Finding Morning Meeting share ideas and questions that will engage your upper elementary students and get everyone talking during your class meetings can feel monotonous and challenging. But I highly recommend NOT skipping this part of your Morning Meetings because it is so good for students to have discussions, listen to others’ ideas, and communicate with each other. I’ve got 30 Morning Meeting sharing examples plus categories that can spur on your own prompts as well.
Morning Meeting is one of my favorite ways to build classroom community all throughout the school year with 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. It fully transformed my class when I taught fourth grade because it was a consistent part of the school day where students could connect, have fun, and chat with each other. I hold high expectations for our class meetings, so my students feel safe enough to share their hearts and engage with the activities.
Doing Morning Meeting with my fourth-grade class showed me how hard it is for upper elementary teachers to find Morning Meeting ideas to keep students engaged throughout the school year. I would spend HOURS of my weekend planning our meetings, and I’ve turned all of my plans and ideas (plus some fresh ideas) into low-prep Morning Meeting slides for you to use, so you can skip the painful planning and still fully reap the benefits of building classroom community in this way. Click here to learn more about them.
Morning Meeting Share Ideas for 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade
So much of what you might find online for Morning Meeting is best used with primary grades, which is why I love helping my upper elementary teachers out with age-specific Morning Meeting ideas. When I’m thinking about Morning Meeting share questions or prompts, there are six categories I cycle through. These are tried and true share prompts students can’t help themselves but answer!
Morning Meeting Share Questions About Themselves
Everyone loves talking about themselves, right?! I use these share ideas a lot in the first quarter of the year because they’re low-stakes and fun to talk about. These are great to incorporate during the first few weeks of school and sprinkle throughout the year to break up the deeper conversations.
I recommend keeping a log of your students’ answers to these Morning Meeting share prompts! That way, you can incorporate what they love into your classroom and build relationships with them. For example, if Xanthi has a pet hedgehog, that’s an easy conversation starter and will help her see that you pay attention and care about what she cares about.
Here are five examples of Morning Meeting share questions to get students talking about themselves:
- What pets do you have or do you want to have?
- If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Why?
- What is your favorite ____? (Ice cream flavor, movie, day of the week, etc.)
- If you were an animal, what would you be? Why do you feel connected to that animal?
- What is your hidden talent or hobby that we might not know about you?
Would You Rather Questions
Would you rather questions are so fun and perfect things to share during Morning Meeting! There are so many options for these questions, and I love hearing students share the why behind their answers. I like to mix up the questions I use here between silly and fun ones and more thought-provoking questions and decisions!
One of the things I love to talk about when we answer these types of questions is that there isn’t a right or wrong answer, and just because someone else said something different than you doesn’t mean they’re wrong. We can like what we like but we can also respect others and what they like. Teaching students to be open-minded can also show them that they can and should listen to people who are different than them, and they might even change their minds about something after discussing it.
Here are five Morning Meeting share ideas in the form of Would You Rather questions:
- Would you rather live on the bottom of the ocean or in space?
- Would you rather be the president for a day or a teacher for a day?
- Would you rather never have ice cream again or never have french fries again? (substitute for two of your students’ favorite foods)
- Would you rather be the oldest kid in your family or the youngest?
- Would you rather have a pet giraffe or a pet penguin?
Social-Emotional Learning-Focused Morning Meeting Share Prompts
I tend to focus my Morning Meetings on social-emotional learning and character-building as much as possible, This really levels up a normal class meeting and has not only made our classroom community better, but it’s also made a difference in my students’ behaviors and attitudes. Not everyone talks about these things at home, so I like to make sure we cover them at school to support my students as they grow into the future leaders of our world.
Since our time is limited, I’ve found Morning Meeting is a great time to focus on these topics! You can use these share ideas with any SEL or character-building concept. Here are some examples of what we chat about.
- What does respect mean to you?
- What does self-control look like? What strategies do you use when you feel out of control?
- What will happen when we are diligent in an area of our lives?
- Why is empathy important?
- Who do you know in your life that is courageous? How can you tell?
The Answer is ___. What is the Question?
Okay, when I discovered this strategy and used it for the first time, I was hooked! It is such a great way to help your students think critically and flip how they usually answer questions! Instead of giving the a question, you provide an answer. And THEY must come up with a question that can be answered with the answer you provide.
The great thing about this Morning Meeting Share Idea is that it can be used with any topic, as you’ll see below. The first time we do this, I will model my thinking and how I come up with a question for an example answer before releasing my students to do it, since it’s new to them. I also like to use sticky notes or scrap paper to support this type of share prompt so they have time to think through and write down an idea before sharing it.
You can also put parameters around their questions once they understand how this works to make it more challenging for them. You could allso let them work in pairs to come up with their questions. Here are a few ideas of how to use this.
- The answer is 36 pencils. What is the question? (They have to come up with a math problem/question where the answer is 36.)
- The answer is World War II. What is the question? (Great to review a history or science concept you’ve been learning)
- The answer is a comma. What is the question?
- The answer is the hundredths place. What is the question?
- The answer is hydrogen. What is the question?
Seasonal Morning Meeting Sharing Examples
I’m a sucker for anything seasonal! It takes ALL the willpower not to fill my cart with everything in the Target dollar spot each season! Hahaha! This is probably one reason why you will always see me tapping into the holidays and seasons as much as possible as a teacher. My first year teaching in Tanzania, I learned that their independence day (Uhuru Day) was in December, and we made torches to celebrate that day in my first grade classroom.
I love bringing the seasonal fun into my upper elementary Morning Meetngs as well, and what easier way to do it than by asking questions about what’s happening that time of year? These share ideas are great to break up the monotony of what you usually do or to add something new to your routine. Here are some questions to get you started, but the sky is the limit.
- What are the first things you notice that tell you spring is coming?
- Does your family celebrate any holidays this time of year? What are your favorite traditions?
- What is the superior fall feeling?
- Would you prefer to have a little time off school in each season, or do you like having more time off during the summer? Why?
- Imagine you were talking to a student who lives in Egypt. How would you explain winter when they’ve never experienced it?
Hypothetical Situations
One of the things I love most about teaching upper elementary students is that we can have deeper discussions and conversations. And I like to mix them in between the fun, light-hearted Morning Meeting share questions. Using hypothetical conversation starters is a great way to have a conversation about things going on in the world or just to open up students’ minds to the fact that we’re all unique and have different perspectives that we bring to the table.
- Imagine that our school decided to change the schedule to go to school four days a week instead of five. How would you feel about that? What would change? What would stay the same?
- How would you feel if our city experienced a hurricane? What do you think would be the hardest part?
- What would happen if women were valued as much as men and put in places of leadership?
- What’s a rule you wish everyone had to live by?
- What do you think life will be like in 100 years from now on Earth?
Additional Morning Meeting Resources for 3rd-5th Grade Teachers
- Grab all of the Morning Meeting plans you need for the entire school year, laid out in easy-to-use slides.
- Morning Meeting Games your students will love playing again and again
- Morning Meeting Greetings
- Tried-and-True Morning Meeting Activities
- Follow me on TikTok for more Morning Meeting ideas!
I hope these Morning Meeting Share Ideas help you as your work on building classroom community in your 3rd 4th, or 5th grade classroom! And if you’re just getting started with Morning Meeting, make sure to download my free Morning Meeting Starter Kit! It’s chock-full of helpful tools, tips, and teaching to help you master Morning Meeting. I can’t wait to see how you use these Morning Meeting share examples and ideas with your students!
