International Dot Day is celebrated September 15th – ish. This day celebrates Peter Reynold’s book The Dot, which focuses on Growth Mindset. For ideas on how you can celebrate in your classroom, click HERE.
September Classroom Ideas – Football Room Transformation
Football season is upon us and what better way to celebrate than with a room transformation! Check out some fun academic ideas for a football day in your classroom >>> HERE.
September Resource Suggestions:
Here are 3 of my favorite resources to use during the month of September.
September Morning Meeting Activity Slides – These fun fall themed Morning Meeting Activity Slides will keep your students busy the whole month of September. Click HERE to grab them for your class and save time in your Morning Meeting Prep.
Football Word Problems – Story problems are a great way for students to practice a variety of math skills and build their problem solving abilities. These football themed word problems are great for independent practice, can be used as an Around the Room Activity, and more! Get these word problems HERE for your math students!
Dot Day Math Activities – Who doesn’t love candy? For these fun Dot Day math activities, students will be using Dot candy to estimate, count, and graph. You can get this in my TPT store >>> HERE.
September Grammar FREEBIE:
These fall-themed FREE Grammar Worksheets are perfect to use during the month of September! These grammar activities include practice using capitals and end marks, working with singular and plural nouns, and changing verb tenses. Click HERE to get your FREEBIE.
Summer is coming and today I’m excited to share some June classroom ideas with you! I know many of you might already be out of school, but I also know some schools go into June and some teachers also teach summer school so I hope you’ll find these ideas helpful.
June Book Suggestions:
Please note Amazon affiliate links are included in this post for your convenience. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Here are five fun books that you can share with your class during the month of June.
Let’s go to the beach! Well…not the real beach just yet! Take your class to the beach before the end of the school year or during summer school with this fun and easy transformation or theme day!
Here are a few activity ideas:
Sand Castle Math Geometry Activity – Either using Google Slides™ or drawing, students can create their own sand castle and beach scene using geometric shapes.
Directed Drawing on Art Hub for Kids – My class learned how to draw a sea turtle and they also have many more fun directed drawing lessons on their site or YouTube™ page.
Learn to Hula – There are many YouTube™ videos teaching kids how to hula. Your students could also write up their own “how to” directions afterwards.
Beach Writing Story Starters – Try out these story starters with your students…
-The waves came crashing down and then…
-I jumped on the surfboard and then…
-I was collecting seashells and I found…
June Resource Suggestions:
Here are 2 of my favorite resources to use during the month of June.
Summer Word Problems – Story problems are a great way for students to practice a variety of math skills and build their problem solving abilities. These summer themed word problems are great for independent practice, can be used as an Around the Room Activity, and more! Get these word problems HERE for your math students! (Digital and Print and Digital Bundle are also available in my store).
June Writing Prompt FREEBIE:
These summer-themed FREE Writing Prompts are perfect to use during the month of June! These writing prompts are a great writing warm-up, summer school activity, writing center, and more. Click HERE to get your FREEBIE.
Please note Amazon affiliate links are included in this post for your convenience. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Today I’ll be rounding up a variety of teaching ideas that you can use during the month of April. I will share some fun themed books, activities, and a FREEBIE that you can use with your class.
April Book Suggestions:
Here are five fun books that you can share with your class during the month of April.
One of my favorite activities during April is to do a math Easter egg hunt! I buy a ton of Easter eggs and hide different math problems in them. You could differentiate this for any grade level – single-digit addition and subtraction, double-digit addition and subtraction, multiplication, division, etc. Then, I hide the eggs around the room.
I figure out how many eggs each student should find depending on the number that I have and the kids have to hunt for their math problems. I give them a recording sheet to record their work and responses and off they go! They love this activity and it can be a great way to prep for a test!
April Resource Suggestions:
Here are 3 of my favorite resources to use during the month of April.
Easter Word Problems – Story problems are a great way for students to practice a variety of math skills and build their problem solving abilities. These Easter themed word problems are great for independent practice, can be used as an Around the Room Activity, and more! Get these word problems HERE for your math students! (Digital and Print and Digital Bundle are also available in my store).
Earth Day Writing Prompts – The perfect set of writing prompts to celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd! Click HERE to check them out!
April FREEBIE:
These spring-themed FREE Grammar Worksheets are perfect to use during the month of April! These printables are great for independent practice, review, test prep, or homework! Includes practice using capitals and end marks, working with singular and plural nouns, and changing verb tenses. Click HERE to get your FREEBIE.
I polled my class recently to see what their favorite Morning Meeting Activities were and I wanted to share them with you! I wasn’t surprised by the results as these are some of my favorites too! Check them out below and don’t miss the FREEBIE at the bottom.
