Grade Level: First Grade

Topic: Morning Meeting

Enduring Understandings: (What big idea(s) will students understand as a result of this
lesson?)
-Communication fosters a better classroom community.
-Being a good listener shows respect to other students.
Essential Questions: (What question(s) will students grapple with as they learn through this
lesson?)
-How do students show they are being good listeners?
Primary Content Objectives:
Students will know:
-The names of each student.
-Back to school night is a chance for their parents to see what first grade is like.
Students will be able to do: (skills and behaviors)
-Greet other students with eye contact and speaking voices.
-Follow classroom listening expectations; Sitting crisscross, waiting your turn to speak, raising
hands, and listening to other students and the teacher.
Related state or national standards:
Civics:
1.10 The student will apply the traits of a good citizen by
a) focusing on fair play, exhibiting good sportsmanship, helping others, and treating others
with respect;
Oral Language:
1.3 The student will adapt or change oral language to fit the situation.
a) Initiate conversation with peers and adults.
b) Follow rules for conversation using appropriate voice level in small-group settings.
c) Ask and respond to questions.
d) Follow simple two-step oral directions.

Assessment:
Pre-assessment:
The teacher will remind the students of the skills to use when greeting others. The teacher will
ask, What are some things to remember when we greet our friends in morning meeting?
(looking at the person you are greeting, eye contact, using a speaking voice, smiling).
Formative:

The students will participate in the ball roll greeting. The students will have to roll a ball to
another student in the circle, and say Good morning ________. This greeting will give the
students an opportunity to practice their greeting skills that were discussed.
Materials and Resources:
-A small ball.
-Paper
-Smartboard/projector
Key Vocabulary and Definitions:
-Back to school night: A night where students parents visit to learn about their childs classroom.
Lesson Procedures:
1. Introduction and goal orientation: Minutes 0-2
-The teacher will direct the students to come to the carpet and make a circle for morning
meeting. The teacher will remind the students to clean up their spaces before coming to
the circle, and to sit crisscross.
-Once seated, the teacher will greet the class, and remind the students of good listening
expectations (the teacher will gesture to the good listener poster in the front of the
classroom). How are we good listeners when we sit in morning meeting? The teacher
will remind students to raise their hands if they have something to add. The students will
say, We sit crisscross, we listen with our ears, we have our eyes on the person speaking,
we have our hands still beside us.
-The teacher will then explain that they will do a new greeting this morning.
2. Connecting to prior knowledge and experiences: Minutes 2-6
-The teacher will say, When we have done our other greetings, what have been some
ways that we have been good greeters? How do we greet our friends? (Eye, contact,
speaking voices, asking a friends name if you are unsure, smiling).
-The teacher can scaffold these answers by modeling a good friendly handshake vs. a not
good friendly handshake. What do you notice? The teacher can explain that the same
skills are used in every greeting.
3. Tasks and activities: Minutes 6-20
-The teacher will then introduce the new greeting. Our new greeting is called the ball
roll. We are going to roll the ball to another friend in the circle. This can even be a friend
at the other side of the circle. Im going to show you how we do it with (a student
volunteer). The volunteer should ideally be a student at the other side of the circle so that
the students can see that you do not need to roll to a person right beside you. Watch me.
Good morning _____ as the teacher rolls the ball to that student. The teacher should be
sure to have eye contact, a loud voice and a friendly smile while doing this greeting.
-Once demonstrating, the teacher will ask, What did you notice?

