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 always to 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, research 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 they say to our students that they are here and 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 use the same greeting for the entire week. On Monday, we introduce a new greeting, which we use all week. This allows us to learn our greetings well and builds up our consistency. We typically do a new greeting each week but repeat a few of our favorites!
We’re also working on our communication skills when we greet one another. We learn to make eye contact, shake hands, and use the proper voice levels.
When introducing a new greeting, I model the greeting first. Then I asked the class to tell me what we did, what we said, what they noticed. Then, I modeled again, and we practiced greeting each other. Monday takes a bit longer because it’s a new greeting, and we’re learning. The greeting will speed up during the rest of the week because we will become very fluent in our greetings!
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?
We use two types of morning meeting greetings. The first is a whole-group greeting, where everyone participates 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 one-on-one greeting, which means that you will be greeted by just one 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:
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:
