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Keeping Morning Meeting Greetings Fresh and Fun  Responsive Classroom

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Today I'm sharing 13 of ideas for morning meeting greetings! Morning meeting is one of my favorite things in the classroom. I love that we all come together to start our day. I love that we cover tons of standards in fun, hands on, engaging ways! We get to talk and share our lives. The sharing is a powerful way to connect to your students and build those all important relationships. People ask me about classroom management all of the time. My first question to them: Do you do morning meeting????? Morning meeting is an essential piece to classroom management. Pretty much, morning meeting is everything. BAM!

People, if you're not doing morning meeting, stop it. Start tomorrow. For serious. Mr. Greg says.

The first part of morning meeting is the greeting....so....here are some of our favorite greetings!
(TIP: For each greeting, I describe the greeting and then give you links to a blog post and YouTube video featuring that greeting. Those links will give more details for each of the morning meeting greetings!)
Put each child's name and photograph on an index card. Place them face down on a chair/stool, etc. Students take turns picking a card, they must say the name on the card, find that person and greet them. This is a great greeting for the beginning of the year!

Write student's names on pieces of paper (or have them write their name). Crumple the paper into a snowball. Instruct and model how to throw SOFTLY. Teacher says "SNOWBALL FIGHT" and students toss their snowballs. Everyone picks up a snowball, reads the name and greets that person!

(This greeting can be used with any skill or concept! Just change what your write on the paper!)

Simple greeting. Students greet the person sitting next to them and they give them a fist bump. You can see the fist bump in action in this morning meeting video.

This is a great way to integrate science into the morning meeting.

(Click the picture for a detailed blog post about this greeting)

Program thermometers with red (hot) and blue (cold). When students greet each other, they say "Shew, it's hot.....(say student's name)." Or BRRR It's cold....."

Instead of saying Good morning! Student's say "French Fries....(say student's name).

"French Fries, Dogpound!"

And we wiggle our fingers at each other (french fries)! Hello giggles and laughter!

A movement filled greeting where students are greeted and then they get to hit the dance floor (or jump on the trampoline!) We play music and each student gets greeted and then they get show off their dance moves!

(Click to see a detailed blog post about this greeting)

We have this greeting written on chart paper for us to read.

We read/scream/yell the chant and greet a friend. Then we turn around and sit down! We do this two or three times so everyone gets several greetings.

This is a simple and fun way to review sight words (or any skill!)

Program labels (regular ol' address labels) with sight words. (You can even analyze your data and see which words your kiddos need more help with....look at us analyzing data....)

Place a label on each student.

When students greet one another, they greet each other by SIGHT WORD instead of their name!

This greeting is very much like the sight word greeting. You program labels with numbers. Students greet each other by saying the number instead of the name. See...academic standards and content in morning meeting. BAM!

(Click the picture to see a detailed post about this greeting)

"Say your name and when you do, we will say it back to you!"

Go around the circle and everyone chants and the student says their name and everyone says their name back to them!

Click here for a detailed post about this greeting!

"We are here! We are here!" It's an awesome day because (student's name) is here!"

The student goes around the circle and gives each person a high five!

This is a movement filled greeting and if you're not careful, some serious exercise.

Each child gets a turn. They say "Good Morning! My name is..." and then they do an action (jumping jacks, run in place, clap, etc) and whatever they do, everyone else must follow the leader and do the same action! (Just wait until they start doing pushups...and yes, the teacher must follow the leader too...)

Click here to read a detailed blog post about this greeting1

This one is so much fun and is one of our favorite morning meeting greetings. But...you must be strong. And brave. And courageous.

Students remove one shoe and place all of the shoes in a pile. Teacher says go and students grab a shoe. They find the owner of the shoe and greet them!

(Click here to read a detailed post about this greeting)

I love baseball. It's the great American past time. And you can get yummy food at the baseball game! So we get to play baseball with this morning meeting greeting!

Students choose a card. The cards say single, double, triple or grand slam. A single is 1 person. A double is 2, a triple is 3 and a grand slam is 4.

