Morning Meeting is the best part of the day in my 4th-grade classroom, and I want to share some of my fourth graders’ favorite morning meeting activities. These morning meeting activities are ones that we use all year to work on teamwork, classroom community, and just having fun building relationships together!
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| Use these Morning Meeting Activities 4th Grade in your classroom! |
One of the Most Popular Morning Meeting Group Activities: Inspector Bullfrog
Inspector Bullfrog is one of our favorite morning meeting activities because it’s silly and fun! It also requires observation skills! Here’s how to play:
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Everyone should start sitting in a circle. Choose one student to be the inspector and send him/her outside of the classroom for a second.
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All students should close their eyes, and you tap one of them on the head or shoulder. That student is the bullfrog.
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The inspector returns to the classroom and stands in the middle of the circle. S/he tries to figure out who the bullfrog is by looking at the students.
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The bullfrog attempts to put the rest of the class to sleep by sticking out his/her tongue at them. But s/he has to make eye contact with the student, so the student knows it’s him/her who s/he put to sleep.
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The student who is put to sleep by the bullfrog dramatically lays down on the floor to tell the inspector that s/he fell asleep.
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The inspector has three guesses to try to figure out who the bullfrog is. S/he wins if s/he guesses correctly. The bullfrog wins if s/he puts the whole class to sleep before being caught or not being guessed by the inspector!
One of Our Favorite Morning Meeting Team Building Activities: Group Juggling
Okay, I have to warn you: this mornings meeting activity is tricky! I definitely would not recommend this for students below Third Grade because it takes a lot of attention and focus! But I love the challenge that this morning meeting activity required of my 4th-grade students. Here’s how it works:
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Get a few dodgeballs or soft balls for this activity. You probably won’t need more than four at first, but may need more once students get better at it. Depending on your class size, you may choose to split your students into two groups,
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Students stand in a circle, and each has a number (we use our class numbers, but you can choose whatever numbers you’d like). Mix up the numbers, so they aren’t all standing next to each other. Let them know which students have numbers before and after them. (Ex: You are 1, you are 2, you are 3, etc.)
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Pass Student 1 the first ball, and s/he tosses the ball to Student 2. This continues through all of the numbers, and the last student passes the ball back to Student One. This repeats, and as the first ball gets about halfway around the circle, pass another ball to student one for him/her to start tossing too. Now students have to keep track of two balls in the circle. If they get the two balls juggling well, try to add a third one!
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If a ball drops at any time, they have to start over with one ball at student 1. At the end of the time you have, note how many balls was the record so that next time you play, you can try to beat your record!
Group Juggling is a fantastic morning meeting activity to build teamwork, coordination, and focus! It’s not as easy as it seems! But my fourth graders love trying to work together to juggle more balls each time!
Freeze Dance – One of those Morning Meeting Activities that is just plain fun!
I don’t know about you, but sometimes we just need a dance party! My fourth graders LOVE freeze dance just as much as my Kindergarteners did! (Did you know that I taught primary for three years before finding my true love of upper elementary!?) Freeze dance is perfect for those days when you don’t have a lot of time for your morning meeting. Here’s how to play:
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When the music is playing, everyone should be dancing where you can see them. I encourage my students to dance around the room and have fun with it!
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When you stop the music, everyone should freeze. If you catch people who are still moving, they are out and sit down until the next round starts.
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Start the music again and keep playing until one student is left standing! He/she is the winner!
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You can have the winner pick the next song to dance to, be the DJ and you play the game, or just celebrate them and play again.
For a challenge, once you’ve played a few times with your students, play opposite freeze dance and freeze when the music plays and dance when it stops. THAT is pretty hilarious!
STEM Challenges – Get Your Fourth Graders Thinking Outside the Box
I don’t do them often, but I will include a STEM or STEAM challenge in our Morning Meeting plans now and then! These Morning Meeting Activities encourage creativity and problem-solving. You can use any materials you have on hand or choose to do a specific challenge and make sure you have specific materials ready to go. Here are some of our favorites:
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Tallest Tower Challenge: This one is so easy because you can prep it in 3 minutes or less! Grab some random supplies, divide them between groups of students evenly, and let them work together to build the tallest tower in 5 minutes! We’ve done this with index cards, tape and paper, manipulatives, and so much more!
