Morning Meeting is my favorite part of the school day! Having a daily meeting is an important part of the special education classroom. This time of day allows me to check-in with my students emotionally, work on social skills, and reinforce academic concepts! The structure of a morning meeting can look a little different for students who are in the intermediate grades (3 – 5) when compared to the primary years. Come and take a look at the morning meeting routine I use with my crew!
Morning Meeting Timing
We have special area class first thing in the morning, so I wait to have our meeting until after that. That way, I don’t have to rush through any of the activities and I am able to allow everyone a chance to respond to our different activities.
Greeting
Every morning meeting starts with a greeting! I greet each student, and give them the chance to greet each other. This is so important for helping build a classroom community and making every student feel welcome!
Calendar Routine
After greeting each other, it’s time to practice our calendar skills. I use this Daily Math Calendar (affiliate link) paired with Real Picture Morning Meeting slides to have students practice the date, days of the week, and the number of days we’ve been in school. I have students participate by answering questions and “air writing” the different numbers we are talking about. We also take time to talk about special events that are coming up or changes to our schedule.
Review
The next part of the meeting is an academic review question. I like to give my students a different spiral review question each day. Because my students are all at different levels, doing a spiral review is great for both review and exposure! Using a “theme” for each school day helps me to plan out the questions in advance. The daily themes I like to use are Money Monday (coin counting), Time Tuesday (reading a clock), Word Study Wednesday (practicing phonemic awareness), Think About it Thursday (comprehension questions), and Fraction Friday (identifying different fractions).
Question of the Day
Next up in our meeting is the Question of the Day! Sometimes the questions are thematic to the seasons or what we are working on in class. Other days, I like to share whatever fun national holiday it is. Did you know that April 26 is National Pretzel Day? On that day, I will ask my students about whether they like pretzels! I love giving each of the students a chance to talk about their thoughts. Often, we will use our Question of the Day to make a bar graph about our opinions. Students get a chance to stand up and use our touchscreen whiteboard to make their choice on the bar graph.
I add picture support and translations to my Question of the Day so that it is easy for my students who are English language Learners can easily respond.
Story
It’s almost time to wrap up our morning meeting. I enjoy reading a short story or a chapter of a book. Most of the stories I choose come from the DLM’s Familiar Text sets. I like to pair these adapted books with the chapter book versions, like “Ramona Quimby, Age 8.” (affiliate link) The chapter books are above my students’ reading levels, but I love giving them exposure to real texts!
Wrapping Up the Morning Meeting
We end with a review of our day’s schedule. Then, I reinforce the date by having students complete a Daily Calendar Worksheet. When they are done, they can go wash their hands for snack time, and our morning meeting is done!
My morning meeting generally lasts about 25-30 minutes. That can be a long time for some kids, but incorporating movement and participation opportunities helps keep my students engaged and focused. I love and I am always so excited about the language and vocabulary my students learn and use throughout the rest of the day!
Grab the Morning Meeting resource here!
Grab the Calendar Worksheets here!
What are your favorite parts of morning meeting? Leave a comment below – I would love to hear more about some of the activities you use!
