Today I’m sharing what my successful morning meeting in special education looks like. When I first started.. I hated morning meeting. It was so boring and I just couldn’t get into it. But over the years, we developed an amazing morning meeting routine that us staff AND students looked forward to every single day.
And now I’m sharing the secret sauce with you too!
What is Morning Meeting?
Let’s start right at the beginning. Because a few years ago, I visited a classroom and spoke about morning meeting.. And they had no idea what I was talking about. Sometimes I just assume that everyone knows some of the stuff that we do as a daily routine, and forget.. Not everyone does! So before we dive into my morning meeting schedule, I wanted to start with sharing some information about what morning meeting is.
Morning meeting is just a time slot at the beginning of your day where you, your staff and students can come together as a little community group. It can involve things like;
- Greetings
- Attendance
- Group discussions
- Sharing
- Short games
- Songs
You can make morning meeting individual to what YOU want included.. And what you think will work best for your students and classroom.
What are the Benefits of Morning Meeting?
Honestly.. I’ve always found so many benefits.. Even instantly.. From putting a good morning meeting routine into place. Some of the benefits that you will find from having a successful morning meeting routine are;
- Opportunity to connect with each other.
- Familiar routine to start the day.
- Building relationships.
- Working on social skills.
- Sets a positive tone for the rest of the day.
- Creates a sense of belonging.
- Encourages a supportive and inclusive classroom environment.
- Gives everyone the chance to have their voice heard and valued.
- Builds confidence and self-esteem.
- Increases engagement and participation.
- Promotes routine and structure.
And I’m sure there are even more benefits than I can think of in that list off the top of my head too!
So now that I’ve shared some of what morning meeting is.. And the benefits.. Now I’m going to move on and give you my morning meeting special sauce!
My Morning Meeting Schedule
So if you’ve been following me for a while.. Or you’ve heard me discuss my classroom schedule before.. You’ll know that when my students arrive into class each morning, they go straight to the table and we all have breakfast together.
If you’re looking for a whole day schedule of my classroom, then you’ll like this blog post here.
Once we have all finished breakfast, that’s when we move to the interactive whiteboard area to sit for our morning meeting.
I’m going to share a quick overview of our morning meeting schedule first.. And then discuss each part more in detail below. All of our morning meeting is done on an interactive PowerPoint. This makes it easy to find, doesn’t require internet.. And is consistent for our students.
- Gather for morning meeting.
- Good morning song.
- Attendance check-in.
- Counting to 10 song.
- Count & select the attendance number.
- Days of the week song.
- Select the day.
- Weather song.
- Select the weather for the day.
- Dress the teddy for the weather.
- Good day song.
- Off to work.
Gather for Morning Meeting
We like to have our morning meeting in front of the interactive whiteboard. This is because my morning meeting is hosted on an interactive PowerPoint. My students each have a chair each.. We do use flexible seating so some of my students may have different seats that they sit in. Staff members will sit in with the students as well.. And one member of staff will lead the session. This member of staff is typically sat at the computer, next to the interactive whiteboard.
Interactive PowerPoint
I typically change up this PowerPoint after each school break. The main reason for this is because I usually adjust the background images to our current classroom theme.. And I will also switch up student photos. More on this next..
Good Morning Song
For the good morning song, I usually download a fun morning video off YouTube and import it into the slide. I do this for all the songs/videos on my PowerPoint so that I don’t need to rely on the internet.
Attendance Check-In
I never have more than 7 students in my classroom, so this makes this slide perfect. Each student has a photo of their face on the screen. The lead will call the students up one at a time to select their face on the PowerPoint. When they hit their face, I usually add some fun animation to make the face spin around and then a big tick to check them in for the day. Then the next student comes up etc.
Counting to 10 Song
Next we have a video of counting to 10. Through the year, as my students progress, this can be changed up to counting to 20, counting to 100, counting in 10s etc.
Count & Select the Attendance Number
Once the song finishes, I then select a student to walk around the circle and count the number of students in attendance today. Then, that student goes up to the interactive whiteboard to select the number of students that are present.
Days of the Week Song
Next is a days of the week song. This is great for working on recognizing the days of the week and prepares us for the next part of morning meeting..
Select the Day
Now students need to select what day of the week it is. One student is nominated to go up to the interactive whiteboard and select the day it is.
Weather Song
Next up is a weather song. There are tonnes of great ones on YouTube.
Select the Weather for the Day
One student is nominated to go up to the interactive whiteboard and select what they think the weather outside is like today.
Dress the Teddy for the Weather
That same student then chooses different clothing items on the next slide to dress the teddy bear appropriately for the weather today. This is a really important life skill to teach.. And one that can be easily overlooked. So often you’ll see students who are dressed inappropriately for the weather and they often get told this.. But they aren’t told why. This activity is especially helpful for teaching students what is / isn’t appropriate for different types of weather.
Good Day Song
I actually download a fun up-beat song off YouTube or online somewhere and then import it into iMovie. Then I add a bunch of different photos of our students, classroom, staff etc from the last couple of months. That way, when my students are listening to the song, they also get to look at photos of them and their classmates / staff as well. This is also a fun and positive way to start the day.
Once this is finished, students are then guided to either their work stations with a member of staff or choice first until it is their turn to work.
I also do a similar set up in the afternoon. Once the students finish their lunch recess and come back into the classroom, we gather around for an afternoon meeting. I just mix up some of the parts of morning meeting so we work on different skills. For example I’ll include months of the year, seasons etc.
I hope this helps give you some ideas for morning meeting in your special education classroom. If you found this blog post helpful, please consider sharing it with your friends and colleagues on social media.
You may also find the following links helpful;
- Special Education Morning Work Routine
- Classroom Schedule in Special Education
- My Top 5 Visuals for the Classroom
- Setting Up a Color Coded Classroom
- 5 Secrets to a Happy Classroom Podcast Episode
P.S. Have you signed up for a 3 day free trial of my VIP membership yet? If not, click here to do it now and go and get access to a huge range of resources, templates, crafts and more for free.
Nikki
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