If a student gets a grand slam, they count 4 people and greet the person. If they got a single, they would count 1 person and greet that friend!

(Click the picture to see a detailed post about this greeting and get your free baseball greeting cards)

You can also see some examples of our entire morning meeting and find more morning meeting greetings by clicking on the links below!

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Today I'm sharing 13 of ideas for morning meeting greetings! Morning meeting is one of my favorite things in the classroom. I love that we all come together to start our day. I love that we cover tons of standards in fun, hands on, engaging ways! We get to talk and share our lives.

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Connecting morning meetings to ELA

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On Friday mornings, I ask students to share something that they enjoyed or liked that week in school. I tell them that they cannot just say lunch or recess, but something specific. I have gotten responses like: the story we are reading in ELA, a math game we have played, spending time together, etc.  

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On Friday mornings, I ask students to share something that they enjoyed or liked that week in school. I tell them that they cannot just say lunch or recess, but something specific. I have gotten responses like: the story we are reading in ELA, a math game we have played, spending time together, etc.  

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Responsive Classroom Morning Meeting is an engaging way to start each day, build a strong sense of community, and set children up for success socially and academically. Each morning, students and teachers gather together in a circle for twenty to thirty minutes and interact with one another during four purposeful components:

1. Greeting: Students and teachers greet one other by name.

2. Sharing: Students share information about important events in their lives. Listeners often offer empathetic comments or ask clarifying questions.

3. Group Activity: Everyone participates in a brief, lively activity that fosters group cohesion and helps students practice social and academic skills (for example, reciting a poem, dancing, singing, or playing a game).

4. Morning Message: Students read and interact with a short message written by their teacher. The message is crafted to help students focus on the work they'll do in school that day.

For more on the key principles and practices behind Responsive Classroom, visit the About Responsive Classroom section of our website! We also have dozens of articles on Morning Meeting, including:

Keeping Morning Meeting Greetings Fresh and Fun - After doing many Morning Meetings, teachers often wonder how to keep the sense of comfortable routine while also varying the meetings enough to keep students (and adults) interested and engaged.

The Power of Morning Meeting - The earnest fourth grade girl straightened up tall and looked around the circle, drew a deep breath and began: "Our greeting today will go like this. First you say your name, then you say when you would like to have lived. Then we'll all greet you back by saying 'Hello' and your name. I'll go first so you can see how it's done." I noticed her hands folding and unfolding in her lap-perhaps she was a bit nervous-but her eyes sparkled.

Morning Meeting is for Everyone - Welcome to Morning Meeting in my full inclusion classroom. Twenty-one first graders sit in a large circle on a brightly colored rug. I'm in a small rocking chair, my hand lightly touching one child's back. Another adult sits behind a child, supporting him as he sits with his legs, encased in blue braces, stretched out. Wiggling beside him, another child sits on a sissel seat that encourages balance and provides tactile input.

See more Morning Meeting resources in our store, or check out our Morning Meeting for Beginners board on Pinterest!

Tags: Getting Started with RC

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What Is Morning Meeting? | Responsive Classroom

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Responsive Classroom Morning Meeting is an engaging way to start each day, build a strong sense of community, and set children up for success socially and academically.

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The best thing that has happened to me in my career so far has been Responsive Classroom. I was highly skeptical about its effectiveness at first, because it was so different from the clip chart systems, points systems, rewards systems, etc. that I used in my first few years of teaching. Once I gave it a chance and gave it my all, it completely transformed my philosophy as a teacher.

One of the main focuses of Responsive Classroom is building cooperative, respectful, trusting, and empathetic relationships. When these relationships are formed, and students intrinsically want to do the right thing for the good of the classroom and school community, behavior issues practically disappear. Children from all backgrounds, with a vast range of emotional, physical, and academic needs come together as a successful community of learners.

One of the key ingredients to building a successful community is the Morning Meeting. The Responsive Classroom model consists of four parts; A greeting, an opportunity to share, an activity, and a morning message from the teacher. Here's a handy dandy little visual to help you remember each step! Save it and print it out to keep nearby as you are getting used to the structure of Morning Meetings!

