What is a Morning Meeting and Closing Circle? Ideas for an Elementary Classroom

Morning Meeting and Closing Circle is part of “Responsive Classroom.” There are great resources on their website and they have many books that cover morning meeting and many other things in the classroom.

My school adopted the “Responsive Classroom” way of doing things, so I have had many trainings on this topic. I really enjoy Morning Meeting and Closing Circle. It is a great way to start and end the day. I felt like it helped my classroom environment and overall attitudes of my students in a positive way.

Although I did have training on the “Responsive Classroom” way of doing things, I did change the Morning Meeting and Closing Circle just a bit to make it fit in my classroom.

Here I will walk you through what this is and how I implemented it in my classroom.

What is a Morning Meeting?

A Morning Meeting is a group meeting with the whole class every morning. This helps to start the day on a positive note. Included are a greeting, sharing, activity, and morning message. I schedule about 15 minutes for my classroom Morning Meeting. Sometimes they are shorter, but I do not go over 15 minutes.

How to Implement a Morning Meeting and Classroom Management Tips

The first thing I do is teach procedures for the morning. In my school, the students eat breakfast in the classroom. So, part of my morning procedures is to eat breakfast then complete the morning meeting procedures (agenda, unpack, sharpen pencils, etc.) I give 15 minutes to do this. I will set a timer for 15 minutes, and when the timer goes off students need to be on the floor in a circle to start Morning Meeting.

I have my students sit on the floor in a circle to do Morning Meeting, this way everyone can see everyone else. I sit in the circle with the students. When we are in the circle, I tell my students they need to be respectful of everyone else. This means no shouting out, raising a hand if you want to speak, and being kind to others.

I also have a Morning Meeting Leader as one of my classroom jobs. This student is responsible for running Morning Meeting, picking activities, or calling students to share. I monitor the Morning Meeting most days, but it is nice to have this student know what to do if a sub is ever there.

I also have my morning procedures and the schedule for the Morning Meeting in a PowerPoint that I project each day so the students can look at it if they forget what to do. My timer is also imbedded in the PowerPoint so this is another reason I always bring it up.

Greeting

The first part of the Morning Meeting is a greeting. This is a little game or activity to help everyone say “Good Morning” to each other. You can find all kinds of different greetings online. My favorite is “Friendly Touch” or “Pass the Ball.” 

Friendly Touch is where the first student fist bumps, hugs, high fives, or any touch that is “friendly” to the next student. When they do the friendly touch, they have to say “Good Morning (student name).” This is passed around the circle, while everyone says good morning to the person next to him or her. 

“Pass the Ball” is a simple greeting. I pass a ball to one student and say “Good Morning (student name).” Then that student passes the ball to another student and says, “Good Morning (student name).” Once all students have got the ball, the last student will pass the ball back to me. 

Sharing

This is a time in the morning meeting for students to share something about their lives. Normally, my students love to share, so I pick one student to share each day. Sometimes, I have a schedule and write down the students who want to share on certain days. 

Students can share something that happened to them, a funny story, or even bring in something to share (usually pictures or drawings, NO toys). I let the student share what they wanted. When they are done, I allow the student to ask for questions, comments, compliments, or connections. All other students raise their hand if they have something to say, and the student that shares can call on 3 students and respond. When this is over, the student that shared says, “Thank you for listening” to the whole group and the whole group says back, “Thank you for sharing.”

Sometimes you will have groups of students who don’t like to share. If no one wants to share, I will have talking questions and go around the circle and have everyone add to the conversation. This could be something like “What went well this week so far?” or “What is your favorite food?” I just choose something simple to talk about that everyone can add in. Sometimes, I might ask them what certain quotes mean to them.

I find sharing to be an important part of Morning Meeting. I think it is so important for students to be able to talk about themselves. This is a great time to learn valuable communication skills. It is also beneficial for everyone to feel comfortable enough to share in the classroom, which leads to a positive learning environment. I also like learning little things about the students. It is a great way to make connections.

Activity

This is my student’s favorite part of Morning Meeting. The activity is just a short game that the students play. I normally don’t tie anything educational into this game. It is just for fun. My students love to play Quiet Ball, 20 Questions, and Telephone, just to name a few. 

This is a good way to get the day started on a good note. The students need to know that they can have breaks from time to time. This is also a good time for students to learn valuable communication skills, like how to communicate to others, how to play fairly, and how to take turns.

Morning Message

Morning Message during Morning Meeting is typically a short paragraph that the teacher writes about the events of the day. However, I do not do this for Morning Message. I do find that this time on the floor together is a good time for class discussions or to tell the students if there is anything going on for the day. Normally, I just tell them this verbally at the very beginning of Morning Meeting or at the end.

The way I do Morning Message is I write a question on the board for the students to answer. This question can be something educational or it could be just for fun. The students can answer the question by writing on the board with markers during the morning procedure time.

When it is time for Morning Message, the leader reads the message and then reads everyone’s response to the question. Sometimes, we have a discussion about it, but most of the time it is short.

What is Closing Circle?

Closing Circle is very similar to Morning Meeting but it happens at the end of the day. I do a closing circle after pack up/end of the day procedures. Normally, my closing circle is about 10 minutes. A closing circle wraps up the day in a positive way. Everyone leaves on a good note. A closing circle usually consists of a share time, celebration, and activity.

I will do a Closing Circle in a circle on the floor, just like the Morning Meeting.

Sharing in Closing Circle

Since I give students time to share individually at the beginning of the day, I don’t do individual sharing at the end of the day. Normally, I will ask the students what they learned today or their favorite part of the day. I will then go around the circle and ask each student to answer the question.

Usually, the types of questions I do during this time are reflections of the day or week relating to our school day together. I think this is a great time to reflect on everything we learned throughout the day.

Celebration

Students just finished another day of learning, so this is a cause to celebrate! There are cute chants that you can do to end the day. Two chants that I really like to end the day are:

Give This Group a Hand

Students stand in a circle and chant:

We’re gonna give . . . this . . . group a hand.

We’re gonna give this group a hand. (Clap twice)

We’re gonna give . . . this . . . group a hand.

We’re gonna give this group a hand. (Clap twice)

So raise your hands up in the air, (Raise hands)

And pat your neighbor . . . right there. (Pat neighbors’ shoulders)

Circle of Hands

Each person puts their right hand into the middle of the circle and makes a fist with their thumb extended to the left.

Then, everyone connects hands: Each fist grasps the thumb of the person to the right.

Holding this circle of hands, the class chants, “We are a class that helps each other!” three times, then raises their hands into the air, breaking them apart.

You can look up celebrations online, but you could also just tell the students that they did a good job today and end with clapping for each other.

Activity

This is an activity just like we do in Morning Meeting. Sometimes, students will do the same one we did in the morning. This is just another way to end the day on a good note.

Sometimes we are really short on time at the end of the day, so we might skip a full activity. In this case, I will do something quick like, “Everyone with blue, line up to go home.” This is just a quick little activity if we run out of time.

I hope this was helpful to you! Morning Meeting and Closing Circle are so important for communication skills and social skills. It is something that we need to take time to teach during the busy school day, so this time is so valuable!

Thank you for Continually Learning with us!

Kyle and Sarah