Morning Meetings at WES
Starting Each Day Centered in Community
For most WES students, the school day properly begins with Morning Meeting. This ritual establishes community and allows the students to prepare for their day of learning and fun in a calm and organized manner.
Classes typically gather in a circle with their teacher, who has posted a schedule for the day that students can read or talk about. They also say hello to each other with warmth, reminding everyone that their learning is interconnected and includes WES’s motto: “Be Kind.” This week, for example, Cameron Yeutter’s Grade 3 class started its meeting by having each student gently toss a paper airplane to a classmate with a kind, individual message of “Good morning.”
That same morning, both Grade 2 classes held their Morning Meeting together, with Elementary Director Courtney Clark joining the circle to read aloud Will You be the “I” in Kind by Julia Cook — a story reinforcing the importance of students being “upstanders” who treat others the way they would like to be treated. Barbora Bridle’s Grade 5 class used Morning Meeting to prepare for the day, including each student answering the question: “If you were going to be sent to a desert island, what human and three things would you bring?” The class affirmed each other’s choices and got to know each other better by listening with care.
Grade 5 student Campbell explains that Morning Meeting “usually involves a game, gets you in a better mood for the day, and helps you collect important information.” Their classmate Layla agrees. “You see your schedule for the day, but it is a relaxing moment. You aren’t under pressure, and it gets you ready.”
“Morning Meetings are a core element of Responsive Classroom,” Courtney explains. “Everyone in the classroom gathers in a circle for twenty to thirty minutes at the beginning of each school day and proceeds through four sequential components: greeting, sharing, group activity, and morning message.”
Early Childhood and Middle School students use Morning Meeting as well. Our youngest Dragons laugh but also settle down, understanding the plan for the day. In the Middle School, a full community meeting begins every Monday, advisory groups meet on Tuesday and Thursday, and each homeroom meets on Friday, each giving students “a landing place from which to launch their day” according to Middle School Director Kristin Cuddihy.
