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A Teaching Blog by Jodi Southard

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Morning meeting

The Importance of Morning Meeting

August 16, 2020 by Aubree Malick Leave a Comment

Do you have a morning meeting routine in your classroom? When I started implementing morning meetings, I started off slow and added small pieces here and there. After many years of having a morning meeting in my first grade classroom, I’m sold! And so are my students! They look forward to our special time together in the mornings. 

What is a morning meeting?

Morning meetings are a great time to greet your students, have share time, and do some fun activities to start the day off on the right foot! While all meetings don’t have to look and feel exactly the same, the focus of a morning meeting is to help build classroom community and provide a safe environment for students to feel heard and supported. Morning meetings will quickly become the favorite part of your day and your students as well!

I think that it’s important to create consistency with your students. As teachers, we know that things come up and we might have to miss a day or two of your meeting. But in order for morning meetings to be most effective, they need to happen every day, first thing in the morning. Our meetings usually lasts 15-20 minutes and the framework of the morning meeting pretty much stays the same. Our format is mostly: Greeting, Question/Share, Activity, Phonics/Math Talk.

With anything new in the classroom, you will want to take a few days to introduce the idea of a meeting, what will happen and why this is a part of our day. I try to touch on each of these points so my students get in a groove for what to expect. We spend time practicing and reviewing the expectations, turn taking, and procedures. 

How to Have a Morning Meeting during Distance Learning

One of the struggles that a lot of teachers faced during distance learning was not being able to have that special meeting time with their students. And that might be the case again as we head back to school and some schools are remaining virtual. I knew that I needed to be able to create a resource that allowed teachers the opportunity to implement a virtual morning meeting. 

This Digital Morning Meeting resource is the perfect way to start the day whether you are in the classroom or doing distance learning. As we enter a new normal in our classrooms, trying to keep students 6 feet apart while on the carpet for a traditional meeting will be extremely difficult. This is especially hard for younger students. This Digital Morning Meeting allows you to project the meeting topics while students are safely in their designated spaces!

https://funinfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Digital-Morning-Meeting.mp4

Even if your morning meeting routine needs to look a little different this year, I encourage you to still make it a part of your day. Incorporating this special time in the morning can truly have an impact on your classroom culture and your students will come together as a community of learners. 

Filed Under: Back to School, Classroom Management Tagged With: Morning meeting

My Favorite Part of the School Day

October 3, 2015 by Jodi 8 Comments

Do you have a favorite part of your school day? 
Maybe I should say that my favorite part is teaching reading, writing, or math, but I wouldn’t be telling the complete truth.  Not that I don’t love it, but it still doesn’t beat my favorite part of the day…our Morning Meeting!
I have always done “calendar” time where we do our calendar, count money, practice on our number grid, read aloud from a chapter book, etc.  However, this year I wanted to revamp and really use this time as a Morning Meeting.
We start out in song.  I use the songs from my A Year of Songs packet to call my students over to the carpet.
Some mornings we sit with our partners, which we pick using my Partner Pairings.  (You can read more about it here.)  Other mornings, we sit in a circle or facing forward. 
I start off by asking if anyone has anything to share today.  Honestly, I rarely spent much time doing this before because it can be time consuming, but my goodness, you learn SO much about your kiddos!!!  I know which days dance practices and softball games are on.  I know what movies, T.V. shows, and songs my students like.  I know their favorite foods.  I cannot even express how important this time is in my classroom.  It not only allows me to connect with my students, but they learn so much about each other.  It allows them to see that everyone has similarities and differences.
Next, we have our calendar time.
I have a calendar person for the week.  This student changes the date, adds a coin to the money count, leads the class in number patterns on the number grid, and calls on students to come up with ways to get to our number.
The next part of our Morning Meeting is our Question of the Day.  These are from my Deep Thinking for Little Minds packet.  I printed and laminated these cards to keep on my easel.
To say I love these would be an understatement.  I absolutely love listening to my student’s answers for some of these questions.  Just to see how their imaginations and thought processes work is amazing!  I find myself grabbing a notebook all the time and writing down their funny or unique responses.  It also makes me realize how different children and adults are.  For the dream vacation question, I definitely would not be picking Laser Tag, Holiday World, French Lick Water Park, or Kings Island for a dream vacation.  Not that those aren’t great places, but I’m pretty sure I would be heading to Fiji or something 😉
Next, I write a message to my students.
I usually blame my mistakes on lack of coffee or sleep, and I have my students come up to fix the message.

You will be amazed at how much learning can take place during this time.  We discuss capitals, proper nouns, ending marks, sight words, letter formation, sentence structure, and so much more.
I also love to use our message to work on vocabulary development, when we replace “boring” words with exciting words.
The last part of our Morning Meeting is our read aloud time.   In years past, I used this time to read from a chapter book, but I moved that to right after recess.  Now, I use this time to bring in a read aloud with a purpose.  I started the year with “Character Education” type picture books. (The Invisible Boy, My Mouth is a Volcano, The Pout-Pout Fish, Mean Jean the Recess Queen, A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue, …)  We have also focused on particular authors during this time. (Kevin Henkes, Robert Munsch, Laura Numeroff, …)  For the month of October, we will be reading Halloween/Fall books.
I truly look forward to this time every day. When I sit down with my students and my cup of coffee, and we can just get to know each other.   
What is your favorite part of your school day?


Filed Under: Back to School, Classroom Management Tagged With: Morning meeting

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Definitely not my favorite of his costumes, but he Definitely not my favorite of his costumes, but he loves it, so that’s all that matters 🦴🎃
We will be completing our Halloween Challenge on F We will be completing our Halloween Challenge on Friday. It’s such a great way to make learning fun while working cooperatively.🎃
Check it out by following the link in my profile.
Thank you, Halloween!!🎃👻 Thank you, Halloween!!🎃👻
🌟Easy small group activity🌟 Give each studen 🌟Easy small group activity🌟
Give each student the vowels using foam or magnetic letters. Say a CVC word.  The students hold up the vowel to show the middle sound that they hear.
Super easy and effective💙
I could not be happier that Halloween falls on a S I could not be happier that Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, but that definitely does not mean that the kids will be calm this coming week🤪
If you can’t beat them, join them, right? We will be working on reading fluency using my Halloween Reading on the Move.
Check it out by following the link in my profile.🎃
I’ve definitely need some coffee to get through I’ve definitely need some coffee to get through this past week that I swear was actually 15 days long 😂 But, I’m officially done with my parent-teacher conferences✔️👏👏
We normally do a student pumpkin decorating contes We normally do a student pumpkin decorating contest at school, and the pumpkins are always AMAZING. Due to Covid, we had to cancel it this year, but each classroom created a pumpkin.
We finished ours today, and I actually think it turned out pretty cute🦁
At this point in the year, I am definitely feeling At this point in the year, I am definitely feeling like my soup of the day should be coffee.
I’m *almost* done with Parent-Teacher Conferences. Only 2 more left👏👏
How are you holding up? Do you need some coffee soup along with me?
 

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