My 8.00 to 8.30am slice of the day is as follows.
A calming three minute meditation, gentle music, laced with words invite my students into class after the bell goes. This settles them down for our morning meeting.
I learned about this here at my new school as I keep adding new mindfulness routines to my repertoire. My Thoughts are Clouds is a book I read often to my fifth graders, last year. They loved the short poems. This calmness sets the scene for most of the morning.
Wednesday mornings are really exciting in my third grade class, as my students get thrilled about sharing their stories. This is a routine I started recently after reading about it elsewhere (I can’t remember where). We call it , ‘What’s The News?’. They have a few minutes to write and illustrate a short story about their week, day or holiday, on small pieces of paper. Students are welcome to write about anything!
The morning message, schedule and notices are read. Then a scheduled sharing by one of the students. They sign up and look forward to having their turn to share photos, books or artefacts. The excitement could be because they are welcome to share any of their interests AND they also have an attentive audience.
That ends our morning meeting ! The first lesson begins.
GIFTS 
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