Morning Meetings

This blog provides a structured approach for conducting morning meeting activities in kindergarten, emphasizing creating a positive classroom community. It outlines steps including classroom arrival procedures, signaling the start of the meeting, music & movement, greetings, group activities, calendar review, morning messages, and literacy & math activities. The activities aim to engage students, build rapport, and integrate educational standards, especially in math and literacy, within a 10 to 20-minute timeframe.

This blog post outlines 5 essential social emotional learning activities:

Daily Greetings: Personalized greetings to foster relationship-building.
Emotions Check-in: Tools like emotion wheels for self-awareness.
Cultivate Gratitude: Expressing gratitude through various activities.
Morning Meeting: Building community through shared experiences.
Mindfulness Techniques: Incorporating mindfulness for self-awareness and focus

Improve your calendar time with three fun methods to teach kids the months of the year:

Calendar Song: Encourages teaching months through song during morning meetings.
Celebrate the Beginning of Each Month: Involves tracing the calendar, creating a page for each month, and associating each month with a unique craft activity.
Read Aloud Books: Recommends various books to teach the months and seasons, integrating learning with storytelling.

morning meeting group activities freebie

Morning meetings with structured play offer a crucial setting for children’s holistic development. As they engage in organized, goal-driven play, children not only experience joy but also enhance their cognitive, physical, emotional, and social skills. This practice cultivates essential life skills like problem-solving, active participation, and cooperation. Incorporating such activities into the curriculum transforms the classroom into a nurturing environment that promotes a sense of community and individual growth, preparing students to be proactive, empathetic, and skilled individuals in the long run.

Research underscores the importance of introducing dance and movement to elementary school education. Kinesthetic movement aids in cognitive and motor skill development. It enhances focus and overall well-being while promoting neurogenesis and dopamine production. Physical activity in early childhood also correlates with improved language learning, academic achievement, attention, and working memory. Beyond these benefits, dance offers cultural and emotional advantages, serving as therapy and a medium for cultural celebration. Combining dance with music further boosts its impact on cognitive skills. Therefore, incorporating dance into the classroom is crucial for holistic development, supported by empirical evidence.