This structure provides important social experiences, rather than an academic-focused morning meeting. That's not to say it can't have any academics.... We make a lot of connections to our content during share time, and I almost always incorporate phonics and writing convention skills in the morning message. Mostly though, it is meant to be a safe social time of the day where students feel recognized and valued. It should be around 20 minutes, although I have squeezed them into 15 minutes in the past and was still able to hold meaningful, powerful Morning Meetings.

I usually plan for the same Morning Meeting to be held for a week, then each week the meeting changes. When I say it "changes" I mean the particular ways of greeting, sharing, and participating in activities change; the structure is always the same. Predictable, safe, and a perfect way to transition from home to school every day.

Sometimes my Morning Meetings have a theme, sometimes they are more random, but they are always built around a particular character trait or social skill that my students are working on or need a refresher on. Here's an example of a Morning Meeting I would use when my students need some focus on self control-

I used a Promethean Board in my old school (I'm moving this year!), so most of my Morning Meetings agendas and messages were up on the Promethean.

Greetings provide children a sense of recognition and belonging. This greeting, Roll the Ball, is just what it sounds like. ;) Students sit in a circle and roll the ball to someone across the circle from them, greeting them by name (A very important detail to remember! Using names makes everyone feel valued!).

The share time gives students an opportunity to share news or information, and then respond to each other in a meaningful and respectful way. It develops their skills of communication. For this particular share activity, Lightning Round, I would give a (usually content related) topic for the students to think about, such as "Share what your favorite place in your community is!" Then one person would start the "lightning round" of sharing by saying their answer as fast as they can, then each person around the circle shares their quick answer until all have shared. Sometimes I get a timer out to really make them think quickly! Afterwards, I would ask a few students to share what someone else's answer was and tell about a connection to that person, to ensure that they are really listening to each other and learning about each other.

The activity portion of the Morning Meeting builds a positive class culture by encourage inclusion, participation from all, and cooperation. And most importantly- it should be FUN! The Laughing Feather is so much fun, and a fantastic way to show what self control really means. You simply take a feather, and throw it up into the air. As it is floating down, the students laugh and laugh their heads off. The moment the feather touches the ground, they have to become silent and perfectly still. When repeated a few times, they really get an understanding of how it feels to be out of control, and in control.

The morning message for the day tells students a little about what they can expect, and it eases the transition into the day. The example I've posted incorporates a particular word focus that the students would be working on: contractions. I would have them identify and circle the contractions in the morning message, and tell or write which two words make up each contraction. I also would have students think, pair, share to summarize the message to ensure they are really reading/listening and comprehending what is stated in the message.

At the end of the meeting, before moving on to the next part of our day, we would have a brief discussion about how we used self control in each part of our morning meeting, and we would connect those thoughts to how the skill of using self control can help us throughout the day at school.

These meetings are just a lovely way to start the day, and they help students to build the character traits and social skills needed in order to be members of a well functioning community of learners.

On my never-ending To Do list, I plan to put my many morning meeting ideas for different greetings, shares, and activities into a format that I can share with others.

**Update!!! Check out the comprehensive resource below that makes planning for Morning Meetings so easy. With 20 greetings, 20 share structures, 20 activities, and 6 morning message templates, you will be good to go!

Morning Meeting Resources

You can also find lots of good stuff on the Responsive Classroom website and youtube channel, and Ihighly recommend the following books from Responsive Classroom:

If you have been considering giving RC Morning Meetings a try, go for it! You won't ever look back, I guarantee it! =)

One more thing! It's not recommended that you do a full out Morning Meeting right away. Here's a good article explaining how and why to take it slow in the first weeks of school, and piece by piece build up to a full morning meeting. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/blog/take-it-slow-morning-meeting

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Building Relationships with Morning Meetings

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The best thing that has happened to me in my career so far has been Responsive Classroom. I was highly skeptical about its effectiveness at first, because it was so different from the clip chart systems, points systems, rewards systems, etc. that I used in my first few years of teaching.

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Happy summer Monday, everyone! (Hopefully, for everyone... and for those of you still waiting for that last day... the end is in sight!) This is the last part in my series on Morning Meeting.

