit in their backpack. Second, it must be parent-approved. If a child forgets to bring something from home, they tend to get very creative with what they share!
“Funny Friday” is my personal favorite share. Students may share a joke with the class. Students are allowed to keep joke books at school to use. They often share these with each other. It’s always fun to hear made up jokes as well!
Daily Schedule
The final activity of our morning meeting involves going over the daily schedule. This includes any schedule changes for the day as well as any upcoming events. It is important that students are prepared for what is coming up in their day, week, and near future.
Morning meetings are an important part of the day. They establish a positive teacher-student relationship right from the start each day. They also help you to assess students’ moods and address them with resources like a calm down bin or fidget, if needed. Keep reading to see how you can grab these morning meeting slides for free. I hope your students love them as much as mine do!
If you would like a copy of the morning meeting slides for your own classroom, you can get them for free by filling out the form below. The link to the slides will be sent straight to your inbox. All you have to do is make a copy, and you are ready to go! The Slides include all the daily themes along with five “Would you rather?” questions.
