Morning meeting activities are a great way to get students engaged and set the tone for the rest of the day. These fun games can be simple and quick or more complicated and interactive.
Try a Follow the Leader dance-off or an academic imaginings game. These games encourage peer recognition and help students practice their communication skills.
1. Icebreaker Questions
Get your students engaged in conversation by posing fun or thought-provoking questions as the first morning meeting activity. These questions are also great for sparking classroom discussions.
Play a game of Simon Says to increase listening skills. One team member acts as the leader and shouts out commands. Other team members must obey only orders that start with “Simon says…”. This is a great game for a remote team.
2. Quote of the Day
Add a dash of inspiration to your morning meetings with a daily quote. This can help your team focus and refocus their energy.
Whether it’s a silly joke or a funny story, starting your meeting with humour is an easy way to make everyone laugh. Laughter can increase team receptiveness and engagement. It also helps to break down barriers between teammates.
3. Bingo
Playing bingo during morning meetings can help everyone pay attention throughout the meeting while poking fun at routines and meeting protocols. Create custom bingo cards that include things that happen in team meetings or common phrases used by managers.
This strategy works well for remote meetings because it can be played through Zoom’s text chat feature. Encourage participants to choose a specific emoji that best describes them.
4. Scavenger Hunt
A scavenger hunt is a fun way to get everyone involved in morning meeting activities. Try hiding clues that are a little out of the ordinary, like a stuffed animal or a Jenga set.
Use the “Yes, and…” strategy to add an academic imagining element to your morning meeting. See how many different answers your students can come up with! It’s a great way to teach traveling vocabulary.
5. Character Traits
Morning meeting activities that incorporate character traits help students learn to respect one another while also promoting positive social behaviors and emotions. Some include social-emotional learning skills like responsibility or kindness and others focus on academic skills, such as analyzing pictures or solving problems.
Morning meetings can also include games and brain teasers that align with curriculum standards. For example, one strategy has students stand in a circle and challenge each other to mirror movement, incorporating physical education standards.
6. Social-Emotional Learning Skills
Morning meetings are a great way to teach students social-emotional learning strategies. Those skills are important for all learners, but they’re especially critical for young students.
Have students form a line by birthday month and order themselves without talking. Another fun cooperative activity is the human knot.
Pose a fun or thought-provoking question of the day during morning meeting. Use sticky notes for students to write down their answers, fostering meaningful conversations.
7. Question of the Day
Morning meetings are an important opportunity to foster community and encourage communication. Asking students to share can build empathy and strengthen classroom relationships.
One easy way to include shares is with a “Yes, And…” question. This strategy allows students to practice speaking and listening in a low-stakes environment. It also helps to reinforce the importance of active listening.
8. Sticky Notes
Students can write down their solutions to problems on sticky notes as a way to build collaboration within their teams. This also promotes social-emotional learning skills in a fun way!
Have students greet classmates by rolling or bouncing a ball to one student and having them share a short greeting. Continue to rotate to different classmates until everyone has been greeted.
9. Freeze Dance
Using morning meeting activities that engage students and foster social-emotional learning skills helps to make these often dreaded meetings meaningful and productive. These high-interest games, discussions, and exercises also promote academic learning in a more casual environment than traditional lessons.
Have students find a partner and stand so they can see each other clearly. One student starts to move their body, and the other imitates their movements.
10. Story Starter
A morning message is a great way to share the date and set the tone for the day. It also helps students get the structure they need to feel safe in class.
Have students work in pairs. One partner starts by moving, such as shaking an arm or raising a leg. Their partner then follows them.
Try using arts integration strategies as morning meeting activities, such as Stepping Into the Painting or Yes, And.