6 Awesome Class Meeting Topics That Build Character and Community

So you’ve decided to hold regular class meetings, but you’re having a hard time coming up with class meeting topics, right?! Especially with our upper elementary students, finding topics that engage them, build classroom community, and make a difference. I love focusing on class meeting topics that help them grow as humans and members of society…because they will soon be leaders and grown-ups. And who doesn’t want more honesty, empathy, and acceptance in this world?

You’ll find 6 of my favorite class meeting topics in this post. Since they are social-emotional learning and character-building focused, we remain on a topic for two weeks (or ten meetings) to really dig down deep. I start with introducing the topic with a read-aloud or video, and then we unpack it with discussions and questions. Next, we’ll start looking at what it means to have that trait or be that way, and we’ll practice it. Once we get the hang of the SEL concept, we’ll commit to it as a class.

Class Meeting Topics for a Reset or the Beginning of the School Year

These class meeting ideas don’t only have to be used during the back-to-school season, but they’re a great way to start the year. They will also help you reset if your students are having a hard time with your classroom culture or behavior. One of the essential things I always remind myself of whenever we have these discussions is that it’s crucial that we are authentic with them. When we can have open discussions with honesty, it shows them how these concepts can play out in real life. This is their training ground, teacher friend!

class meeting topics for upper elementary include growth mindset, acceptance, and respect — Which of these class meeting topics are you going to use first?

Classroom Meeting Topic: Acceptance

Acceptance is a huge class meeting topic to build classroom community and a sense of safety in your classroom. I like to introduce this topic with either The Invisible Boy or Spaghetti in a Hotdog Bun books. Both of these books include a character that’s a bit different from the other students and shares their journey.

We have discussions about acceptance and then do partner interviews to learn what makes each person unique. I love seeing how students connect to each other and expand their horizons in these classroom meetings.

Focus on Growth Mindset for Some of Your Back to School Class Meetings

Growth mindset is probably something that you already discuss in your classroom, so why not highlight it in your morning meetings? I love starting this set of classroom meetings off with a challenge that seems impossible. (You can find the one I use here). Then, we unpack that challenge and talk about what we can do when something seems impossible. I’ll even bring up that someone around you (a teacher, another student) may know how to do what seems impossible to you, so it’s a good strategy to ask for help!

My favorite books to read during our meetings discussing growth mindset are My Fantastic Elastic Brain, The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes, and The Magical Yet. We also spend a lot of time talking about the word YET and its meaning. We talk about what we can’t do yet, and what we used to not be able to do that we can do now. And we discuss making mistakes and how they help us learn.

class meeting activities for growth mindset — Using character-building concepts to guide your class meeting activities will give your students great learning experiences

One of the Important Class Meeting Discussion Topics is Respect

This may be a no-brainer, but explicit discussion and talking through concepts like respect is super important for your classroom to thrive. I struggled with classroom management, and my students’ respect for me, my classroom, and each other struggled. That was until I started doing Morning Meetings and having these class meeting discussions.

We read the book Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon, and identify what respect looks like and our specific respect norms in and outside of our classroom. I also love the toothpaste exercise of squeezing all of it out of a tube and asking students to put it back inside. It’s impossible – just like what we say and do. We can’t take it back without repercussions. You can find more help for your Respect and Acceptance class meetings in my Morning Meeting Slides.

here are some respect lesson ideas for your class meetings including an anchor chart about thinking before you speak — My 4th graders really needed help with this, so here are some of the respect lesson ideas that worked well for me!

Character-Building Classroom Meeting Topics for 3rd-5th Grade

I don’t know about you, but I know character building and social-emotional learning are things I always WANT to cover in my classroom. But they’re hard to make time for. That’s why I’ve started incorporating them into our class meeting discussion topics!

Teach Your Students to be Diligent

Diligence is a word that your students probably won’t know at first. But being diligent in their work and all they do is an important skill. As always, I like showing this concept in a book. Some of my favorites are Salt in His Shoes and A Dance Like Starlight. These books also have themes of perseverance and following a dream, so feel free to dig into those concepts too!

I also like to show students examples of really cool things built or designed by people – for example, The Hoover Dam, The Golden Gate Bridge, airplanes, etc. We talk about how much work must’ve gone into those projects and what would’ve happened if the designers/builders would’ve given up or stopped working because it got hard. How can students be diligent with their school work in class even when they don’t feel like it?

With many of these concepts, we create some sort of anchor chart to anchor our thinking during our class meetings. It’s also a GREAT point of reference when you’re working with a student on a concept throughout the year. Like if someone is complaining about doing their work or doesn’t complete something, you can remind them what it means and looks like to be diligent and remind them everyone is doing their part.

how to incorporate social-emotional learning into your class meetings — I’m all about making the most of your limited time, which is why I’ve been adding an SEL focus into my class meetings. It’s made a big impact!

Focus Your Class Meetings on Honesty

Have your students struggled with honesty? I know mine have. It’s a necessary trait to develop as a young person, and it will help them so much in life. I read the book The Empty Pot, and we talk about how being honest is the best choice, even in challenging situations. You may be ridiculed or feel embarrassed in the moment, but you never know what will come of it, and you will feel much better with a clean conscience.

We also discuss white lies and how they might seem better in the moment, but they can turn into something much worse. I like to have students act out situations where someone may or may not be honest and what happens. This helps students put action behind what they’ve learned and practice what to do in sticky situations.

We also like to have some fun and practice what they’ve learned about honesty with my categories games. You can find these class meeting activities here, but they’re a great way to review the concept.

class meeting discussion topics that make your classroom a better place — Our goal is to shape our students into top-notch people of society, and doing this with your class meeting discussion topics help!

Social-Emotional Learning Classroom Meetings: Empathy

Empathy may just be my favorite of the class meeting topics elementary to teach. It’s so much more than kindness. It’s something that genuinely makes the world a better place in both micro and macro situations. Some of my favorite read-alouds to teach empathy are I Am Human, Chocolate Milk Por Favor (I just love Maria Dismondy!), and Those Shoes. I also show this video on empathy, discussing it in our class meeting.

It’s so great when we can give students’ action steps to take, and so we also talk about and practice the 5 Steps Toward Empathy. They are Watch & Listen, Remember, Imagine, Ask, and Show You Care. I love creating a space in our classroom where we all can document situations of empathy that we see throughout the school day – either when someone had empathy towards us, or we saw that someone had empathy towards someone else. We celebrate that and recognize it when it happens. Because the more we shine a light on it, it usually tends to grow! This is the primary purpose of these class meeting discussion topics. It’s worth the work, and I’ve actually made it even easier for you here.