When planning an engaging morning meeting, one of the most challenging aspects is deciding on the morning meeting activities. You want these activities to be quick, fun, and interactive, but it’s easy to fall into the trap of using the same 4-5 ideas repeatedly. This repetition can make the activities feel dry and dull for both your class and yourself! To help you keep your morning meetings fresh and exciting, here are 10 of my favorite morning meeting activities for upper elementary grades.
1. Rock Paper Scissors
This is such a fun and simple game for your class! To play Rock, Paper, Scissors, have your students walk around the classroom. When you (the teacher) say “STOP,” students must find a partner to play Rock, Paper, Scissors with. The loser sits down, while the winner continues to pair up with others who are still in the game. Students keep pairing up and playing until only one winner is left standing.
2. Reverse Charades
This game has quickly become a student favorite! Unlike traditional charades, this version gets everyone really involved! Here’s how it works: Two students come to the front of the class and cover their eyes. While they’re doing this, you display a slide with an action for the rest of the class to act out. For example, “taking a dog for a walk” or “riding a roller coaster” (examples shown below in images).
When the students uncover their eyes, they try to guess the action their classmates are acting out. Once they guess correctly, you can repeat the game with different actions or swap in new students to guess. It’s a surefire way to get everyone laughing!
You can try this activity with the FREE week of morning meeting slides here.
3. Recreate the Art
For this fun morning meeting activity, have students get into small groups of 3 or 4. Show them a famous, fun, or iconic piece of art (e.g., the Abbey Road Beatles photo). Give the groups 1 minute to creatively represent the famous art using their bodies, expressions, or any other creative method they can think of. Choose a winning group for the best representation.
4. Find Four Connections
As adults, we can’t get enough of word puzzles. A favorite this year has been a game called Connections, so of course, I had to create a student version! This game is SO much fun and is a VERY regular morning meeting activity game request among students. Here’s how it works: Think of three different categories and place 12 images in a grid. Students will study the images and try to find four that share a connection.
In the example below, they might find groups like: things that fly, things in a park, and things that are yellow. You’ll also be amazed by the creative, out-of-the-box connections students come up with!
It’s a quick and engaging way to spark critical thinking during your morning meetings. This exact example is included in my FREE week of morning meeting slides, so give it a try!
5. Spot the Difference
Show your students a picture scene and have them try to memorize everything happening in it. Then, show them the same scene again, but with 5 differences. The students must guess what has changed in the altered picture and discuss their observations with their classmates. This morning meeting activity helps sharpen students’ attention to detail. While this activity can take some time to create, the exact example below is included as part of my morning meeting free week, which you can download here.
Can you find them all? (It’s more of a challenge than you think!)
6. Heads or Tails?
Have your class stand up and choose “heads” or “tails” by placing their hands on their head or hips. Flip a coin, and the students who guessed correctly get to stay standing. Those who guessed incorrectly sit down. Continue playing until only one person is left standing. This is a fun and active morning meeting activity that gets everyone moving. The “Heads and Tails” slide, featuring a digital coin, is part of my morning meeting free week, which you can download here.
7. Do What Was Said
For this morning meeting activity, have your class form a circle and choose a leader. The leader gives commands, and the class must always perform the action that was last said, not the newest instruction. For example, if the leader says “Raise both hands in the air,” the class should ignore this command. If the next command is “Balance on one foot,” the class should follow the previous command (raising both hands in the air). The class should always do the action that was last said.
8. Alphablitz
This is such a great morning meeting activity that works well any time of day! To play, have your students get into small groups with a piece of paper. Assign each group a special letter of the alphabet, and the challenge is that all their answers must begin with that letter. Set a 2-minute timer and list the questions for them to answer. Some examples include:
- Name a color:
- Name an animal:
- Name a type of food:
- Name a toy:
- Name a city:
- Name a sport:
- Name a boy’s name:
- Name something in a house:
- Name a job:
- Name something in the room:
See how many ‘points’ students can get within the time limit.
This activity is fast-paced, fun, and encourages teamwork and critical thinking—perfect for a burst of energy at any time!
9. Word Associations
Have your class sit in a circle. Start with any word, such as “classroom.” Each student will then say a word that comes to mind based on the previous word. For example, if the starting word is “classroom,” the next student might say “school.” Continue around the circle, with each student adding a word that is linked to the last word spoken. For instance: Classroom, school, learn, play, basketball, jump, skipping, tired, sleep, bed, and so on. This is a great morning meeting activity for stimulating quick thinking and creativity.
10. Yes, and…
In this game, have your class sit in a circle. Start a silly story by adding to it with each sentence, beginning with “Yes, and…” You (the teacher) can kick off the story with a simple statement, like, “The weather is looking terrible today.” The next student will say, “Yes, and…” and add something more exciting or exaggerated, such as, “Yes, and a thunderstorm is coming.” The following student might say, “Yes, and we must all find earmuffs to block out the thunder.” Each player continues the story with increasingly silly and imaginative ideas, always starting their sentence with “Yes, and…”
If you like the look of these morning meeting activities, you can try a whole free week!
If you want to be organized with fun and easy to run morning meetings for the entire school year? Purchase the full year growing bundle HERE!
Further Reading
If you enjoyed this blog post, check out my other blog posts with morning meeting ideas:
