Morning Meeting Friday Freebie

 I'm excited for the new school year! New ideas, new group, and a better grasp on a new teaching philosophy {Whole Brain Teaching}. I love all this change! We leave for Kuwait on Friday night for a week of set-up and meetings before classes begin on Sunday the 2nd. Only one week to set up my room - eek! BUT, in fairness, this is only about a THOUSAND times better than last year! Because of visa issues and a torn rotator cuff {Jeff is an energetic golfer haha} we could only arrive in Kuwait the day before school started. The day before! Now that - that! - was crazy. So I'm really looking forward to having some time to be calm and set up my room for this year.

One thing I am really looking forward to is implementing my Morning Meeting. I was looking for a way to help better build community among my students, and after seeing this video, I almost immediately started creating a simple Morning Meeting package to meet my needs.

I always thought Morning Meeting was a glorified calendar routine used in Kindergarten or Grade One classrooms as a way to help kids start each day fresh with a solid understanding of the steps to come next. This video deals with an older grade level, and it totally inspired me. Our Morning Meeting will look something like this:

1. Star Student leads class in Classroom Rules chant and gestures using a voice of choice.

2. Students greet one another in another language from those we've learned. I like this step because I teach in a bilingual school and gives students choice.

3. Star Student tells class how he/she is feeling with some "different" words using posters as reference. He/she then asks three friends "How are you feeling?"

4. Star chooses a question from the Question Jar, reads it aloud, answers for the class, and then asks three different friends to answer it. Questions include everything from "What's your favourite _____" to "If you met a monster/alien, what would you say?"

5. Students interact in a News sharing time led by our Star. I want the students to have some time to talk about life - either in class or at home - to help share feelings, and to gain a sense of empathy.

6. Last, since I'm using a clip chart in my room again, the Star will confer with me on three students that have been showing respect and following classroom rules to be the first to move their clip up for the day.

And so, since it's Friday and I just want to share this package with everyone, I'm linking up for my first ever

If you're interested, you can pick up my package HERE on Google Docs.

Enjoy and I'd love if you'll let me know what you think if you download - feedback and suggestions always welcome here!

- Amanda