My Favorite Classroom Community Building Project
As a kindergarten and first grade looping teacher my main focus at the start of the school year is building a strong community. If we are going to be together for two whole year we all need to be able to work together! A strong classroom community allows for deeper learning, increased engagement, closer relationships, and an investment in school.
Classroom community building starts the minute students walk in the door on the first day of school. My goal in the first few weeks of school is for students to celebrate who they are as people by talking about what makes them special. We also take a close look at how everyone in our class is different and how these differences can also be celebrated. A strong classroom community equals a happy school year!
Community Building Lessons
I have created Celebrate Us Classroom Community Building that includes 5 lesson plans that I use in my classroom to build community every year. Each lesson includes a get to know you circle prompt, read aloud, and activity. The culminating activity is my FAVORITE and the artwork that students make hangs in my classroom all year long.
Summer Adventures
In lesson one students start off with a get to know you circle using a greeting called We Are Here. Students then listen to the story Leena’s Summer Adventure (written by me!) to hear about some of the things that a girl names Leena did during her summer. After the story students write and draw about what they did during their summer and then share with the class.
My Favorite’s Book
In lesson two the class participates in a greeting called Knock, Knock to continue getting to know each other’s names. Next, students listen to the story Draydon’s Favorites (again, written by me!) about a boy named Drayden and all of his favorite things. Finally, students create their own favorites book filled with writing and drawing about their favorite food, animal, book, etc. and then share with the class to get to know each other better.
Name Celebration
Next during lesson 3 students greet each other using name cards to continue learning their peer’s names. The read aloud book for this lesson is the wonderful story The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi about a girl learning to love the name she was given. Student will then celebrate their own given names by writing about why they like their name and creating a name card that will be used for our final self-portrait project.
Self-Portrait Project
We are finally to my favorite part of the project! In lessons four and five students continue getting to know each other both days with a compliment circle and a brown bear greeting. Students will listen to books read aloud called It’s Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr and Shades of People by Shelley Rotner. Then the fun begins by having students draw and paint life-size portraits of themselves that will hang in our classroom for the entire year! After sketching themselves with pencil, students mix paint together to create a shade that matches their skin color. They then add the finishing touches by painting their features and clothing and then cut it out!
Celebrate Us Classroom Community Building
If you’re looking to build community in your classroom this school year this project is for you! It can be a little scary to give students paint the first week of school, but I promise the results are worth it! Students love learning about each other and creating their life-size portrait. You can find the lessons and their activities here!
-Ashley @ Little Learning Ladybugs