Favorite Activity #1 – Story Starter
Story Starter is my classes favorite activity! For this activity, we work on a creative writing prompt. I have done this activity whole group, with a small group/partner, or independently. Everyone starts with the same writing prompt, but then they get to use their creativity and imagination and take the story wherever they want! My class literally cheers when I tell them that we’re doing this Morning Meeting Activity.
Favorite Activity #2 – Quick Draw
Quick draw is another fan favorite in my classroom! Quick draw is a great activity for days you are a little shorter on time. I put up a slide and students have 2 minutes to draw the set item or task on their white board. Then, students share their drawing. For sharing, students will sometimes just stand and share, share with a partner or group, or we’ll do a gallery walk. I often will do 2-4 quick draw prompts in an activity slot.
Favorite Activity #3 – Word Creator
Word Creator is another great ELA activity. Students have to look at the letters on the board and use them to create as many words as they can. We turn this into a little self-competition where their goal is to try to beat the number of words they created the previous time. The one kicker – the letters have to be touching! Students love trying to see how many words they can create.
Morning Meeting Activity Slides
To make life easier, I have already created sets of Morning Meeting Activity Slides for you in my TPT store. I have themed sets and generic sets that can be used all year long! Check out my Morning Meeting Activities >>> HERE.
Morning Meeting is one of my favorite times of the school day. I know many teacher can use it in many different ways! Recently I asked my Instagram audience what questions they have about Morning Meeting. Today I’ll be answering those questions here on the blog.
How do you set up Morning Meeting?
Morning Meeting has 4 different components – Greeting, Share, Activity, and Message. To help me plan out my meeting time, I use a planning page that you can grab here for FREE. When planning I consider what content we are covering and try to find activities and messages that will either provide an opportunity to review content or offer a chance to introduce or find out background knowledge on new content.
Morning Meeting is always the first 30 minutes of the school day. In a normal – not pandemic year – I would have students create a circle on the classroom rug. This year to be socially distanced students stay at their desks and more of the activities are independent where in a normal year the would be group activities.
What is the most valuable part of Morning Meeting?
This is a tough question to answer. Each part of Morning Meeting is important in it’s own way. Greeting is important because it gives each student a chance to feel welcome and seen in the classroom each day. Share is important because it provides opportunties for students to get to know each other and practice speaking and listening skills. Activity is important because it often gives kids a chance to move and can include get to know you games or content activities/games. Morning message is also important for content review and background knowledge. I really wouldn’t say that one is more valuable than the other. They each have their important aspects that they bring to the meeting.
How long does it usually last?
The meeting is supposed to last around 30 minutes give or take. Here is roughly the amount of time that each component takes (obviously depending on the day things might take longer or less time):
Greeting: 2- 5 minutes
Share: 5 – 10 minutes
Activity: 8-10 minutes
Morning Message: 5 minutes
How do you have time to fit it in?
Morning meeting is what we do at the very beginning of the day so I make sure to make time for it. That being said some days and years I have to cut components. For example, this year due to all of the constraints with COVID and how everything seems to take longer, I have cut out the Morning Message. So that saves a bit of time so I can make sure I fit it in each day. You can definitely shorten the components and run a 20 minute morning meeting – whatever works with your schedule.
How do you do Morning Meeting (circle style) while socially distancing?
So this year due to socially distancing and since I was virtual the first semester I don’t do the traditional circle for Morning Meeting. In a normal/typical year, I would have students sit in a circle on the rug, but I don’t have a rug space this year due to social distancing. If you do have a rug space and a small amount of kids you could potentially still do the circle, just make it a very spread out circle. This year students are in their seats for Morning Meeting. They are able to move around for greeting with their masks on, but still need to keep their distance.
What are you favorite greetings?
In a typical year, below are a few of my favorite greetings…
Ball Toss Greeting – Stand in a circle and have one person start with the ball. The person tosses the ball across the circle wishing good morning to who they passed it to. This continues until all students have had a turn. To add a challenge, we’ve used two or three balls. We start with one and add in more. When adding more, kids have to pass to the same student each time.
Handshake, high five, fist bump, elbow bump
Snowball Greeting – Hand each student a paper and have them write their first name on the paper. Then, once in the Morning Meeting circle have students crumple up their paper like a snowball. Next, they throw their “snowball” in the middle of the circle. They all grab one and that is who they greet. Can repeat a few times.
With our social distancing this year, here are a few greetings students can do without making physical contact and getting too close…
Mirror Greeting – Student completes an action (dance move, silly pose,etc) and says “Hello, my name is Jordan.” The other students mirror the action and say “Good morning Jordan.”
Silent Greeting – Students have to figure out a way to silently greet each other.
