Walking into school should always be routine. One of the best ways you can do this is by having Kindergarten morning meeting activities that students are accustomed to.
What does your Kindergarten morning meeting need to entail?
Simple. The four components you’re going to read about in this blog post!
What are the 4 Components of a Kindergarten Morning Meeting?
Morning meetings are so important to start the Kindergarten day! When you have a structured meeting every day, you create a community and set a positive tone for the day.
The 4 primary components of a Kindergarten morning meeting include:
The Greeting: A time for students to acknowledge each other and feel welcomed. This helps each student feel seen and respected which creates a scene of belonging.
Sharing: This is a time for students to talk about something from their personal life creating a sense of community and empathy among the class. When they share, they can talk about home life, hobbies, or feelings.
Group Activity: This is a short engaging activity that promotes cooperation and team building. These can be simple songs and games to a problem-solving exercise.
Morning Message: Knowing what the day is going to look like can be super helpful for students. Giving them a schedule of the day’s activities with a list, a letter, or short discussion helps them know what the goal is.
What Do You Discuss in Kindergarten Morning Meetings?
What you talk about in a morning meeting can really vary. However, the goal should be the same: create an environment that encourages openness, curiosity, and respect.
In other words, create a positive community.
To start your Kindergarten morning meeting, you can talk about the day’s schedule so students know the expectations.
At this time, talking about special events like holidays or birthdays or changes to your routine can be important. In addition, you can discuss the weather or seasons to incorporate science and nature topics.
During your morning meeting, you can also talk about social-emotional learning.
Do this by talking about feelings, problem-solving strategies, or character education topics like honesty, kindness, or respect.
What you choose to talk about can stem from a book, student sharing, or events happening around the world.
Morning Meeting Greeting Ideas
This is the first of your Kindergarten morning meeting activities, so it sets the stage for the day. This should be fun, engaging, and inclusive.
How do you do that? Here are a few ideas:
The Name Song: Single simple song that includes each child’s name. You can find a variety of these on YouTube. One that helps with names and helps students practice spelling is “Do You Know My Friends’ Name?” This acknowledges each student and helps them get to know each other better.
Handshake Greeting: You can teach students different types of handshakes which they can use to greet each other. This is always fun for students to get up and interact with their pees.
Hello in Different Languages: This greeting activity for kindergarten morning meetings is a great way to create culture. Each day, teach students how to say hello in a different language. Then, students can greet each other accordingly. This can be a fun way to introduce new cultures into your class. If you have students who have different nationalities, you can have them share how they say hello in their culture.
Weather Greeting: Sometimes it’s great to start the day talking about science. Each day, have a student who is the “weather reporter.” This student greets his or her classmates with a phrase relevant to the day’s weather. For example, they might say, “Sunny hello!” on a bright day.
Kindergarten Morning Meeting Questions for Kids
To promote social-emotional learning, I will give students a question of the day. These are typically great conversation starters and can be used when allowing students to share something with the class as well.
Some questions you may ask include:
What is your favorite book and why?
If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?
What is something you did that made you feel proud?
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
What is one thing you would like to learn about today?
These questions give students a chance to express themselves. Plus, it can lead to fun conversations that help students get to know each other better.
Incorporating Alphabet and Sight Words
Your Kindergarten morning meetings can also include some academics! If you want to sneak in some literacy skills, you can use the following strategies to incorporate the alphabet and sight words.
The Alphabet Song: You can sing the alphabet song together in your kindergarten morning meeting. This helps students promote group cohesion while reinforcing the alphabet.
Alphabet Show and Tell: To do this fun activity, assign a letter for the day and ask students to bring an item that starts with that letter. This is great practice for beginning sounds and allows students to get to know each other better based on what they bring.
Sight Word of the Day: Morning meetings can be a great time for students to learn a new sight word. Introducing a new sight word each day and practicing the “old” ones can be a great way to keep up on your sight words. To reinforce the sight word, you can use the word throughout the day.
Sight Word Hunt: Another way to incorporate sight words is to write the sight word on the board and have students hunt for it in a text. This can be a word on a classroom poster or something they have used in their own work. This helps students recognize the word in different contexts.
Sight Word Games: Playing games like “Sight Word Bingo” or “Sight Word Memory match” is a great kindergarten morning meeting activity. These can be a Friday or last day of the week tradition that lets your students practice recognizing the sight words they have learned.
Using Brain Breaks for Part of Your Kindergarten Morning Meeting Activities
Another great way to start your day is with some brain breaks. These are short activities that help students get the wiggles out and refocus.
Brain breaks are great for morning meetings because they help energize students for the day ahead and bring in some structure.
If you’re looking for brain break ideas, check out the following:
Dance Breaks: Sometimes students need to shake the sillies out before school really gets rolling. Having a dance break is a great way to get them moving and releases excess energy.
Stretching: Yoga and other stretches can be great for focusing the mind. You can lead the students in a few simple stretches which creates relaxation and refocus.
Breathing Exercises: You can teach students simple breathing exercises to help calm things down and focus before starting your day. This might be the first or last thing you do during your morning meeting.
Simon Says: Everyone knows this classic game. It’s fun and simple. Plus, it’s great when students need to practice their listening skills.
Storytelling Break: Another morning activity you can do is tell a short, engaging story or ask a student to share a story they have read. This can help students relax and get their brains and imaginations going in a way that’s not always academic.
The goal of the brain break is not to give students time to rest. It’s there to promote movement, improve focus, and create a fun and engaging learning environment.
Digital Kindergarten Morning Meeting Activities
We live in a digital world. So, sometimes you need to incorporate technology into Kindergarten morning meetings.
By doing so, you are engaging students with technology and teaching them how to use technology the proper way.
You can integrate technology into Kindergarten morning meetings using any of the following:
Digital Storytime: Using an e-book or an online story platform to read a story together, is a great way to incorporate technology. With technology, you can even invite a guest reader to read to your class virtually! Check out authors who might read to students or have someone like the mayor of your town read a quick book to students.
Online Weather Tracking: Learning how to read weather maps is an important skill your students should have. You can use a digital tool to track the weather everyday. With this, students can learn about different weather patterns as well as how to use technology to find information.
Interactive Whiteboard Games: Moving is a good thing to include in a morning meeting. Using an interactive whiteboard game can be fun and educational! By incorporating these games, students learn motor skills and increase their problem-solving abilities.
Virtual Field Trips: Sometimes you just have to get “out.” There are several companies that allow you to virtually tour their facilities. From a museum, zoo, or historic site, your students can learn more about what you’re learning. At the same time, you are creating curiosity in your students all while broadening their knowledge.
Digital Show and Tell: Allowing your students to share something from their home during remote learning can be helpful. This can help maintain a sense of community and connection even if you can’t be in person.
When you integrate digital tools into your morning meetings, you are creating an interactive and engaging classroom for your Kindergarten students.
In Conclusion
Kindergarten morning meetings are a wonderful tool to create a positive learning environment in your kindergarten class.
What you choose to include as a part of your Kindergarten morning meeting activities, is up to you, and might vary from year to year because every class is unique.
However, keep in mind, with these meetings, your goal is not just to teach, you want to make sure you are creating a love for learning, fostering community, and developing social-emotional skills.
If you use the activities above, you’ll be able to make morning meetings one of the biggest highlights of your students’ days.
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