Easy Morning Meeting Ideas: The 10 Best Youtube Channels to Use

I'm a morning person, so I guess it should come as no surprise that morning meetings are one of my favorite parts of the day. Every class has plenty of kiddos that are not morning people, but I find starting the day on an enthusiastic and positive note can help those students come around to the idea of being at school instead of in bed sleeping. Morning meetings can be a pain to plan - which is why I like to have a complete toolbox of greetings and activities to pull from.

In fact, I’m so passionate about the transformation that morning meetings will bring about in your classroom, that I designed a free toolkit just for teachers who want to start with meetings in their classrooms. This toolkit includes:

a getting started guide
morning songs
morning message template slides
ready-to-print greetings, activities, and sharing
weekly planner

Another piece of my morning meeting toolbox is Youtube! Need to send a quick email to a parent? Need to chat with a student who isn’t feeling well? Throw on an activity from Youtube and you can take care of those situations while your students carry on with the meeting.

Some of these videos are educational and will lead to great class discussions; some are motivational, cultivate social and emotional learning, and others are just straight-up dance parties! Whether or not you are a morning person, these YouTube channels will give your morning meetings a boost and prepare you to bring your best self to the day ahead.

GoNoodle

With well over 1 million subscribers, GoNoodle certainly is not a secret-- but for a good reason! GoNoodle has tons of high-quality videos that make a teacher's job a little easier because it takes one thing off our plate that we don't have to create! While some videos are more silly, like those I utilize for morning meetings, their educational videos are always accurate and informative. Go Noodle has videos that can cover both the greeting and activity portion of your morning meeting. The "Hola, Bonjour, HELLO!" video is a fantastic, high-energy greeting option. There are so many to choose from that could fulfill the activity portion, and they frequently put out new content to keep things fresh. You definitely won't regret pushing the subscribe button on this one!

Sesame Street

I've mentioned before that I love Sesame Street books for social/emotional learning and character development. I love their YouTube channel for the same reason! The videos are everything you remember about Sesame Street and make an excellent activity for a morning meeting in a primary classroom.

Cosmic Kids Yoga

I discovered Cosmic Kids Yoga a few years ago, and I think I was just as enthralled with it as my students were. I mean, doing Harry Potter-themed yoga at 8 a.m. is pretty awesome, right?! Cosmic Kids Yoga has so many themed yoga classes from classic stories and movies to rockets, holiday-inspired classes, and so much more. The instructor is incredible, and there is detailed animation that makes everything even more magical. Your students will be engaged and invested in these videos and will undoubtedly say "nooooo!" when it's time to turn off the video and transition to the next part of the day.

Scratch Garden

Scratch Garden has so many awesome three-minute videos that are perfect for your morning meeting activity. They have cute animation and catchy music that will get stuck in your students' heads all day long. The link below is the playlist that is excellent for morning meetings. Still, there are loads of other videos that you could implement into core content lessons that offer great explanations for challenging concepts.

TedEd

Call me corny, but sometimes I love a good TED Talk. A playlist called "Weekend Student Talks" is comparable to the talks that we are used to. However, the channel is also chock-full of short videos on fascinating topics that the students will eat up. There's a wide variety of content, so be sure to watch the video before showing it to make sure it's age-appropriate. Not all videos are appropriate for elementary students.

Just Dance

We've all embarrassed ourselves playing Just Dance, right? Dancing helps us let loose and not take ourselves so seriously. This channel is just like the video game, only without the controllers. Not all songs are school-appropriate, so check on lyrics before you pull it up in front of the kids. There is a good selection of Disney songs that work well. And remember, if you are having a bad morning, there is no age limit for dancing. It could lift your spirits to bust out a move, too!

DisneyMusicVEVO

This Disney channel is just the ticket to put everyone in a good mood as they enter the classroom, put their belongings away, and get started on morning work. Everything is school-appropriate, so you don't have to do research. You can push play and head to greet your students!

The Body Coach

This isn't a channel I often utilize for morning meetings, but it comes in handy for specific occasions. There are two great playlists on the Body Coach TV channel: P.E. with Joe and Kids Workouts to Do at Home. Most of his videos are around twenty minutes, so you probably won't be able to do the whole thing. However, doing a 5-10 minute section is perfect, and then you can pick up where you left off the next time you want to incorporate it into the morning meeting. Joe is fun, motivational, and full of energy. The students will love his cool British accent, and the movement he leads you in will boost everyone's endorphins and prepare you to conquer the day!

New Horizon

I once attended a one-day inservice on implementing mindfulness meditation into the classroom. The presenter described the benefits I wanted all of my students to experience, so I tried it. After some learning curves and probably biting off more than I could chew initially, I began to enjoy it. I found that I didn't need to create everything from scratch-- there are some tremendous free resources already available to us. The New Horizon channel is a great example. You will find that many of their playlists are sleep stories. However, they have a great playlist called Meditation Mindfulness for Kids that I think you will find very helpful. Sometimes I prefer using a video to follow along with the students and model active participation. I also send a resource to the parents about mindfulness meditation, the why behind it, and link any free resources that they could view at home if they have an interest. Some parents have utilized the sleep stories for their kids at night and enjoy them.

Smart Girls

I love Amy Poehler. I think Parks and Rec is one of the best comedies ever made, and beyond that, I love she is such a positive role model for girls. In this Instagram, aesthetically pleasing world, so many of us want to curate a seemingly perfect appearance. It's not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that, but we need role models like Amy to remind us that what's going on in our brains is what makes us unique, not the way we look. The Smart Girls channel has videos about inspiring women, women in STEAM, calls for courage, and so much more. You might be wondering if this is effective for morning meetings because about half of your class is probably composed of boys. I think that's great! These aren't videos bashing boys whatsoever, and I think they are valuable for them to see and could lead to significant class discussions.

Free Morning Meeting Toolkit

I hope you can take away a few new morning meeting ideas from this post, and don’t forget to grab the free morning meeting toolkit below!

Tired of Planning Morning Meetings?

I love the community building aspects of morning meetings, but they can be such a pain to plan. If you’re ready to check morning meeting off of your perpetual to-do list, click your grade level below!