Morning Meetings have really grown on me! As we continue to meet children where they are at and fill gaps in their learning, I have been incorporating all kinds of social, emotional, and academic content into our daily morning routine. Here are four morning meeting math greetings:
Place Value Pals
Math Focus: Place Value – Numbers in Base Ten and Fractions
Give students practice with place value! Hand each child an index card with a three or four digit number on it. Choose a digit 0 to 9 and say something like, “Anyone with a 2 in the hundreds place can stand up and greet another classmate.” Students whose number fits the description can greet each other with a handshake and hello before returning to the circle. Repeat until all students have been greeted at least once.
You could totally make this work for fractions, too! Try prompts like:
- If your fraction is equivalent to 2/3, please stand up.
- If your fraction is less than 1/2, please stand up.
- If your fraction is greater than one, please stand up.
Roll a Fast Fact
Math Focus: Operations and Algebraic Thinking – Basic Facts, Fact Fluency
Have students sit in a circle. The first student rolls a pair of dice and says a math fact with the numbers rolled. For example: if a student rolls 5 and 6, they could say 5 + 6 = 11 OR 5 x 6 = 30 OR 6 – 5 = 1 OR well, you get the idea! Have the rest of the class repeat the math fact out loud and greet their elbow partner (i.e. the person sitting immediately to their left or right). Continue rolling dice until each classmate has had a turn.
Looking for a challenge? Try not to repeat any math facts! Record all equations on a whiteboard or chart paper. If students get stuck, let them roll the die again to get a different number combination.
Match Game
Math Focus: Operations and Algebraic Thinking – Equations
You’ll need to do some light prep work for this morning meeting greeting. Prepare index cards with equations: one card should have the problem and the other should have the solution. Give each student a card and invite them to mix and mingle. (I like to hand out the cards as students walk into class.) Students should be looking for their match. When they find the other half to their card, they can give each other a friendly greeting and sit. (If you’re in a circle, the student with the mathematical expression should sit to the right of the student with the corresponding answer and then put their completed equation in the middle of the circle or on the whiteboard so that it is visible to the rest of the group.) Once everyone has found their match, go around the circle announcing the equation to the rest of the class.
Skip It!
Math Focus: Counting and Cardinality – Number Sense, Basic Facts
This greeting requires a lot of brain — and fact — power! Begin by announcing the number everyone must skip. In my upper elementary classroom, this looks something like this: “skip multiples of 4.” Students then go around the circle counting one by one until we reach a multiple of 4. If that student is a multiple of 4, they would say “skip it!” and we would all greet that student before continuing around the circle.
My trusty morning meeting book goes about it differently: Pick a student to announce the number of spaces everyone will skip. For example: a student might say “skip four” and walk around the circle to the fifth person and greet them. The greeter then would take that personโs place and sit down. The student who was greeted then gets up to walk around the circle to the fifth person, greets them, switches places, and sits down. This continues until everyone in the circle has been greeted in this way.
ACTIONABLE STEPS: Try a math-focused morning meeting greeting! For even more engaging Morning Meeting dialogue, purchase these WODB prompts that have nothing to do with math.. or do they? You can read all about them here.
WORK CITED: Kriete, Roxann, and Carol Davis. The Morning Meeting Book: 3rd Edition. Center for Responsive Schools, 2014.
