Classroom Management & Discipline Special Times in the Year
Here are some tips for using the last part of Morning Meeting, the morning message, to set a positive tone during the build-up to winter holidays and vacation.
As with sharing, you might include timely questions/themes in your morning messages at this time of year. Just as with sharing, make sure everyone in the class will feel included. Here are some ideas:
Check the boxes to show who you will spend time with over vacation: friends, your family here, family from other places, other visitors.
What’s your prediction for when we’ll see the first snowflakes? (You could graph the results as a quick math activity.)
What’s something you love about winter?
Write some adjectives to describe winter weather.
Remember also that a message with an academic focus can help students transition from their excitement about the time of year to the learning they will be doing in school that day.
Remember that reading the morning message can help settle a class after the activity. Once the activity is finished, have students settle back in the circle and calm down. Then once they are ready, begin reading the message.
There’s no doubt that this can be a challenging time of year in school. Giving students the opportunity to settle into a comfortable and safe routine each morning can be a great gift for them in December!
In this series, we share ideas for using Morning Meeting to set a positive tone for the day during the build-up to winter holidays and school vacation. Read tips for the other components of Morning Meeting: greeting, sharing, and group activity.