Do you do a sharing time with your students? I admit. I had a love-hate relationship with sharing during morning meeting. On the one hand I know how important it is.

It helps students (and teachers!) to get to know each other.

It provides opportunities to practice listening and speaking skills.

But.... Sometimes it just took so loooooong for everyone to share. And my kiddos just weren't listening - they were focused on what THEY were going to say... or how what the person was sharing connected to THEM... or they were looking around the classroom thinking about anything except what was being said....

Another confession - I know my students got bored listening to what everyone did over the weekend. Every Monday for Weekend News. It began to be the same thing over and over. Johnny played video games. Ryan watched tv.

Sharing became LAST on our list of things we enjoyed about Morning Meeting and FIRST on the list of things to go by the wayside when we didn't have time in our day.

But.... the teacher guilt set in. I knew that sharing was an important part of building relationships with my students. Sharing was window into what went on outside of school and I just did not want to give that up. But something had to change. I started to think about what I REALLY wanted from our sharing time.

- Sharing during Morning Meeting (or any time during the day) needs to be purposeful.

- It needs to be structured.

- It needs to be engaging.

I came up with these tips:

The longer and more drawn out sharing time is, the faster kids are going to lose focus. Set a timer, play a song, designate a topic - anything to keep things structured and purposeful. I share some ideas how to do this later in this post.﻿

This is KEY! Find a way to get everyone involved. Share in partners or with a small group. Ask questions, make comments. ﻿

Don't keep doing haring the same way all the time - especially if it's not working! Here are some ideas you can try to spice up your sharing time.﻿

Whether you share with your students everyday, once a week or just once in a while, try some of these ideas to put a fresh -- into your sharing time.

Weekend News: go around the circle and give everyone a turn to greet the person next to them with, Good morning Evelyn (or whoever). What's the news?" And yes, I do let students pass - especially at the beginning. For some students, sharing in front of everyone is just too much. And for some students, their weekend events may not be ones they want to share. Trust me, after a few weeks everyone starts to share.

Soon after Weekend News has begun, we add a new piece - making comments and asking questions. (We've already made anchor charts for how to be a good listener and speaker and modeled these behaviors. This is the next step.) We talk about asking questions first. What makes a good question? What more do you want to know? I listen to the questions asked and use those for quick mini-lessons. I once had a group of kids who just could not get away from questions like, "What time did you see the movie?" "What color were the blocks?" We make an anchor chart of question stems and refer to it when someone can't think of a question. After we're good at asking questions, we move on to making comments. Same idea... same procedure. We talk about making sure your comment does not have "I" in it. We want to focus on what the person has shared.

(Note: I do this all in a circle with everyone taking a turn sharing something - ONE thing :-) - and the person next to them asking a question or making a comment. We can usually get around the circle in about 5 minutes once we've done it for a while. But just like anything.... modeling is important!)

And what about those kiddos who just don't know how to be concise? Those students whose stories seem to go on and on and on....? Timers can work. So can limits on the number of sentences. I just came across a fantastic idea from Raegan Tunstall that she calls Bear Share. It's the perfect way to not only keep those stories and sharings manageable, but gives students the oral practice they need to understand written formats. Topic sentences, 3 details, closing sentence... perfect! (You can find the link HERE.)

"5 Little Words" is another way to keep the stories from getting to drawn out. Students can only use 5 words to share their weekend events (or whatever number you choose.) For example, "camping, rain, muddy, cold, awful!"

Need something a little different? How about "Give Me 5!" Call on three students to answer each of the following: 1) good news 2.) compliment someone 3.)something you're thankful for in the past 24 hours 4.) joke or something funny 5.) a question of your choice for everyone to answer.

Question of the Day: Write it the whiteboard. Pick from a bunch in a jar. "What's your favorite ____?" "What animal would you like for a pet?" "Do you think we should go outside even though it is snowing?" Do some "Would you rather...?" This is a quick way to share. We go around the circle, everyone responds. Boom! - 2 minutes tops. Try tying the question into what you're studying - writing, reading, science... anything!

