Morning Meeting Ideas

Friends~Do you host a morning meeting with your class?  I do, and it is one of my most favorite parts of the day.  It truly sets the tone for how our day will unfold.  It helps to build a strong classroom community all year long.  I am so lucky that at my new school we have time set aside in grades K-4 to have morning meeting each and every day! 

Today, I am going to share with you some ideas to get your own morning meeting time started!

I was so lucky this year to be working with a morning meeting master!  I got to observe one of our 2nd grade teachers this year that has been doing morning meeting forever. Mrs. Poling has the best format and her's is so directed towards character education.  She starts each week off with a word of the week.  Like this week was COOPERATION.  She reads a book at each morning meeting that goes along with the word of the week.  She even has a song for each word!  So AWESOME! She introduced me to these great CDs by Red Grammar.  They are perfect for morning meeting.  We use the Just Say Hi as our signal to begin MM.  Student head up to the front and sit in a circle and sing along!

  

Some ideas for Words of the Week are: 

Compassion, Active Listening, and Self Control

I highly recommend you get yourself a squeaky     hammer! I use a squeaky hammer to call the meeting to order and my students get a huge kick out of it. I always welcome them in a fun way.  You can see some ideas below.  After I call the meeting to order, we count off to check our attendance.  

We also welcome each other with a fist bump, hand shake, or a high five! 

Next, we get to our shares.  The students love this time because they get to share their exciting news with the class.    

I love this book for keeping my morning meeting on track.  It has awesome ideas and tips!

 I use our stuffed hedgehog Henrietta to choose students to share.  I pass the Henrietta around and the students hold her in their laps as they share.  (This really helps in the beginning when the students are a bit nervous.) After each share, I say THINK and the students put their heads down and think of a comment or question about the share.  The student who shared chooses two students to call on.  During this time we are working on eye contact and listening skills.  

We also say our class pledge and work some brain gym to We Are the Champions by Queen! 

I love to get them up and moving as much as possible.  Check them out below activating both sides of their brains and pledging to show courage!

We also review our ABC sounds and read our word wall at the end of every morning meeting.  Starting in January, I began having a student lead morning meeting.  At my school, we work on special goals for presenting like voice level and poise.  Morning Meeting is a perfect time for my kiddos to practice this! 

Grab some FREE information about our ENRICH goals and how my morning meeting leader is assessed by clicking HERE!

I am always amazed at how much we accomplish during this time! 

We then meet again up front for calendar time and also to focus on our word of the week.  Sometimes, like Mrs. Poling we will read a story that goes along with our word or we may do some role playing.  I like to mix it up a bit.  The cool thing is grades K-4 all have the same word of the week so we are all focusing on the same skill.  

You can check out more of my morning meeting ideas by clicking the picture below.  My Morning Meeting Manual will get you started on your way to a successful morning meeting!

You can also see how I lead morning meeting in a much tighter schedule at my old school.  Still one of my 2nd graders favorite parts of the day!  Just click my blog button below to get started!

Presidents' Day Fun!

Hi Everyone,  it's Nicole from Mrs. Rios Teaches.  The question of the day is,... Are you all ready for Presidents' Day?

Whether your answer is "yes", "no", or "almost", I have some great ideas to share with you!

Click on my blog button to head on over and check out my post!

Nicole

I Think you are Purr-fect Valentine's Bookmark FREEBIE and Crafty Gifts

Hi there friends, it's Emma from Clever Classroom!

I am so excited to share some freebies with you. 

If you're looking for simple gift ideas for Valentine's Day, then you will love these!

I have created four bookmarks and three gift squares with cute sayings that relate to Valentine's Day.

They would be great as a gift to students or for students to give to parents or other family members. 

Your file also includes black and white versions of both the bookmarks and square gifts. 

Here are the bookmarks in color. 

Each bookmark is printed three to a page. 

Putting together the bookmarks are super-dooper easy!

Here are the three square gift craft ideas. 

They are also avialbale in black and white so that the children can trace the text and decorate them after you've printed them on cardstock. 

I also used stinky stickers with, 'I am stuck on you Valentine'. 

Click here to download the freebie via my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. 

More Valentine's Day printables ready to go for February. 

Thanks so much for dropping by. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Winter Art Tutorials

Hello Everyone!

I'm stopping by to share some quick 'n' easy art ideas to wrap up your winter classroom!

Just click on the pictures below to see a step-by-step tutorial on how to make these cuties!

Polar Bear Chalk Picture

Loopy 3D Penguin Craft

  

                                                   

Let's Connect!

Life Cycles (WARNING: Do not read while eating!)

Hi everyone!  It's Cyndie from Chalk One Up for the Teacher and I am so beyond excited to be joining everyone here at The Primary Chalkboard.

Right now our grade level is studying life cycles and I thought it would be the perfect time to share what we are doing since so many classes will be studying this in the upcoming months.

This is our second year using this kit which used to be just insects, but has now taken away some of the insects (THANK GOODNESS!) and added plants.  Do you use the FOSS kits at your school?

Stock Photo

At our school, the teachers are divided into two groups.  Those that are brave about the insects and those that are not.  HA!  Here is our lineup (and mind you I have only switched to the brave team this year).

 However all bets are off once the insects morph into beetles and other creatures. 

First we started with these Brassica plants.  Apparently Brassica plants are members of the mustard family.  I love the cool PVC light hanging apparatus that comes in the FOSS kit, and I love that the light comes on chains so you can adjust the level of the plants as they get taller.

Ours have flowered and we are waiting for the plants to produce seeds so the life cycle can begin again.

We have been supplementing our learning with materials from my Science Interactive Notebook and Experiments product, as well as some materials that came with the kit.

We are also studying the life cycle of several insects.  Last year we did what seemed like a million different insects...kind of makes you thankful for the four that are arriving this year.

First up were these lovely little guys, the mealworms.
(This is the part where you'll probably want to look away if you are eating.)

Last Friday a few of them morphed into beetles.  I hadn't told my students ahead of time that they would be changing, although several of them had their suspicions.  My once brave students who didn't mind holding the mealworms were not so brave about the beetles.
(Notice you will not see my hand holding any of the insects.)

Next up were the milkweed, which are actually one of my favorites.  Here they are upon arrival and in their habitat.

I love that the students work together to build the habitat and that they are totally self sufficient once they hatch in the habitat.

We've been keeping track of our insects in our science notebooks, too.

Our silkworms have just arrived.  Hard to believe that these little guys will turn into anything...and actually last year mine didn't.  They never made it out of the egg stage.

Last up will be our butterflies, which is almost everyone's favorite.  We are really hoping that by the time they go through their metamorphic states it will be nice weather here in Las Vegas.

So that is how we study life cycles at our school in second grade.  If you haven't studied them with your kiddos, I highly recommend it.  The students are so completely engaged and love observing their changes.  The first thing they want to do every morning is come in and use their magnifying glasses to check out the changes that have occurred overnight. 

If you are looking to learn about life cycles with your kiddos or supplement what you have, check out these fabulous resources from my Chalkie friends.

PLANTS

INSECTS

If you want to make your own creations, check out these adorable clipart sets.