Inside Scoop on Amazing Morning Meeting Games
Starting your day off with morning meeting games is a sure way to get your students feeling positive, energized, and ready to learn! It is also the BEST way for them to have fun while not even realizing they are practicing those oh so important social emotional skills. WIN WIN! There are hundred of games and activities for you to choose from! Let’s dive in together about what exactly morning meeting activities are and how you can best utilize them during your daily morning meeting.
The game is the third component of a Responsive Classroom Morning Meeting. The other parts are the greeting, sharing, and the message. The graphic below shows the order and how they flow together to facilitate a cohesive beautiful morning meeting!
What are Morning Meeting Games?
Each day during Morning Meeting it is part of the routine to play a 5-7 minute game or activity. These games can be academic driven or they can be more focused on social emotional growth. Students participating in these activities daily promotes bonding and relationship building.
There are a variety of categories of morning meeting games that you can choose from in order to have your students working on specific skills. All games are low risk, inclusive, and meant to promote relationship building.
The directions of the games are simple and easy to understand so that you can teach it to your students on the same day that they play the game. My Morning Meeting Games Slides make it easy to share the directions digitally with your students and explain them!
Importance of Morning Meeting Activities
- starts students’ day on a fun, positive, energetic note
- gets their bodies and minds moving
- give students opportunities to grow relationships, for new friendships, and play with others
- creates a bond across the whole class being on a team together
- students learn each others’ strengths
- practice self control
- get to showcase a different side of themselves to their classmates outside of their academic abilities **HUGE for some kids to have this chance**
- engage in critical thinking opportunities
- HAVE FUN!
Tips for Leading Successful Games
Not all morning meeting games are active, but some do incorporate movement. It can be intimidating to facilitate games where students are getting energetic and silly! Reading some activity directions I remember thinking that I didn’t become a gym teacher for a reason, how can I do this?! YOU CAN! Your students know that your classroom is not gym class and you can help to make that clear to them. Pick games that you are comfortable with and your students will be comfortable.
- utilize categories of greetings to start with calm and simple interactions
- consider cooperative verse competitive activities based on the personality of your class
- before you try any big movement games such as a version of tag, move around your room yourself and make sure there is enough space to be safe
- for any games that involve touching or light tapping- make sure to have expectation conversations and model appropriate touching with your students so that they know the boundaries before they even begin
- the energy and tone that you set at the beginning of the year will stick- students will quickly learn and respect the game limits in your classroom
Incorporate Social Emotional Feedback/ Praise
- don’t make it obvious that your intention of choosing that game is to practice respect (or whichever skill it is)
- give specific positive feedback when you notice a student showing the focus sel skill not just good job
- I notice ______ showed good sportsmanship they way he _________
I have 4 FREE animal themed activities to share with you! I hope that you can try these out with your students to have a great time learning and growing together. Click the image above or the button below to access the free download!
More Fun Morning Meeting Game Resources for you!
- Morning Meeting Games Cards
- Game Slides
- 40 Weeks of Morning Meeting Preplanned
- Activities Ultimate Bundle
- Activities Seasonal Bundle