Topics: How about a different topic for each month? The first couple months can be share something you're good at, something you like to do... (you decide if bringing something in is ok, or if it should just be talking about it.) Tell about your family, traditions, great days in the snow/rain/fall... the possibilities are endless. Involve your students in generating the topics and not only will they be more engaged and interested in sharing, but they'll be empowered and you'll find out what THEY really want to know.

For this kind of sharing we have a sign-up sheet. 3 students sign up for each day - and I only plan to do it 2-3 times a week. I had to be realistic - everyday just was not working for me. By the end of the month everyone who wants to share has had the chance. And oftentimes kids who didn't want to sign up to share at first would sign up towards the end after seeing their classmates share.

I also have a couple of favorites from Responsive Classroom that I like to incorporate.

"Maitre-d" is a fun way to keep the groupings changing. Have one person call out "Party of 3!" (or whatever number you want). Students make groups of that number and share whatever is decided (weekend news, answer a question, etc.) Call out a new party (you can use a new sharing topic or the same one) and make new groups. Easy and fun!

Another fun one is "Mill to Music." Put on a song, have students move around, and when the music stops they share with someone nearby. Do a few rounds, then return to the whole group and ask a few students to share what others said.

See? Sharing doesn't have to be filled with long and drawn out stories, blank expressions and forgetful students. Change it up, keep it fresh and do what works for you!

If you're looking for ideas for other parts of morning meeting - take a peek at my other posts HERE.

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Happy summer Monday, everyone! (Hopefully, for everyone... and for those of you still waiting for that last day... the end is in sight!) This is the last part in my series on Morning Meeting. Do you do a sharing time with your students? I admit. I had a love-hate relationship with sharing during morning meeting.

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Happy Saturday, teacher friends! It is sooo nice to have a long weekend after the first 8 days of school. Eight very HOT and HUMID days of school. In a classroom with 17 second graders. And no air conditioning. In what is truly the hottest room in the building. But I digress...

Do you do a morning meeting with your students? Is there a time when everyone gets together - even if it's not in the morning - and says hello, shares important things and just generally builds community? I have a morning meeting time EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. And I - and my students - wouldn't miss it for the world. Morning meeting is how we get to know each other, how we share important things in our school and home lives, and how we learn to work together and appreciate each other. You can read a little more about my morning meeting in general {HERE.}

This blog series is going to focus on each part of my morning meeting in deeper detail. Every morning meeting includes four parts:

In this post, I'm going to share my tips and tricks and fun idea for greetings.

The greeting is how we start our meeting time. Everyone sits in a circle and we greet each other in a positive and cheerful way. On the very first day of school, we talk about how nice to is to be greeted by someone. How does it feel when someone smiles and says, "Hi, Camden!" It makes us smile, it makes the person feel special - and that's what we want to accomplish! But what's the best way to greet someone? I go around the circle and greet students to model this - some I greet with a cheerful voice, looking right at them... others I greet quietly, with a limp handshake and averting my eye. My students can easily create a list of the positive characteristics of the "good" greeting! We work on modeling each of these things at the beginning of the year.

Look directly at the person. This seems easy, but many kiddos tend to look over, around, above - anywhere except AT the person they are greeting. And making eye contact can be hard, especially if students are not used to it. We talk about how it feels when someone talks to us, but isn't looking at us. And we model the incorrect and correct way to make eye contact.

The greeting isn't going to be meaningful if you can't hear or understand what the person is saying! We talk about the importance of speaking clearly (no marble mouth!) and loud enough. Again, for some students, this can be difficult. Practice makes perfect! We also talk about using a cheerful voice. No one wants to be greeted like it's a chore to say hello. Even if the person we are greeting is not our best friend, they still deserve just as cheerful of a greeting as our friends.

That's the wording my kiddos came up with this year for making sure whatever greeting we do has a "just right" feel to it. No squeezing hard with a handshake. No stinging slaps with a high five. But just as important no limp spaghetti shakes, either! Again, modeling goes a long way, here. And SMILE! It makes the other person smile, too!

