M is for Morning Meeting!

Each morning, the students enter the classroom, unpack for the day, check in, and sit on the carpet for our Morning Meeting.  During Morning Meeting, the class is greeted, news and announcements are shared, and then the students work together to complete several opening of the day tasks, with one student leading each activity.  As it is the beginning of the year, half of the Morning Meeting jobs have been introduced; once the students have mastered these five, the additional jobs will be introduced.  The jobs are carried out in order as they appear on our Morning Jobs chart:

The President leads the class in reciting The Pledge of Allegiance, in singing God Bless America, and in singing the Shema in both Hebrew and English.

The Calendar Helper leads us in adding the date to the calendar by turning it over and announcing what number it is (if needed, they can choose a friend to ask for help with the number).  They also help determine what day of the week yesterday was, what day today is, and what day tomorrow will be.

The Straw Counter leads us in counting how many days of school there have been.  First, they place a straw into the ones pocket of our place value pocket chart.  Then, they lead the class in counting the number of straws.  If there are less than ten, they remain in the ones pocket.  If there are ten straws, they get bundled and moved to the tens pocket and get recounted for an accurate total.  They also get to choose a bubble gum ball to place onto our 100 Days of School tracker, and lead the class in reciting our bubble gum poem before counting the total number of bubble gum balls.

 

 

The Meteorologist is responsible for checking the weather and reporting back to the class.  They move the arrow on our weather wheel to what the current weather is.  Then, they find the sticker that matches the sticker on the weather wheel (for example, a sunny day is a red sticker and a cloudy day is a green sticker) and place it on the monthly calendar below.  As the days go by, we discuss the monthly weather and compare which type of weather we have most/least frequently.

The Attendance Helper makes sure that everyone checked in before they sat on the carpet for Morning Meeting.  If someone did not check in, the Attendance Helper moves their name the the "Absent" section if they are not at school, or to the "Present" section if they forgot to check in.  Then, they complete three headcounts and find the corresponding number in the Attendance pocket--one to count the number of boys, one to count the number of girls, and one to count the total number of children present.  If any children are absent, they also count their names from the "Absent" section.

We can't wait to introduce the remaining jobs to Morning Meeting!