Link Up For The 4 Weeks Of The Month Of Love!

Hi, Teachers!

Every week this month, in honor of Valentine's Day and the month of LOVE, I am hosting a link up! These link ups center around my most favorite Responsive Classroom practice: Morning Meeting! Each week we'll focus on a different component of meeting, starting with this Monday (today) and ending on Monday the 22nd. You can join the link up all week!

The rules of the linkup are that you must:

• Include the above image and a link back to my blog.
• Link my post up on Monday (later on is OK too!).
• Be a good blogger and leave feedback on at least 1 other blog post.
• Share your strategy for the component of Morning Meeting that the week focuses on.

That's it! If you're wondering what a Morning Meeting is, it's only the COOLEST way to start your day and build your community. I highly recommend following the link-up. Responsive Classroom says:

Responsive Classroom Morning Meeting is an engaging way to start each day, build a strong sense of community, and set children up for success socially and academically. Each morning, students and teachers gather together in a circle for twenty to thirty minutes and interact with one another during four purposeful components: 

Greeting Students and teachers greet one other by name and practice offering hospitality.
Sharing Students share information about important events in their lives. Listeners often offer empathetic comments or ask clarifying questions.
Group Activity Everyone participates in a brief, lively activity that fosters group cohesion and helps students practice social and academic skills (for example, reciting a poem, dancing, singing, or playing a game that reinforces social or academic skills).
Morning Message Students read and interact with a short message written by their teacher. The message is crafted to help students focus on the work they’ll do in school that day.

So let's get started! Today, we'll be focusing on....

My favorite Morning Meeting Greeting is called "Baggage Claim." It's great for several reasons, including the fact that it gets kids moving and it helps kids get to know their classmates. I've written about it (and other ways to get kids moving) in this blog post.

The kids start off by writing their name on an index card and the answer to a question that you ask them. It might be an academic question or a social-emotional question. Today, for example, when my kids did this greeting, I asked them to write about one thing they like about themselves. It can honestly be that simple! Make sure they have their index cards written before Morning Meeting starts. You can include this in your "Do Now" when kids walk in. My kids know that an index card on their desk means that they need to prepare for Baggage Claim. 

Next it's time to play! The kids follow this template when they greet each other:

Basically, Partner A says "Good Morning, ____!! Let me show you what's in my bag!" Then they read off of their card. So, today my kids added, "I like myself because ___." Then Partner B did the same thing. Here's the cool part... PARTNERS A & B TRADE THEIR BAGGAGE CLAIM CARDS! This means that they have "lost their bags." When they go to greet other people, they say that they have lost their bag, but they share what is in their last partner's bags. The kids crack up when they lose their bag but get their bag again. 

I love this greeting SO MUCH because you get to learn about classmates OR, if you choose to write an academic question (like, "What is one thing you learned about butterflies?"), then students get to review important concepts. After we greet each other by using the baggage claim structure, I like to play "Who remembers?" Basically, I ask students if they remember what a particular student wrote or who wrote a particular thing on their baggage claim cards.

And on a different note... what are you doing for Valentine's Day? Have you decided yet?? My students are going to be working on a differentiated Valentine's Day logic problem at the beginning of next week. I created it! It's in my store, and it's only a dollar right now. You can check it out by clicking the picture below. It's debuting in my store at a discounted price, but the price will increase before Valentine's Day. Get it while it's cheap! The premise of the Great Chocolate Disaster problem is that your students need to help you put the chocolates back into their proper spots in the box so you can share them with a friend who has nut allergies. You don't know which chocolates are which without solving the logic problem! 

Anyway, what's your favorite Morning Meeting Greeting? Make sure to comment below and add your blog to the link up! If you're a Responsive Classroom fanatic like I am, make sure to keep checking back to learn more new tips from other teachers. Click the blue button below to add your blog post! 

An InLinkz Link-up