Morning Meetings

My school district is in the process of providing teachers with a 4 day training for Responsive Classroom. One of the important components of a Responsive Classroom is implementing Morning Meetings. 

This school year, I have make a concentrated effort to implement morning meetings with my class every day. As soon as my students are finished with their morning routine, and I am finished with taking attendance and lunch count, we make our way over to our meeting area on the carpet. 

We begin with the greeting, sharing, the activity, and then our morning message. 

During the sharing portion of the morning meeting, I frequently like to share a short inspirational video clip to my students. They spark our discussion and/or lead to a writing prompt as the students transition back to their seats. 

Below is a list of inspiration videos that I have shared during our morning meetings, which my students have loved!

1. Microsoft 2018 Holiday Ad UPDATE: CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS VIDEO! Microsoft 2018 Holiday Commercial

There are so many different discussions that can stem from this video. I like to use this video to teach about inclusion and making everyone feel welcome. The kid playing the game is Owen Simmons, a 9-year-old who was born with a rare genetic disorder called Escobar Syndrome.“When everybody plays, we all win,” the ad’s tagline reads.

2. Kindness Boomerang- “One Day” 

Oh my. This video gives me chills and makes me cry EVERY TIME. It is a beautiful song in the background that my kids just love. I show the video the first time without any explanation. After they see it for the first time, we talk about how each person in the video had a random act of kindness performed on them and then they did the same to someone else. It is beautiful when the students notice that the video starts with the kindness of the construction worker, and then ends with kindness given to the construction worker- just like a boomerang. My students are obsessed with this video. We can watch it over and over and it never gets old. This leads to a discussion about simple, kind, random acts of kindness and students write about their experience after our morning meeting. 

3. Samsung Official Ostrich Commercial – Do What You Can’t Do

I first saw this video during the Super Bowl last year. I immediately forwarded the video to my school email address so I would remember to show it to my students on Monday morning. Ostriches can’t fly. In this video, the ostrich believes in himself and “does what he can’t do”….which is fly. There is an Elton John Song in the background, so this is also a great way to teach inferencing. For example, we discuss how the other ostriches are “laughing” at him when he stumbles as he tries to fly. 
We then lead this to a discussion of “What is something you think you can’t do?” Or “What is something that someone told you you can’t do and you want to prove them wrong?” After our sharing, students write about this in their journal. 

4. Liberty Mutual Commercial “Pay it Forward”

This is very short video, and it has words to it because it is a commercial for an insurance company, so I just mute the volume. I want my students to see examples of simple and thoughtful acts of kindness that these strangers did for each other. This sparks a discussion about if they ever did something nice to a stranger or if a stranger ever did something nice to them. 

5. Heartwarming Thai Pay It Forward Commercial 

An absolutely beautiful commercial that gets me every time. The man in the video sees a homeless little girl with her mom, begging for money on the streets. The man gives money to the family and also provides other acts of kindness (feeding stray dog, helping his neighbors). One day, he is ready to visit the homeless mom and daughter again, when the little girl is not there. The commercial ends with the little girl running to her mom in her school uniform, as the money was saved for her education. I literally have tears in my eyes as I am writing this summary. It is just beautiful. This is a great video to show diversity (the captions are in English,) the value of kindness, and the joy in giving and receiving nothing in return. This gives a beautiful message of how the man receives something that money can’t buy- happiness from helping others. 

Ripple: To the Good Samaritans in Our Lives: Pay It, Forward

This is a longer video, almost 6 minutes. I am not going to give any summary of this video. I want you to watch it for yourself and see how this can lead to a beautiful, rich, and meaningful discussion with your students. 

I hope that you share one or more of these inspiring videos with your students. Even if you don’t use them as part of your morning meeting, you can certainly use them as inspiration for reading and writing lessons. Drop me a message and let me know how it goes!