Today we are continuing our blog series on Morning Meeting talking about morning meeting greetings.
Why Are Morning Meeting Greetings Important?
One thing we need to always be aware of is that many of our students come to school to feel loved, to feel safe, and to feel like they belong to something. And they need and deserve to know that they matter. So many of our students come from homes and experiences that can be scary, stressful and chaotic. And the hard truth is that many of our kids don’t feel valued. That is why the greeting is so powerful. In fact, there is research that talks about how many kids go through a school day with no one saying their names. Think about that.
The purpose of the morning meeting greeting is to let our students know that we see them, we hear them, and they belong to something important. The morning meeting greetings are fun but what they say to our students is that you are here and you are a part of this family. During our greetings, every person is greeted by at least 1 person. That means that every day at least one person looks at you and says: “Good morning Greg!” The power of that one simple exchange cannot be understated.
What Are The Procedures For Your Morning Meeting Greetings?
In our classroom, we do the same greeting for the entire week. On Monday we introduce a new greeting and we use that greeting all week. This allows us to get very good each of our greetings and build up our consistency. We typically do a new greeting each week, but we also repeat a few of our favorites!
When we’re greeting one another we’re also working on our communications skills. We learn to make eye contact when we greet one another, we learn how to shake hands and we learn how to use the proper voice levels.
When introducing a new greeting I model the greeting first. Then I ask the class to tell me what we did, what we said, what they noticed. Then I model again and we practice the greeting. Monday takes a bit longer because it’s a new greeting and we’re learning. The rest of the week the greeting will speed up because we become very fluent in our greeting!
Check out this video to see what it sounds like and looks like when we introduce our new greeting on Monday:
What Morning Meeting Greeting Ideas Do You Have?
There are two types of morning meeting greetings that we use. The first is a whole group greeting where everyone is participating in the greeting. This greeting means everyone greets everyone. It’s basically a call-and-response type greeting. These are usually simple cheers involving each student’s name. The other is a 1 on 1 greeting. These greetings mean that you will be greeted by just 1 person. These greetings take a little more time.
This video shows a whole group greeting where everyone is involved in the greeting!
This video shows a 1 on 1 greeting:
The morning meeting greetings can also incorporate academics. We use address labels to practice letters, sounds, numbers, shapes, and sight words during our morning meeting greeting! With these greetings students greet each other by the skill written on the label instead of by name! So we might say “Good morning 11!”
Here’s another greeting idea. Write student names and add their pictures to index cards. Students choose a card, find that person and greet them!
Here’s another greeting idea! Create a PowerPoint greeting! Create slides with a picture to match any theme. Put student pictures behind the image. When you advance the slide, the image moves and we greet the person we see. This idea is used throughout the year. We use these PowerPoint greetings with rainbows, the moon, carrots, etc.
For more information on morning meetings, check out these posts:
