99 Activities and Greetings

99 Activities and Greetings by Melissa Correa-Connolly is a collection of ideas to support and extend a morning meeting routine.  It compliments The Morning Meeting book by Roxann Kriete, which is a great book to read giving you a basic understanding and ideas to get started with morning meetings.  A morning meeting has four components; Greeting, Sharing, Activity and Morning Message.  A morning meeting is begins the day thinking and working on social and academic skills.  Even more importantly, a morning meeting builds community.  While building community students are taking risks, making choices, problem solving, using self control, participating actively, and cooperation.  Both of these books are written for primary, intermediate, and middle school students.  

The greeting component does just as the name says, it greets each child and sets a positive tone for the day.  Starting each day with a greeting helps community members learn names.  Calling a new friend by name provides a sense of belonging and builds relationships.  A greeting routine also helps provide an opportunity to practice manners.  A group activity component is short and a bit lively.  It often gets student's moving and active.  The activities often suggested for this part of the morning meeting allow for each student to participate at their own level.  It's a fun way to be engaged and work on social skills.  Melissa Correa-Connolly has been collecting different greetings and activities for several years and compiled them in to a resource for anyone looking to extend or start a morning routine in their class.  There are a lot of ideas to try and keep the structure of a morning routine fresh and alive with 99 Activities and Greetings.  I can't wait to try Chicka Boom for a greeting and Just Like Me as our activity for the week.

Responsive Classroom at www.responsiveclassroom.org has a wealth resources.  I love their by-line, "A practical approach to creating safe, challenging, and joyful elementary classrooms and schools."