Foreign Language Greeting – Students greet each other using a foreign language. For example, Buenos dias Matt, Bonjour Cindy, etc
Air High Five or Air Fist Bump
FREE Morning Meeting Planning Page
To help you get started or organize your meetings, check out my digital or printable planning sheet and guide with activity ideas. Click below to grab your FREEBIE today.
Are you looking for ways to freshen up your Morning Meeting Activity time for virtual learning or in-person?? Then, you are in the right place! These activities below can be used in a virtual, in-person, or hybrid classroom. I have used these as activities during Morning Meeting, but you could also use them in different ways!
Let’s check them out…
Boggle
Boggle is not only fun, but also academic! Students have to create as many words as they can using the letters given on the board. The tricky part is that the letters must be touching! I always challenge my class to see if they can beat the number of words that they came up with the last time.
Noggle
Noggle is just like Boggle above, but with numbers! For this activity, students create as many number sentences as they can with the given numbers. They can use addition, subtraction, multiplication, and/or division.
Mystery Word/Make a Word
This is another great ELA activity. Students are given a mystery word with the letters scrambled up. They have two tasks. One – create as many words as they can with the letters. Two – figure out the mystery word.
Guess the Picture
For Guess the Picture, students are given a photo that is mainly covered up with only a tiny part showing. (I’ll be honest this is not the best example since the photo was dark. Normally you can see the small circle that is uncovered much better). They then have to guess what the picture is. You give 3-4 clues before revealing the hidden picture.
Finish the Doodle
This Morning Meeting Activity is great for your creative artists! My class loves to use their imagination with this one. Students are all shown a doodle (it can be honestly anything) and then they get to turn it into whatever they want! After students share in breakout rooms or in a small group or with a partner.
Scavenger Hunt
This activity works best for virtual students, but could possibly be done in person. For this activity, students are given an object or something to find in their house and then they come back and share it with the group.
This or That
This is a great Morning Meeting activity to get to know kids and get them up and moving. Students are given 2 different choices and they have to choose if they’d rather have this or that. Then, to show their choice they complete the exercise chosen. This day’s activity was done with breakfast foods, but you could do them with all sorts of topics.
Quick Draw
My kids love this activity! For Quick Draw, students have 2 minutes (you could change the time) to draw the item you tell them to. They love sharing these in breakout rooms or with a partner.
Mystery Bag
Mystery Bag is a super easy activity for Morning Meeting. You hide a mystery item in the bag and the kids have to guess the mystery item. I give clues to help them guess what I put in the bag. I often just use things I have around my classroom.
One of These Things is Not Like the Other
This is another favorite game! I love this game because you can have more than one correct answer and you can cover many different areas and categories. Students have to decide which item, number, or word doesn’t belong. When they make their decision, they also have to explain why. It’s always very interesting to see the different ways the kids look at things. For this activity, I’ve included numbers, words, and photos (and I try to include an academic focus when I can.)
Scattergories
I’ll be real about this – I have no idea if this is how you play Scattergories, but this is how we’ve been doing it in my classroom and it’s working for us. For my version, the students have 5 minutes to come up with as many words that begin with the chosen letter and fit the categories. Then, we see how many words people came up with and the kids share their responses.
Story Starter
This activity is a great way for students to be creative with their writing. Students begin their story with the story starter and can then take it wherever they want! I love seeing them use their imaginations and try to choose fun and silly story starters. Afterwards, students can share their writing in breakout rooms or with a group/partner.
Morning Meeting Slides
If you are interested in grabbing the Morning Meeting Activity Slides to use in your classroom, you can grab the October set > HERE. More monthly sets are coming soon!
To help make planning Morning Meeting easier, grab this FREE digital planning page. This planning page is in Google Slides™ so you can type your Morning Meeting plans right into the table. I’ve also included a little cheat sheet of a few of the activity ideas that I shared above. Grab this FREEBIE >>> HERE.
Morning Meeting has been a favorite part of my school day for the last 5 years. It is a wonderful way to ease students into the day, practice important life skills like a proper greeting and how to listen, and review content through games and activities.
I have written multiple blog posts on this topic over the years and wanted to share them with you in one spot so everything will be easy to find.
Morning Meeting Posts
Morning Meeting Introduction – This post introduces Morning Meeting and shares the positive benefits of using it in your classroom.
Greeting – While the greeting component is often the quickest part it still holds meaning. Greeting provides every child a chance of feeling welcomed into the classroom. Greetings can be more formal and can also be silly and fun. You’ll learn some of my favorites in this post.
Share – Share is one of my favorite parts of Morning Meeting. It is a great opportunity for building relationships and gives students a chance to practice listening and speaking skills. This post shares ways I use the share time in my classroom.
