Incorporating Time & $$$ into Morning Meeting

Miss Knight asked how everyone incorporates time and money into their morning meeting. My routine is a variation of J.Meacham's calendar routine.

This is our complete morning routine:

7:10 a.m. Come into the classroom with Dr. Jean's "Welcome back" playing. Hang up backpacks. Meet at the carpet for "Rise and Shine" "Hello Neighbor" and "Shake a Hand" (all Dr. Jean songs set on my "morning" playlist on itunes). Return to desks when "Have a seat" begins.

7:15 a.m. School officially starts- students get out their morning work packet. A "packet" consists of one month's calendar documents, 2 sided and stapled together. I turn on classical music- usually Baby Einstein's Baby Galileo because it is very peaceful. The students WILL request it if I forget to turn it on!

Click here for the Google doc version of my morning meeting activities

**I'm having trouble with the format! This is a regular word document, but when I upload it into Google docs, my spacing is waaaay off. Help please!

This is my first year to use this set up. I like that there is a set routine, but it can be made more advanced as the year progresses. I have a section of my board that corresponds to each topic on this sheet. Every day the students: complete a pattern, identify the amount of coins, tell time and what time it would be one hour before/after, complete a fact family (I now only give them 2 numbers- they have to add or subtract to get the third), complete a calendar, work with place value and tally marks, and alphabetize 5 words.

What I don't like about this: the graph. I am going to replace this with something new... maybe more math facts? I'm open to suggestions! :)

Variations: My amazing buddy that teaches K has a simpler version (also from JMeacham) that is on laminated file folders.

What I LOVE about her version: she has velcro strips and the kids actually place coins to make the amount for that day. On my version, they simple draw the coins- example: 1 inside a circle represents a penny.

A student guides the rest of the class in checking their work. I'm going to start taking these up for a daily grade.

I don't think I have any pictures of my board yet. I will try to take some if we have school tomorrow- we had a freak snow blizzard today!

Also, for my "early finishers" I use word ladders. I started this because I thought I was going to have to teach reading intervention to a small group during this time. However, that is not the current arrangement- but the word ladders stuck! The book I am using is geared towards 2nd grade, but my little kiddos LOVE them. It is a great vocabulary and fluency builder! I was shocked at how much the kids love these.

So after we have finished checking our morning work, we move to the carpet. I have all the student names listed on a ring. I have one person who is the calendar helper/line leader for the day.