As I record this, I am in the midst of preparing my new classroom, getting my house ready for our summer-long absence and finishing up my end-of-year reports. It’s a bit of a whirlwind, but I’m excited to leave you all with some content to enjoy while I’m gone.
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Shownotes
I wrote a series of posts about main lesson rhythm awhile ago. Here is the one about the morning warm-up. There is some good information there, but not as thorough as what I talk about in the podcast. I’ve learned a lot since then.
My favorite games books (mentioned in the podcast.)
Games For the Playground Home School and Gymnasium
In the past couple of years I encountered a more mainstream philosophy that lines up really well with the Waldorf understanding of the warm-up as I learned it in my teacher training.
Responsive Classroom philosophy suggests that every day begins with a 20-30 minute period of time called “morning meeting.” When I read about the 20-30 minute period of time as Responsive Classroom describes it, it resonated very strongly with my Waldorf experience. When I realized how great these ideas worked together, I realized that Responsive Classroom resources would work really well when it came to creating my morning warm-up activities.
Responsive Classroom Resources
Morning Meeting Ideas for Grades 1-3
Doing Math in Your Morning Meeting
Doing Language Arts in Your Morning Meeting
99 Activities and Greetings for Your Morning Meeting
I often have a hard time finding activities that are fun, engaging and all about warming my students up so they’re ready for the lesson.
Responsive Classroom suggests that the “morning meeting” which we refer to as the warm-up in Waldorf education includes 4 elements
• Greeting
• Sharing
• Group Activity
• Morning Message
In the podcast I go through each one of these and talk about how they line up with Waldorf, what they look like in the classroom, and why they are essential for warming your students up. Along the way, I give some suggestions for activities and some resources that can give you more ideas.
Imagine each of these activities as a gradual arriving at school, connecting with each other and getting ready to start the day.
I LOVE this episode. Thank you for speaking so clearly about how to create a caring and healthy classroom environment. I purchased Teaching Children to Care last year, via your recommendation, and as a new teacher who knew not a thing about classroom management, I will be ever grateful to that recommendation.
Thanks so much for the kind words, Adley. Teaching Children to Care is definitely a gem of a book. I can’t recommend it highly enough. I’m even lugging it around on our big Central America trip, where backpack space is carefully considered!