Activity – The activity is a great way to practice or review content through games and hands-on activities. This post shares a variety of activity ideas for different content areas.
Message – The message is a great way to activate prior knowledge and review past content. In this post I share tips and ideas for using the message component in your class.
Morning Meeting Remix – This post shares ideas about how I created a routine for Morning Meeting. I share how I set a theme to each day and then the components focused on that theme (phonics, math, vocabulary, etc).
FREE Morning Meeting Planner
Being the planner that I am, I found that I was needing something to organize my Morning Meetings to make them easier to use and remember from year to year. I created this planning page to help me stay on track and plan out my weekly meetings. This is a FREEBIE that you can sign up for HERE. In addition the planner, you’ll also get a cheat sheet with a few ideas for each of the Morning Meeting components. Click HERE for the digital version of the planning page.
Today I’m sharing with you Tip #2. Tip #2 is to allow the students to help plan things in your classroom. We do Morning Meeting in my classroom every day. Normally I plan out the four components for every meeting. In May, I like to have the students work together in groups to share some of their ideas for Morning Meeting. It might be some of their favorite greetings, share, activities, or messages or they can create their own. Then, when I sit down to plan, I pull ideas from their ideas. So it’s kind of like they’re helping plan Morning Meeting! It’s always fun for them to see whose greeting or share we’re doing…
See their idea sheets below…
Do you like to have the kids help plan class events? If so, write what you do in the comments section below…
The countdown is on. Only 18.5 days left after today! I’m linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Here’s what we were up to the first week of May…
I started a little, end of the year blog series. Every Wednesday for the month of May, I’ll be sharing a quick end-of-the-school-year tip. This week’s tip was about planning and To Do lists. Check it out – here…
Morning Message Tip – I like to have students respond to our Morning Message on sticky notes. I know they could just write on the board, but the sticky notes give them time to work on it at their seats, come up with their “own” answers, and lessens the chance of just copying an answer already up there. This also gives students room to show work if needed.
We started our last book study of the year this week – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The kids always love this book! Every day we read about 20 pages and every day they groan at the end because they want to read more! I love that this book is entertaining and captures their attention. To check their comprehension of the book, they do Charlie Check-Ins the next day. These are a part of my Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Book Study in my TPT Store. It’s a great way to quickly check comprehension throughout the book.
I love my room parents! They have come up with cute, unique things for my classroom all year long. The last theme they picked fits with Dr. Seuss’s book – Oh, The Places You’ll Go. It turned out so cute! I love the hanging hot air balloons!
I’m a huge country fan and we were able to go to David Nail’s country concert last weekend. I had seen him in AZ a few years ago so it was fun to see him play again.
Hope everyone has a good weekend! The countdown is on…we can make it!
I love using Morning Meeting in my classroom to start our day and have done a little remix to how I lay it out each week. Check out my Morning Meeting series for how to set it up here…
I still follow all four parts of Morning Meeting – Greeting, Share, Activity, and Morning Message. The part I’ve changed or mixed up is the focus area for those four parts. For the first half of the school year, Morning Meeting was academic, but a bit all over. Some weeks I covered a lot of math topics during the message and activity and some weeks a lot of reading or writing. I decided to set a routine in place to help make sure I cover all of the areas each week. I’m also now throwing in more content to try to maximize my time – since there is never enough time in the day.
Here’s my new schedule…
Monday – Math Monday
The activity and message fit around math topics. It could be review, it could be building background for new content. Either way – it’s all math!
Tuesday – Fluency and Phonics Fun
I’ve had a hard time fitting in fluency whole group, so now it is a part of activity on Tuesdays. We also discuss our phonics focus during the morning message and greeting.
Wednesday – More Math…
This day has been about fact fluency during the activity and review during the message.
Thursday – Vocabulary
Vocabulary is another area that I touch on, but haven’t given enough time. Now that vocabulary is our focus on Thursdays, I tailor our greeting, activity, and message to it. For example, when students greet each other they have to also use one of their weekly vocab words in a sentence. I’ve also found a ton of fun vocabulary games for them to play during the activity.
Friday – Fix It Friday
Another skill we always need to review is grammar and editing. On Friday, our morning message sentence always needs to be fixed. This gives us a chance to review editing skills and continue to add in new grammar skills as we go.
FREE Morning Meeting Planner
Being the planner that I am, I found that I was needing something to organize my Morning Meetings to make them easier to use and remember from year to year. I created this planning page to help me stay on track and plan out my weekly meetings. This is a FREEBIE that you can sign up for HERE. In addition the planner, you’ll also get a cheat sheet with a few ideas for each of the Morning Meeting components. Enjoy!
