The Only Morning Meeting Share Idea You'll Ever Need: Unlock the Free Template

Do you love the community-building aspects of morning meetings but hate the planning involved? You’re not alone. I love what morning meeting does for the relationships in my classroom, but planning a 5-part meeting every day? No thanks. I think you’re going to love this routine that not only cuts down on planning but is more meaningful than any “daily share prompt” you could ever write.

A New Morning Meeting Share… Every…Single…Day…?

The sharing portion of morning meetings is probably my most favorite. It gives me an opportunity to take a small peek inside the lives of my students and get to know them as a whole child. During my first year of morning meetings, I wrote new “share” prompts….every…..day. They looked a little like this:

What’s your favorite food?
Do you have a pet?
What’s your favorite movie?
What do you like to do after school?

Now, there’s nothing wrong with these types of share topics. These helped me get to know my students and were especially useful during the first few weeks of school. But after a couple of months? They were bored with these questions, and so was I. We never had time to dive deeper into the conversation because I was trying to let all 28 of my students share each day. By October, I was struggling to come up with questions that I hadn’t already asked. I looked a bit like this guy below:

A Better Morning Meeting Sharing Routine

Thankfully, I found a better way. Not only does this routine remove the planning burden from me, but it also results in much more meaningful conversations between my students. So, what is it? WOWs & POWs.

What’s a WOW?

A “WOW” is something good that’s going on in a student’s life that they want to share and celebrate with the class. Maybe they have accomplished a goal they were working toward or got to do something special with their family. Here are some WOWs I’ve heard in the past:

“I rode my bike without training wheels!”
“We went to Disney World on Spring Break and it was really fun”
“My parents let me paint my room pink”

What’s a POW?

On the other end of the spectrum, we have POWs. A "POW” is something not-so-great that has happened in a student’s life that they want to share with their classmates. Here are some examples:

“I found out that we have to move”
“My family had to put our dog to sleep this weekend”
“I lost my favorite toy at the park”

POWs can be heavy, but so can life. Children experience this heaviness just as much (if not more) than adults do. When they feel comfortable sharing their successes and their hurts, I know that I’ve done my job right.

At the beginning of the year, we establish the expectation that if their POW is big and involves someone being hurt, they will come to me, and together we will come up with a plan for how to share this POW. We also discuss the importance of sharing our own POWs and not someone else’s - because they may not feel comfortable with us talking about them.

Want a visual to display during morning meeting? Grab the free template slides below! You can pull these up on your Smartboard or projector. Type student’s names on each slide to help you keep track of who is sharing and when!

Questions, Comments, & Compliments

This right here is the MOST important part of this sharing routine. In my class, after each student shares their WOW or POW, they can take two questions, comments, or compliments from the group. Students who have a question, comment, or compliment, will raise their hand while the share-er calls on them.

Here’s the kicker - their question, comment, or compliment MUST be about the person who shared and not redirect the conversation away from them.

I think we’ve all had the pleasure of chatting with someone who only asks us a question so they can turn the conversation back to themselves, right? If it wasn’t obvious, the word pleasure is pure sarcasm. Conversations with these kinds of people are miserable. You say something, they one-up you. You share a struggle you’re having, they suddenly have a worse struggle. You talk about the awesome vacation you took, and OH, they took an even more awesome vacation to that SAME place. It’s exhausting.

It takes practice to be a good conversationalist who can engage with other people and expand upon a conversation by asking questions about the person who is talking. This routine gives daily practice with an important skill that your students will use for the rest of their lives.

Here are some examples of questions, comments, and compliments:

“Congratulations on your first ride without training wheels! I bet that took lots of practice”
“Wow! Disney World! What rides did you ride?”
“I’m so sorry to hear that you’re moving. Maybe we can be pen pals”

And here are some examples of how we don’t want students to respond when asking questions, comments, or compliments:

“Disney World! I love Disney World! My favorite ride is Peter Pan’s Flight”
“I learned how to ride a bike without training wheels when I was four”
“When my dog died I was really sad”

Feel the difference? Our students do too. This can be a really tricky skill for younger kids, so I like to do lots of modeling. You may still have the occasional question or comment that redirects the conversation. In these cases, I like to ask an additional question myself that models the way I’d like to see my students respond.

How Many Students Share Per Day?

When I first started with morning meetings, I thought it was important that every student share every day. I thought that this was the only way my students would feel “seen” and “heard” within my classroom. What I began to realize, however, was that when my students were giving me one-word answers about what they had eaten for breakfast or what their favorite color is - they weren’t feeling “seen” OR “heard.”

Once I switched to the WOWs and POWs sharing routine, we went from every student sharing every day to just two students per day. We had more time to listen, think, and respond to one another in profound ways, and my students looked forward to their turn to share their news with their classmates.

Do I Have To Share?

In my classroom, sharing is 100% voluntary. A student is never pressured to share with the class, and I encourage you to adopt similar norms. Some days, students just don’t have anything to share. Other days, they’re not feeling up to being in the spotlight. I always ask each student, “Do you have a share today?” to give them the opportunity to make that decision for themselves.

But what if a student never shares? Well, then they never share! When we are sensitive to the differences in each child and their needs, they may eventually want to participate, but if they don’t, it’s important that we respect that boundary.

Morning Meeting Share Buddies

One of my favorite ways to bring life into this routine is to give students something to hold while they share. This can give comfort to students who are sharing for the first time or are sharing something heavy with the class. Plus, stuffed animals make everything more fun, right? In my classroom, I had a plush Grumpy Cat that my students held when they share their POWs, and a chameleon they held when they shared their WOWs. These were great options that worked so well for my students, but…. TikTok has influenced me.

Let me explain. Have you seen the reversible octopus that can be used to share your feelings with your partner? The “happy” side tells your partner you’re in a good mood and the “frowny” side tells them to steer clear. The first time I saw these pop up on TikTok, I laughed to myself and thought, “haha that’s dumb, why not just tell them when you’re upset?” and then it hit me. These are perfect for sharing WOWs and POWs.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.

The reversible octopuses are sold out everywhere I searched, but my scrolling led me to even better reversible stuffed animal friends. Can you even handle this cute little dragon/unicorn? When a student is sharing a WOW, they could hold the “happy” side out and then reverse it for a “POW”

This adorable reversible bear caught my eye as I was scrolling. It may or may not have hopped right into my cart…

I’m not sure about you, but the kids in my life are obsessed with Baby Yoda. This reversible Yoda would be perfection for the WOW and POW routine.

More Morning Meeting Resources

Okay, now that you’re ready to cross some things off of your morning meeting to-do list, what if I told you that I’ve planned a paperless morning meeting option for every day of the school year? Take a peek into one month of meetings below.