Greeting Ideas for School Gatherings

Over the years I’ve taught in a variety of settings—and no matter what the setting, when children have the opportunity to come together with other children from their grade or school, they benefit in many ways. At a school gathering, they learn what it means to be a good audience member, they practice leadership and public speaking, and they develop a vision of themselves as members of a community.

Planning a School Gathering

One tip I like to give is to establish a simple, predictable format for school gatherings, and that includes thinking about how to start the gatherings. A great way to start is with a group greeting that actively involves students, acknowledges all of them, and sets a welcoming, upbeat tone that says “This school is yours. You get to learn and grow here.”

Here are some things to think about when choosing greetings and helping teachers prepare:

• Make sure the greeting is safe to do in a larger space and appropriate for a multi-age group of children.
• Choose simple greetings in which students stay seated and sing or chant together.
• Let teachers know ahead of time what the greeting will be so that they can teach the words and practice them with children before the school gathering.
• Ask teachers to also teach, model, and practice any movements or gestures needed so that children can do the greeting safely. Sometimes, teachers might need to modify the gestures to make them easier or safer for a particular age group.

To give you a taste of possible greetings for school gatherings, here’s a greeting for the first gathering of the year:

And here are two ideas for greetings that would be fun at any time of year:

 

 

Susie Cook is a Responsive Classroom teacher.

 

Tags: Building Schoolwide Community, Whole-school meetings