How can we build upon children's natural sense of wonder about the world around them? How can we include more science learning during our busy school days?
The earnest fourth grade girl straightened up tall and looked around the circle, drew a deep breath and began: “Our greeting today will go like this. First you say your name, then you say when you would like to have lived. Then we’ll all greet you back by saying ‘Hello’ and your name. I’ll go first so you can see how it’s done.” I noticed her hands folding and unfolding in her lap—perhaps she was a bit nervous—but her eyes sparkled.
In the spring of my first year as a secondary school teacher, I got a letter from a student for whom I had a particular fondness, letting me know that she was dropping out of school. School wasn’t making much sense to her and little that she was being asked to learn held much interest for her.
She wrote, almost apologetically, that school just wasn’t a place she felt she belonged. More than twenty years later, her words still seem profoundly sad to me:
"Good morning, friendly learners. Today we have a visitor joining us for Morning Meeting!” This is an announcement that students hear frequently when they begin their Morning Meeting at School 14. Every morning at 8:30 am, as part of their 90-minute literacy block, each class holds a Morning Meeting. The group that gathers always includes the classroom teacher and students, but it might also include a special area teacher, the custodian, or a teacher from another classroom.
One March morning, children entering a fourth grade classroom take turns gathering at a chart on which their teacher has written a message just for them:
March 7, 2005
Dear Invertebrate Investigators,
Yesterday we continued our studies about invertebrates, and we put two types of food in our worm farm. Recall what you know about worms as we make new observations today.
Make a prediction: How do you think the contents of the worm farm will have changed since yesterday?
In addition to the other tips I shared for getting out of a Morning Meeting Message rut, I strongly recommend making a weekly plan. Instead of trying to come up with ideas for a message each and every day, try thinking about messages when you do your planning for the week. Choose a different focus for each day as a way of building in variety. Here's an example of how this might work:
