March Morning Meeting Ideas for Virtual, In-Person, and Hybrid Teaching (2021)
I’m back for another monthly Morning Meeting blog post! If you’ve been keeping up with me online, you know this already, but I’ll say it again…
Morning Meeting is my FAVORITE time of the day.
The problem is… teachers are pulled in so many different directions. We have so many responsibilities, especially this school year. We’re teaching online, we’re teaching a socially-distanced classroom, we’re teaching kids online and in the classroom at the same time (?!).
*DEEP BREATHS*
For today’s blog post, I’m sharing ideas on how to conduct a fun-filled March-themed Morning Meeting – whether you’re teaching in your classroom or on Zoom or all the above.
Classroom community, relationship-building, and supporting student SEL needs are critical, and I hope that you find these activities helpful in thinking about ways you can refresh Morning Meeting in your classroom this March!
In today’s blog post…
We’ll be looking at (1) March Morning Meeting Slides and (2) 2021 March Holiday Morning Meeting Ideas! You can check out my slides for the entire month of March here.
Specifically, I’ll be following the Responsive Classroom Morning Meeting structure (Greeting, Share, Activity, Message) as a framework for what an effective and engaging Morning Meeting can look like.
Morning Meeting Slides
My top tip for Morning Meeting is to create a very clear structure for students. In doing so, you will help create predictability and routine, which will help center students for the remainder of the day.
A lot of teachers write the Morning Meeting agenda on the board. That’s a great strategy!
I recommend that teachers use a slides presentation. I’ve found that this strategy can be helpful in guiding and engaging students. I’ll walk you through an example of some Morning Meeting slides in the next section.
If you are teaching in-person, you can project the slides on your board for students in the classroom to see. If you are teaching on Zoom or Google Meet, you can easily screenshare the slides for students at home to see.
At the very start of Morning Meeting, while you wait for your students to arrive, I recommend projecting or screensharing a cheery image with the day of the week on it. It is a wonderful way to set the tone for the meeting.
Greeting
Once your students have entered your classroom , you can begin by saying something like, “Good morning students! Happy Hump Day! It is the middle of the week. Today is Wednesday March 3, 2021. Kiley is our morning leader. Kiley, how will we greet the class today?”
It seems like younger students tend to opt for the same greetings. As the teacher, you can also choose one for them (or give them a couple of choices)! If you’re looking for specific greeting examples, I share some in this video.
Share
Once you’ve completed the Morning Greeting, you will move onto the share portion of the Morning Meeting.
I’ve found that shares can be a great way to support students from a social emotional perspective. Of course, you can also share sillier prompts too (i.e. “Would you rather meow at the end of every sentence or bark every time you see a human ?”).
The activity below says, “Rainbows are a symbol of hope. What do you hope will happen to you today?”
I like this prompt because it gets students thinking about their hopes and goals for the day. I also like it because as the teacher, you get some insight into what students are thinking about and wanting to happen at school.
Activity
Activity time is always a HIT with students.
It can be particularly hard to come up with a new activity every single day – I totally get it. I like the idea of incorporating mindful movement during Morning Meeting. It’s a great way to start the day.
Here’s an example activity below that is related to the share prompt in the previous section.
“Let’s practice rainbow breathing. When you breathe in, raise your arms to form a rainbow shape. When you breathe out, bring you arms back down to your side.”
If you are teaching remotely, this activity is great because it gets kids out of their chairs and away from screens for a moment.
If you are teaching in your classroom, this activity can help kids get centered and mindful at the very start of the day.
In both environments, you can model the exercise for students before they begin. It also makes for a great midday brain break!
Morning Message
Lastly, it’s time for the Morning Message.
In my opinion, Morning Message works best when it is unique to your class. I’m not in your classroom. I don’t know your students. And so ultimately, you are the expert when it comes to the Morning Message!
I do have some ideas to help you get started. You can:
- Outline the schedule for the rest of the morning / day
- Have students think about a goal they have for the day
- Revisit a topic from yesterday
- Set expectations or agreements for the day
2021 March Holiday Morning Meetings
In addition to sharing slides with students, I also highly recommend incorporating holidays into your Morning Meetings. In March, there are a number of different holidays you might want to share with students!
- Read Across America Day
- National Pancake Day
- Fun Facts About Names Day
- St. Patrick’s Day
- First Day of Spring
- National Puppy Day
- Make Up Your Own Holiday Day
Consider introducing students to unique holidays during Morning Meeting. For “Fun Facts About Names Day,” you might ask students to share the story behind their name or what they like about their name.
For the first day of spring, you could play “This or That” and ask students whether they prefer rainy days indoors or sunny days outside.
Do you like these slides?
I created an ENTIRE MONTH’S worth of pre-made, ready-to-go (but still editable!) Morning Meeting Slides to use with your students in March. If you like these slides and activity ideas, you can check out my product here.
Thank you!
If you’re new here, hi! I’m Maddie. I’m an edtech coach and a K-5 STEM teacher, but Morning Meeting has quickly become my thing online. I’ve shared videos with tips and tricks and I’ve created a bunch of products too. Check it out and let me know what you think!
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