Build Classroom Community with these No Prep Morning Meeting (or any time) Slides!
If you’ve found your way here, you probably love morning meeting. Maybe you’re new to it and looking for ideas or maybe you’ve done it forever and are always looking for new activities. Both of these describe me at different points of my teaching career.
I’ve been teaching for over 11 years now and I flirted with morning meeting many a time before finally committing a few years ago. There are two main reasons I kept stopping and starting without maintaining any fidelity.
- It was exhausting continuously searching for cute games or activities to engage and excite my students while actually adding value to our community.
- I had no time. I couldn’t (and still can’t) commit to daily 20-30 minute morning meetings.
I decided to create something that solved both of my problems. No-prep slides with questions, activities, and games to keep them interacting and engaged while not requiring a big chunk of time.
Some of my shy, quiet kids take weeks or months to feel comfortable enough to voluntarily speak in the classroom. So many learning opportunities are lost when students can’t advocate for themselves or participate in the lesson. It is because of this that I wanted to create games that everyone could contribute to, even if it was a quick one-word response. If I could get them speaking in a low-stakes environment, it is a foothold into building a comfort with conversation in the classroom.
*Scroll to the bottom to download a FREE week of resources.
I put some slides together and my students loved the switch up from our normal morning routine. They got excited about morning meeting which got me excited and I just kept creating slides. I compiled all those slides I created and posted them to my TPT. If you are looking to enhance your morning routine with a morning meeting your students will be asking for, this resource will be helpful for you!
I started doing a 20 minute morning meeting on Mondays and a 5-10 minute meeting every other day of the week. Each activity slide can act as a stand alone, so we were squeezing in activities during transitions or at the end of the day.
What’s Included in each month’s Community Builders?
- Birthday slide to celebrate student birthdays
- Slides for student of the day or student of the week
- Share & Shine (show & tell) slides
- Activity/Game slides (shown below)
How are the August through December slides set up?
There are FIVE slides/activities for each of the categories listed below:
⭐DID YOU KNOW: This activity works like a FQR activity. Each slide has a fact and students have to respond to the fact with a statement or a question. This is a warm-up to get the students comfortable with sharing, questioning, and discussing interesting facts.
⭐GAME TIME: The games can be used for virtual or in person class as a fun way to get students excited and thinking.
⭐WORD OF THE DAY: The word of the day comes with a definition, example, and discussion question. This activity will build vocabulary and provide an opportunity for students to discuss.
⭐SPEED ROUND: This is the quickest activity. Each slide has a question that can be answered in one word, the students race to each answer the question one at a time to beat a previous class time score. This activity always gets even my most shy students participating.
⭐THIS OR THAT: Students are asked to choose between two things. Students will get to explain their choice and debate others. It is a great way to teach students how to kindly and effective respond to one another.
⭐VIDEO PLAYBACK: Each slide is linked to a calming, stretching, or breathing video on YouTube to help students reflect and relax.
⭐FEATURE DAYS: Two of the feature days will be a themed class day and the other three are links to virtual field trips.
How are the January through June slides set up?
The Community Builders for the second half of the year are laid out a bit differently. This is because students who have been participating in this type of morning meeting all year are ready for more partner/small group talk and might enjoy a shake up in their normal routine. These months have 4 weeks of activities and each day has 3 activities.
MONDAY
⭐2 Truths & 1 Lie: Students choose which fact out of 3 they think is untrue. Students will discuss and defend their choice.
⭐Zoomed In: Students try to guess what they are looking at in the zoomed in photo.
⭐Game of the Week: There are 4 games in a resource. Each week students are introduced to a new game that they play each day.
TUESDAY
⭐This or That: Students choose between two competing options and share why they picked their choice.
⭐Talk About It: Students share and discuss to answer a discussion question.
⭐Game of the Week
WEDNESDAY
⭐Word of the Week: Students learn a new word and answer a prompt related to the word.
⭐Weekly Themed Video: Each month has it’s own “theme” that each Wednesday video will be connected to.
⭐Game of the Week
THURSDAY
⭐Travel Time: Students learn about another country through pictures and a short video clip.
⭐Think Tank: Students work together in pairs or groups to solve a problem or create a design in response to a prompt.
⭐Game of the Week
FRIDAY
⭐Feature Day or Field Trip: Students enjoy a virtual field trip or in-class “Feature Day” (spirit day).
⭐Draw It: Students choose between two options for their weekly drawing challenge.
⭐Game of the Week
Want to give these community builders a try in your classroom? Grab a FREE week of slides by click below.
Let me know how your students enjoy the resources,
Adrienne
