We have a great start to our day and it's called: Morning Meeting!

We have a great new start to our day and it's called Morning Meeting! During Morning Meeting, each student is greeted by name by a classmate. This is a way for us to build the important feelings of belonging and significance...and we often greet each other in a fun way (ask your student about our "Howdy" greeting...giggles all around the circle on those mornings). Every child needs to know that they are seen and they are significant in our classroom. The greeting is a small gesture that can help a child feel big.

During Morning Meeting, we also have a short time to share news and information from our lives that we'd like to celebrate or talk about. This is a way for us to get to know one another on a meaningful level. Sometimes, we do a "lightning share," where each child shares a small piece of information such as "one of my favorite books is..." This teaches children the importance of active listening, empathy, and connecting in conversations.

The activity is number three in the Morning Meeting lineup. This is a quick energizer that infuses fun into our morning and gears us up for the important academic day ahead. Ask your student about "Zoom." We've shaved our time down to 9 seconds. Pretty impressive, we know.

Last, students read a Morning Message that I write to them before school daily. This is a shared reading experience where I read the message aloud and then we read it together in a dynamic way. The message has an academic focus to transition us into the lesson after Morning Meeting. Sometimes, students collect data via the Morning Message by making tally charts or interacting with the message in some other way.

I'm looking forward to Open House, where I can share what a Morning Meeting feels like, looks like, and sounds like with you!