Eureka Math and Your Daily Morning Meeting

How do I get it all in?

This is a question I hear all the time from colleagues. 

​I often have days when I say it to myself over and over. 

The truth is, if you try to get everything in one by one, you will be spending a long time getting through the material and may not get everything in. 

​We as teachers aren’t magicians, but we learn to weave our day together and integrate material whenever we can in order to provide our students with the skills and concepts they need to know!

Daily Morning Meeting
 
One great way to blend the Eureka Math skills and concepts into other parts of the day is to use the morning meeting.  This is my favorite time of the day.  I actually used to be afraid to use too much time on morning meeting.  I felt like it was a waste of instructional time and always tried to keep it as brief as possible.  Once I learned how important this IS to use as instructional time.  My entire mindset changed.
 
This is the official start of the day.  Students have just finished unpacking, ordering lunch, and working on preparing themselves for the day.  Then the students look forward to coming together and greeting one another. 
 
Each student turns to the student next to them and says a greeting.  We usually pass around, “Good Morning!” to one another.  We use a rotation to share some good news. Then we play a game or work on an activity together as a class.  The meeting closes with each student telling each other, “Have a great day!”

​Activities to Use in Morning Meeting
 
Calendar 
 
When you use the calendar as a whole class you can incorporate a lot of math.  The students work on counting on and counting back.  You can cover the next number and let them think about what the next day will be.  Students become familiar with days of the week, months of the year, and number and calendar days each month.
 
Counting the Days of School
 
Keeping track of the days we have spent in school is something kids love to do!  You can use a pocket chart labeled ones, tens, and hundreds, and straws.  Once you move past ten days you can use rubber bands to bundle the straws.  Once you have moved past one hundred days of school, you can bundle the ten tens to show one hundred bundle. This is a quick fluency and number sense activity and it is very engaging as it applies to the students’ real life connection.
 
Number Fluency
 
As a class, this is a great opportunity to build fluency.  Students can count by twos, fives, and tens in unison.  You can also use these fluency drills in games.  The students can go around the circle and you decide what pattern they will count by.  You can also show them a hundred chart as a visual.  Once they are building fluency, you can hide some numbers and have them guess what number goes in the blank.

Problem Solving
 
I find this time of day a fantastic opportunity to incorporate daily performance tasks.  I display a problem that the students will need the RDW strategy to solve.  I read the problem with the students.  I call on three students to read the problem again.  We take our time to slowly use words to understand what the problem is asking us to do.  We as a class decide on a strategy.  The students all engage by turning and talking to a partner.  The class shares out ideas.  I can call on some students to come write on the chart paper to show how to draw the model.  I can call on another student to write the equation.  Then I can call on another student to write the statement.  The shared work becomes a team effort.  The other students provide feedback and if they would like to show it a different way.  One problem can really incorporate a lot of skills and participation.
 
Why it Works
 
After I started integrating Eureka Math into our daily morning meeting, I realized why this works.  The students are fresh and engaged first thing in the morning.  At times, we have our math block at the end of the day.  This is a great way to review concepts or preview concepts that will be taught later in the day.
 
The quick paced and short duration keeps students engaged.  Since we are only focusing on one main skill or concept at a time, students are working and focused.
 
The fluency drills are repetitive and predictable.  The process is part of a routine so the students know what to expect.  This creates excitement to participate even for the most reluctant learner.
 
Of course, the purpose of this meeting is to build community.  This creates and fosters our social emotional learning.  The students feel safe and supported in this environment.  It promotes fun and games.  The students are more likely to take risks and know they will be supported by the group.  The students are both teachers and learners. 
 
This time of the day for me is very important.  I share how much I love it, and that has shaped the the way the students feel about it.  They also look forward to it and share it as their favorite part of the day too!