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Aluminum Foil Boats: Students create a boat out of foil that will float and carry as much weight (pennies) as possible! Then, test your creations and award a winner!
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Book vs. Paper Challenge: Can a single piece of paper hold a book off the table/floor? The short answer: yes, it can! Challenge your students to see if they can figure it out!
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Paper Plane Challenge: Set a specific and measurable goal/challenge for your paper airplanes to meet (goes furthest, stays in air longest, etc.) and see who can create a plane that meets the challenge!
This is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to STEM Morning Meeting Activities for fourth Grade! Let me know your favorites in a comment below!
Math Baseball – Morning Meeting Activities with an Academic Focus
I usually keep my morning meetings focused on community-building, social-emotional learning, and warming up for the day, but I will occasionally incorporate some content review. Math Baseball is one of my students’ favorite games to play, and it’s easy to use for whatever standards you need to review! All you need is some flashcards and three chairs. Here’s how to play:
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Line students up in two lines facing you. Put the three chairs around the classroom to look like a baseball diamond. Where the students are is home plate, then you’ll have a first, second, and third base.
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Show the first two students (the first in each line) a flashcard and have them solve the problem and say the answer. Whoever answers correctly first advances to first base. The other student goes to the back of his/her line.
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Keep playing and advancing students – the student on first base will move to second, etc. When students move to home base, they get a point (they keep track individually) and go to the back of a line. Play as long as you’d like!
If you want to play this while keeping your distance, have students stand further apart and just stand by the “bases.” You could play this with other content too – I think vocabulary baseball could be a great idea!
Active Tic-Tac-Toe – An Activity to Build Critical Thinking and Teamwork Skills
I picked up a tic-tac-toe board in the Target dollar spot, and it has been awesome to use in the classroom! This activity is a classic game with a twist that pushes students to think quickly and work as a team! I would say that this is best for 3rd Grade and up.
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Before starting, make sure your students understand how to play tic tac toe. Split the class into two teams and have them line up in two lines on one side of the classroom. Give one team the X pieces and the other team the Os. Place the tic tac toe board on the other side of the classroom.
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On your go, have the first student in each line run over to the board and place their piece in a square and run back to tag the next student. As they put pieces on the board, they are trying to get 3 in a row. If each team puts down all of their pieces without getting a tic tac toe, the next students in the lines go and move one piece into a different square. This continues until one team gets three in a row!
Alibi – One of My Top Pics for Morning Meeting Activities in Fourth Grade
I love Alibi because it requires students to be creative and listen to each other! It doesn’t require any materials and is such a fun Morning Meeting game to have in your arsenal. Perfect for fourth graders who are working on justifying their answers too! Here’s how to play:
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Choose one student to be the detective. S/he has to go outside for a second while you choose one other student guilty of committing the “crime.” The detective will have to determine who the guilty person is through questioning.
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The detective reenters the room (everyone is sitting in a circle), and you make up an elaborate silly crime committed. (Example: I walked into my classroom this morning just like every other morning, and it was BOOBY-TRAPPED! Someone set traps up so I would be splashed with orange juice and fall into a pool of marshmallows before getting covered with chocolate sauce! Detective, can you figure out who did this?)
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Then, the detective goes around the circle, and everyone comes up with an alibi that tells why they couldn’t have committed the crime and were innocent. S/he asks everyone again, and all the students say the same answers except for the guilty student who changes his/her alibi.
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If the detective guesses correctly, s/he wins!
I know that you have A LOT on your plate, and I want to help you spend less time planning outside of school. That’s why I created Morning Meeting Slides for the school year! Grab the bundle here, so you have all the Morning Meeting plans you need for the whole school year!
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What are your students’ favorite Morning Meeting Activities and Games? If you need Morning Meeting ideas for the first day of school, download mine here for free!