You may be asking yourself, jeez, do I really need to spend so much time on all these little parts? My kids know how to say hello and good morning and I don't have time for all that practice. What difference does it make? Well... I will tell you.. it makes a HUGE difference! The whole idea of using a greeting in the morning is for every student to feel included, welcomed and accepted. And that's not going to happen if the greeting is mumbled, the handshake is sloppy and there is no eye contact. Kids are acutely aware of people being treated differently. If Johnny smiles and greets one person happily, then turns and greets someone else like he doesn't care as much, that completely defeats the purpose of the greeting. EVERYONE deserves a positive start to their day.

Now comes the fun part - what kinds of greetings do we do? We have simple and quick greetings like
a handshake, high five, fist bump, touch elbows, or wave hello. We say hello or good morning in
different languages - say hello is Spanish, French, German, any language you want! Short on time? Try the "One Minute Greeting" where students walk around and greet as many people as they can in one minute. Or start the greeting in two directions so it goes around the circle faster. No matter which greeting you choose, remember these quick tips:

Greetings that are easy to remember and don't take up a lot of time will quickly become favorites. Use movement and music to spice things up. Ask students for ideas! The more you can get students involved in choosing and creating greetings, the more they will be invested. And remember the ones your students like! When time is short, go back to an old favorite.

Need some ideas for greetings? I've put together a set of cards with 20 different greetings you can use. Some are quick, some are more complicated, but they're all fun! You can download the cards by clicking on the image below.

Now I want to hear from you! Do you have any greetings your kids especially like? What are some of your favorites? Share them with me in the comments so everyone can get some new ideas! The next post in this series will talk about our calendar time (and a little about our morning message). Stay tuned!

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Happy Saturday, teacher friends! It is sooo nice to have a long weekend after the first 8 days of school. Eight very HOT and HUMID days of school. In a classroom with 17 second graders. And no air conditioning. In what is truly the hottest room in the building.

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Morning Meeting: Group Activities Karie Aldrich Mathews Elementary

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Developed as a part of the Responsive Classroom (RC) model, morning meetings have four key components:

Greeting: Students and teachers greet and welcome each other.

Sharing: Students share something about themselves or their lives, and the rest of their peers listen, then ask follow-up questions or offer comments.

Activity: The group completes an activity that encourages teamwork while re-emphasizing social or academic skills.

Morning message: Students read a short message from their teacher, usually describing what is to come in the day ahead.

According to Responsive Classroom (PDF), the goal of these four components, and the meeting as a whole, is to "set the tone for respectful learning, establish a climate of trust, motivate students to feel significant, create empathy and encourage collaboration, and support social, emotional, and academic learning."

"The reason these. . . techniques are exceedingly effective for us is because they are followed in every classroom every day," Principal Richard Cate says. "All school staff are involved in morning meetings, so that everyone has a similar baseline for the management of their instruction. Kids become used to being listened to and teachers to 'whole body listening' themselves. This forms the foundation of our respectful community and creates a positive school culture."

Laying the Groundwork for Success

1. Adapt It to Your Classroom

While the RC model lays out a clear structure and order to the components of the morning meeting, Symonds teachers adapt the practice to fit what's best for their classrooms. Third-grade teacher Alli Carr found that she needed to change the morning message to fit the needs of her students and her schedule. She now goes over the calendar during the meeting instead, and puts the message on what she calls the "Learning Board" so that her students and other staff members know what the objectives are for the day.

Fifth-grade teacher Gretchen Hoefer decided to move the sharing section of her meeting to another time in the day, because she had limited time in the first part of the morning before students left for extracurricular activities like music or art. To make it work, she simply moved that component to a time later in the day when she knew that she would have everyone back in the classroom.

Teachers can also adapt on the fly if they see a need, such as choosing an activity that might calm students down if they come in energized, or choosing an energetic activity if there will be a lot of sitting that day in class.

2. Ensure Structure

But while teachers adapt the meeting to fit their needs, maintaining a structure is important. "The order of the meeting is set by me, but I never change it during the year," Carr says. "I think the structure is super important. . . it also allows the kids to know what is coming."