-The students should notice the greeting skills discussed earlier, and how the teacher
safely rolled the ball (i.e. no throwing, the ball is just gently rolled). The teacher should
reinforce the safely/gently rolling the ball, and will demonstrate this to students again.
The teacher will also tell the students, When you have already had the ball rolled to you,
put both hands across your chest (demonstrate), so we know which friends still need a
turn.
-When the teacher believes the students are ready, s/he will begin the greeting by rolling
the ball to another student and saying Good morning _____. The students will continue
this greeting until every student in the circle has been greeting.
-If students are rolling the ball to the same person, the teacher can pause the greeting and
ask, Who still has not gotten the ball rolled to them? Say the students names, so that
the other students know who still needs a turn. The teacher can keep scaffolding this
process if it is an issue.
-The teacher can have the students do this greeting a second time if time permits.
-The teacher will close the greeting by praising the students for their direction following,
and saying good morning again.
-The teacher will direct the students attention to the whiteboard to go over the days
information. Today is Wednesday, September 16th. Our host today is ______, and our
hostess is ______. When we have journal sharing time our sharers are __________.
-The teacher will then ask the host/hostess to go up to the white board and follow along
with the pointer as the morning message is read. The teacher reads each line first, and
then together as a class.
-Morning message: Good morning friends! Today we will enjoy library. Tonight is
back to school night. What would you like your parents to see?
-The teacher will ask the host to sit down back down.
-The teacher will ask, What does back to school night mean? It is likely the student will
know that it is a night that their parents visit the classroom. The teacher will clarify the
meaning to the students that back to school night is a chance for the parents to visit, and
get to learn all about what their child is learning and doing in first grade. If a student says
that his/her parent can come, the teacher can let them know that you will send home
information in the daily folder all about back to school night.
-The teacher will ask, What are some things you would like your parents to learn about
our first grade class? (table groups, class rules, brag tags, centers, writing journals, play
dough, displayed artwork).
-The teach will record the students responses on the smartboard.
-If students do not mention some important things (i.e. displayed artwork, classroom
rules, brag tags), the teacher can ask What about _____? Do we think this would be
important for our parents to know?
-Once a list is complete, the teacher will read the list aloud to the students.
-The teacher will also ask, Is there anything special that you would like me to show to
your parents? Any responses should be recorded as well.
4. Closure: Minutes 20-25
-The teacher will close the lesson, by practicing the friendly handshake.

-The teacher will ask, Which hand is our right hand? Students might not know, so the
teacher will direct the students to the left and right hands above the board. Face the
board and put up your two hands. The teacher will show the students which one is their
right hand.
-The teacher will then ask, Why do we need to shake with our right hands? The
students should know that without two right hands, the hands do not fit into a nice
handshake. The teacher will demonstrate this to the students by doing a wrong and
good handshake. (Good morning _____ while shaking hands).
-The teacher will ask the students to remind each other about what a friendly handshake
is. We talked about many of these things while doing our ball roll greeting (eye contact,
smile, loud voice). The teacher will also ask, How should our handshakes feel? (firm
vs. limp). The teacher will model this for the students.
-The students will then go around the circle and practice their friendly handshakes.
-Once the students have completed successful friendly handshakes. The teacher will end
the morning meeting, You all did a great job with our new greeting this morning, and it
was so nice learning about what you want your parents to learn tonight. We will make
sure to show them all of the things on our list!
-The teacher will then call students by table group to return to their seats.
Accommodations for individual differences: (How will the lesson be differentiated to support
diverse learners? Describe additional supports that can be used for re-teaching if needed, and a
challenging extension for students for demonstrate mastery quickly or show evidence of a lot of
prior knowledge.)
-The pace of the morning meeting can be adjusted for all learners. Directions can be reviewed
multiple times if necessary, and students will have the opportunity to raise their hand to ask
questions about anything they are unsure of.
-The teacher can do extensive modeling for students who need help mastering any of the greeting
skills. The teacher can also allow students to practice the greeting with a neighbor before doing
the greeting in front of the whole class. This might make students feel more comfortable with the
greeting. The teacher can use students who show mastery of the skills as volunteers in modeling
the greetings.
Behavioral and organizational strategies:
-The teacher will use frequent modeling of all behavior and skills used in the morning meeting.
The teacher will be modeling how to sit in the circle, how to speak clearly, and how to be a good
listener. The teacher will also take the time to review the listening expectations with the students
before beginning. If a student breaks the expectations, the teacher can remind the student, and
ask how do we sit/listen/speak when we are being good listeners?
-If students have issues with good listening, the teacher should use positive comments rather than
negative ones. For example, ______ is doing being a good listener by sitting in his/her spot and
having his/her eyes on me. This will be an example for all students, and encourage them to
follow that model.
-The greetings will also be modeled for the students. This will also include how to safely roll the
ball (so that students do not get too wild with the ball and become off-task). The teacher should
be sure that the ball roll is modeled gently and explicitly before beginning the greeting.