2/16/2027

Morning Announcements

Morning Meeting Agenda

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Welcome back — it’s KINDNESS WEEK! Random Acts of Kindness Day is tomorrow.
Literacy · Kindness Week Day 1

Kindness sounds like something

Kindness Week starts with the thing we use most: words. Today’s Black History Month feature knows exactly how much words matter — because for years, hers were hard to say out loud.

Portrait of Amanda Gorman Photo credit: [add if license requires]

Meet Amanda Gorman! When she was little, some sounds were really hard for her to say — especially the letter R. So she wrote her feelings down instead. Today she’s a famous poet who reads her poems out loud to the whole country!

Word of the Day: KIND. Being kind means treating people gently — especially when something is hard for them.

Three kind things to do when someone finds talking hard: wait for them, really listen, and be patient
Let’s talk
  • Is there a word that’s hard for YOU to say? That’s okay — lots of people have one!
  • What should you do if a friend takes a long time to get their words out?
  • What’s one kind thing you can say to someone today?
Reveal a factHide the fact
When Amanda was 22 years old, she read a poem at the President’s inauguration in front of the whole country — the youngest person ever to do it!
Try it

Kindness Week kickoff! Turn to a partner and say one kind, true thing about them. Tomorrow is Random Acts of Kindness Day — start thinking about what you’ll do!

Quote of the day: “I couldn’t use my voice, so I would author my voice on the page.”

Who said it?Hide
Portrait of Amanda Gorman Photo credit: [add if license requires]
Amanda Gorman — raised in Los Angeles by a single mother who taught middle school English. She had an auditory-processing condition that made the letter R nearly impossible to pronounce. At 16 she became LA’s Youth Poet Laureate; at 19, the first National Youth Poet Laureate; and at 22, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history.

Notice what she did. Rather than avoid words, she went further into them — and eventually decided that writing on the page wasn’t enough. She had to perform her poems out loud, difficult sounds and all.

Amanda Gorman's path: wrote it down, chose to speak, then read for a nation
Let’s talk
  • Gorman said her speech difficulty made her “self-edit and self-police.” What might that cost a person over years?
  • It’s Kindness Week. What does kindness look like when someone stutters, searches for a word, or speaks with an accent?
  • Last week we learned Maya Angelou also found her voice through words. Why do you think that pattern repeats?
Reveal the answersHide the answers
Constantly self-editing means swallowing thoughts you actually had — over years, that’s a lot of ideas the world never hears. The kindest response to someone struggling to speak is almost always the simplest: don’t finish their sentence, don’t look away, don’t rush them. Finishing for someone signals impatience even when you mean to help. And the pattern repeats because writing gives you time — you can revise, pause, and get it exactly right, which is precisely what live speech doesn’t allow. For both Angelou and Gorman, the page was a rehearsal space for the voice.
Try it

Kindness Week challenge! Today, practice one specific skill: when someone is speaking, don’t interrupt and don’t finish their sentence — not once, all day. It’s harder than it sounds. Tomorrow is Random Acts of Kindness Day, so start planning yours.

Additional Notes/Activities

If additional activities are needed for the Morning Meeting, they will be added here.