3. Set Expectations

Teachers hoping to start using morning meetings in their classroom will need to spend some time setting expectations. "You do a lot of modeling at the beginning of the year," Carr says. "Everything from how to greet each other, how to ask questions and how to respond to questions. Sometimes you feel like you are being a stickler on the little things, but in the long run, it really works." And taking the time to teach students those social-emotional skills, she said, ultimately means that teachers "will have more time to teach as the school year moves forward."

Scaling to Encourage Growth

Once the groundwork is laid, students are comfortably and successfully participating in morning meetings, and the classroom community is established, teachers at Symonds often scale the activities or greetings to be more challenging.

"As the kids get older, you can challenge them a bit more with your expectations," Carr says. Instead of a typical greeting such as, "Good morning Alli, I hope you have a great day," she might ask them to use an adjective other than great or good, or ask them to ask a question as a part of their greeting. Then, to add another challenge, Carr might have the questioner ask a follow-up question once he or she gets a response to the initial greeting question. "Adding these little tweaks can help promote good listening skills," she says.

The morning meeting also scales across grade levels, so that the higher grades are building upon the foundation laid in the lower grades. Fifth-grade teachers like Hoefer work to raise the bar and introduce new greetings and activities that their students haven't yet experienced. Teachers in the higher grades also start incorporating new skills, such as leadership and public speaking, by giving students the opportunity to lead morning meetings either by themselves or with a partner.

The sample greetings and activities below are from fifth-grade teacher Gretchen Hoefner.

Sample Greetings and Activities for Fifth-Grade Students

Simple Good Morning Greeting

One student starts and greets the student next to them by saying, "Good morning, _____." They make eye contact and face each other when doing this. The next student returns the greeting and then greets the person on their other side. You can add a handshake or high five to the simple greeting.

Different Languages Greeting

Same as above, but using a greeting from a different language.

Introduce Your Neighbor

Each student interviews a partner by finding something out about them (favorite book, favorite food, favorite activity) and then sharing that with the rest of the class. "This is my friend _______, and his or her favorite activity is _______."

Ball-Bounce Greeting

Everyone stands in the circle. Using a 10-inch inflated ball, the first student says, "Good morning, ______" to another student and then bounces the ball to them. After they have greeted someone and passed the ball, the student sits down.

The Warm Wind Blows

Each person needs a clearly marked spot in the circle (rug square or chair). One person starts in the middle of the circle and completes the statement, "The warm wind blows for everyone who likes to __________ " (play soccer, eat pizza, go skiing, etc.). Everyone who agrees with this statement has to find a new spot in the circle (including the person in the middle). They cannot move to the space right next to where they were standing. Whoever is left without a spot in the outer circle stays in the middle of the circle and is the next one to say, "The warm wind blows for. . ."

Group Juggle

The goal of this activity is to pass an item around the circle with as few drops as possible. Start with one ball. I have used four-inch Nerf balls or stuffed Beanie Babies. Set up a passing pattern for the ball/item so that everyone in the group receives it once and then passes it on to someone else. Pass to someone across the circle, not right next to you. One person starts the sequence and will get the ball/item back after everyone has had it. Once you have your order, start at the beginning again and see if you can pass the ball/item around to everyone without dropping it. You can add in more balls/items to increase the challenge of the activity.

Colored Dot Game

Put a colored sticker dot on the forehead of each student. The child does not get to see what color it is. Have four or five different colors of one-inch dots available. Without talking, each student needs to find other students that have the same colored dot.

Coseeki

One student volunteers to be "it" and leaves the circle to stand in the hallway for a minute. Another student is chosen to be the leader. The leader leads other students in different movements (hand clap, foot wiggle, head nod, etc.). The students watch the leader closely and imitate his or her actions. The "it" person comes back into the room and has three chances to guess who the leader is.

Resources

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Creating a Culture of Trust and Safety in Every Class | Edutopia

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Developed as a part of the Responsive Classroom (RC) model, morning meetings have four key components: Greeting: Students and teachers greet and welcome each other. Sharing: Students share something about themselves or their lives, and the rest of their peers listen, then ask follow-up questions or offer comments.