Lesson 1: Community Builders

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Importance of Creating Community

In a classroom, students come from different backgrounds, ethnicities, experiences, and interests. Each student is unique in their own way, by creating a community in the classroom, the classroom can become one. "When we intentionally create a community for the purpose of a shared goal, it can deepen relationships, create feelings of belonging, and provide support for the health and wellbeing of all members. Community is a gateway to better understand our own lives and the lives of others and creates an essential foundation for people working toward common goals." (Smithsonian)

By creating and designing a classroom that allows for students to learn and relate to each other it becomes a more collaborative and comfortable setting. Leading to higher success rates and motivation to reach their goals.

Watch this video to learn more about how powerful community building can be. What do you think of his perspective? What is your view on the best way to do community building?

https://youtu.be/JxYCsnZ3r_U

Community Builders

"By considering each other’s lives and experiences, and perspectives, we allow a community to be not only about what we have in common but what makes us different." (Smithsonian)

A simple community builder can make a big difference within the lives of your students.

Here are some examples of community builders you could implement in your classroom:

Shout-Outs: This is a quick way for students to celebrate each other for doing a job well or for attempting something difficult. Shout-outs can be incorporated at any point in a class.

Friendly Fridays: Write a friendly, anonymous note to a classmate, practice using positive self-talk, or use storytelling to give a peer a pep talk.

Sharing Acts of Kindness: When a student sees a peer being kind, they can post a thank you note on a shared “kindness wall.”

Group Salutes: The shared gesture can be physical—like a high five—or social—a teacher could ask students to express gratitude to their group members.

Morning Meetings: Bonding exercises led by teachers or students include physical or social and emotional activities, or discussions.

Snowball Toss: Students anonymously write down one of their stressors on a piece of paper, crumple it up, gather in a circle, and throw their paper balls in a mock snowball fight. When that’s done, they pick up a snowball and read it aloud.

Weekend Walk: On a Monday, students get time to walk around the room and share with peers what they did over the weekend.

Create your own Community Builder Activity

For this lesson, you will be brainstorming and coming up with 1 community builder activity. This can be in any school setting or grade level, this community builder must be at least 10 minutes long. Please write out the activity and directions on a page and post it to our classroom collaboration doc.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uP4PbZIUfQTH36HpUNRqOjkyf4ECgCeXqzc9-wtm3q0/edit?usp=sharing