We are continuing our morning meeting series with the third component of a morning meeting: the morning meeting activity! The activity follows the greeting and sharing time.
What Is The Morning Meeting Activity?
The activity part of the morning meeting is simply a game! It’s fast, usually lasting about 3-5 minutes or less. It can have academic components, it can work on fine motor skills and teamwork, but it can also be just for fun! The idea is to have a little fun, and get your students moving and energized to start the day!
What Are Some Of Your Favorite Morning Meeting Activities?
We have several morning meeting activity games that we play and we generally rotate through them all year long. Most of these can be introduced at the beginning of the year and modified as the year goes on!
The Number Game
This is great for listening and counting! Everyone stands up. We decide on a number. It can be any number. Early in the year, it might be 5 or 10. Later in the year we can do skip counting to 100. We start counting and count around the circle. If you are the designated number of the day then you sit down. We continue until 1 person is left standing.
I Have Who Has
We also use a lot of I Have Who Has during our morning meeting activity! This is another game that can be used all year. Once the students learn how to play it’s easy to adapt this to any skill you want your students to practice! It’s also great for listening, speaking, and paying attention!
We have some great I Have Who Has games in our TKS Online Store!
Quiz Quiz Trade
We love Quiz Quiz Trade because it gets us up and moving while learning! And this game makes us support one another in our learning! The way it works is simple: everyone has a card with a skill on it. Let’s say sight words. You find a partner. You quiz each other by reading the sight word on the card. After you both read the word, you trade cards, hold up your hand, and move to a new partner! Get it?! Quiz-Quiz then trade! We have tons of Quiz Quiz Trade games in our Quiz Quiz Trade creation!
A few other morning meeting activity ideas:
ZOOM!
This is really a game for listening and focus. Everyone sits in the circle. The teacher starts by turning to the student next to them and says ZOOM. That student turns to the next student and says ZOOM. This continues around the circle with the goal being to keep ZOOM going as fast as you can. Once we get really good at the game we try to make ZOOM go in two directions which is a challenge but it can be done!
Pass The Object
This game works with spoons, plates, napkins, clothespins, etc. Anything that can be used to pass some type of small object. These activities are great for fine motor skills, focus, and teamwork!
Hide The Clothespin
This is another favorite. This one teaches the students the importance of focusing on what we’re doing. Everyone turns around, closes their eyes, and covers their eyes. I place a regular-size clothespin on one of the students. It can be their shirt, shoes, sleeves, etc. You want it hidden but not totally invisible. Everyone turns around and tries to find the clothespin. If you find it, you sit down quietly. You don’t laugh, point at the clothespin or tell your friends! After a while, I switch to a mini clothespin to make it a challenge!
Bubbles!
This is a great activity for when students need a refresher on self-control and following directions. I tell the kids I’m going to blow bubbles. They aren’t allowed to pop the bubbles or move. This is the self-control and following directions piece. After a few seconds, I tell them to pop the bubbles!
For more information and ideas for morning meeting, visit these posts:
