The first week of school sets the tone for the entire school year. More than anything, your students want and need to feel seen, heard, and valued from the very beginning. Building classroom community does not have to mean elaborate projects or time-consuming prep. At the beginning of the year, you have too much to worry about to add on more projects! In this blog post, you will learn 7 simple ways to help students feel seen during the first week of school, through intentional morning meetings, sharing circles, and other back to school activities.
Whether you teach kindergarten, first grade, or second grade, these community building activities will build relationships, foster connection among you and your students, and create a strong classroom community where students feel that they belong.
Begin The Day With Morning Greetings
I have taught in schools where it was mandatory to be at your door when the bell rings to greet students. I have also taught in schools where this was not mandatory. I always told myself I would always stand at the door to greet my students, but you know how the mornings can go sometimes.
You’re behind on making copies, behind on getting an activity ready, oops you forgot to sharpen pencils, etc. I am embarrassed to say that when it was not mandatory anymore, I let it slip. And you know what I noticed? I did not get that quick connection with each student before school started each day. This helped us start the day on the right foot.
One of the quickest ways to build trust and connection with your students is with a simple “Good morning”. Greeting each student as they enter the classroom helps them feel acknowledged and welcome. It also gives you that quick check-in moment to gauge how they are feeling that day. You may have a student who wants to create a secret handshake with you! What is more fun than to start the day that way?
I had a poster by my door that had pictures of different greeting choices, like a wave, hug, fist bump, and high five that let students choose how they wanted to be greeted. You can introduce these greetings on the first day of school and get started right away!
Build Community With A Daily Sharing Circle
Sharing circles are a great addition to your morning meeting to give students a voice. Set aside a few minutes each morning during your morning meeting for a quick share. Ask questions like:
- What made you smile this morning?
- What do you do when you get home from school?
- What is your favorite afterschool snack?
You can have a few students share every day or you can turn this into a parter share and have students share with the two students they are sitting next to. Obviously, you will not have a ton of time to let every student share so sharing with a partner will help with adjusting to time, or you have draw names or rotate who gets to share every morning. However, don’t put students on the spot if they are shy.
Assign Classroom Jobs During The First Week
Students love responsibility in the classroom. It is important for them to feel helpful and to actually be helpful! You can introduce simple jobs like line leader, calendar helper, or lunch count assistant. Giving students roles in the classroom helps them feel trusted and important. Also, when I would forget to rotate jobs every week, my students noticed! So, then I gave the job of rotating jobs to a student! The point of the jobs is to give your students responsibility but also to help you! You cannot do it all after all!
I used to teach in a Leader In Me school where every student in my class had leadership roles. Leadership roles were similar to classroom jobs, just a different name. I created a leadership application so students could apply for their position every week. Now, we did not always have the time to go through the process of applying for a position, but I really tried to do this as much as we could.
Here are different leadership roles you could include in your classroom:
- line leader: leads the class line
- lights leader: turns the lights on and off when needed
- office leader: runs errands to the office
- clean leader: helps keep the room clean
- recycling leader: takes care of the recycling
- library leader: takes library books to the library and helps take care of our classroom library
- sub leader: in charge of someone’s role when they are absent
- super leader: the teacher assistant
- positive leader: tells the teacher who sets a good example throughout the day
- greeting leader: greets students and guests when they come into the classroom and can greet students by the door in the morning with the teacher
- paper leader: passes out papers to students
- pencil leader: sharpens pencils
- tech leader: takes care of technology in the classroom by checking if tablets and computers are plugged in, shut down, etc.
- tidy leader: helps keep the room tidy
- equipment leader: takes care of recess equipment
- lunch leader: takes care of lunch count, keeps lunch boxes in the correct place
- door leader: holds the door and makes sure the door is closed
- mail leader: puts papers in mailboxes to go home
How to get students ready for classroom jobs? Make sure to to have a “training week” where you explain and model each job with a funny voice or silly skit. It is engaging and gives students a strong understanding of what each role involves.
Need a simple way to display classroom jobs? I love to use this clip chart so that you can easily move the clothespin to the new job.
See it here on Missing Tooth Grins.
Create Community Rules Together
It is important to have rules in your classroom, but it is also important to decide as a classroom community the core rules and values of your classroom. Once we came up with our three main rules and values, I wrote each on a large anchor chart paper. Then, I divided my class into small groups to work on coloring and decorating the posters. Students love to see these hung up on a bulletin board in the classroom all year long.
Having these hung up in the classroom makes it easy to refer back to throughout the school year. When someone would forget a rule, I would bring the class together and say, “Let’s go check what we all agreed on.” It reinforces accountability and reminds students that these are our rules, not just the teacher’s rules.
The rules do not to be groundbreaking by any means. Keep them simple and help your students come up with different ideas. Here are some examples:
- Be a good friend
- Respect one another
- Keep a safe classroom environment
- End the day on a positive note
- Be responsible with belongings
- Listen to others while they are speaking
Icebreaker Activities For The Beginning Of The School Year
As adults, we mostly do not like icebreakers. However, kids often love ice breaker games to get to know their classmates, especially if they get to move around! Icebreakers are some of my favorite activities when done with kids, just not adults! Icebreakers are a great way for students to get to know their peers in a simple and fun way. Here are some different icebreaker games you can play with your students to build community:
Musical Chairs
Just like in the normal version of Musical Chairs, put chairs in a circle. You will need one less than the number of students you have. So, this will probably be a big circle! Plus music and students walk along the outside of the chairs. Once the music stops, students sit! Whoever does not have a chair isn’t out though! They answer an icebreaker question. Then, they get to play again! We have this game with predetermined cards and questions in our First Week of School resources.
First Week of Kindergarten on TPT or Missing Tooth Grins
First Week of First Grade on TPT or Missing Tooth Grins
First Week of Second Grade on TPT or Missing Tooth Grins
You can do this activity in small groups or with your whole class!
Dance To The Music
This is a simple, absolutely no prep activity to get your students up and moving, but also get to know each other. Students walk or dance around the classroom, while you play music. When the music stops, students must go to the peer closest to them. Then, you ask them a question. Then, play the music and repeat. Encourage them to go to a new peer the next time the music stops.
Here are some questions you can ask:
- What is your favorite afterschool snack?
- What classroom job is your favorite?
- What time do you wake up in the morning?
- What is your favorite board game?
- Who was your teacher last year?
Back To School Bingo
Give students a “Find A Friend” page with prompts like “has a pet cat”, “can ride a bike”, “went to the movies over the summer”, etc. Students walk around finding classmates who match each square and write their name. This helps students discover what they have in common. If you do not want to create your own, we have one in our back to school printable packs (Kindergarten – TPT/MTG, First Grade – TPT/MTG, Second Grade TPT/MTG).
For more icebreaker games and activities, head to this blog post.
Create A Classroom Promise
Another excellent way to build classroom community in the beginning of the year is to create a classroom promise. This is a great opportunity to let students decide the kind of classroom they want to be part of… on the very first day! No matter the age of your students, this is an important activity during the first weeks of school. Work with your students to create a “We Are…” or “Our Classroom Is…” chart. Let students help decide the kind of classroom they want to be part of- kind, respectful, helpful, etc. Revisit and even add to it throughout the year! You can even have students draw or write one thing they will do to support your classroom promise.
All About Me Craft Activity
Let students share who they are with a fun craft! An All About Me craft gives students the chance to talk about their family, favorite food, pets, and more. Hang them up on a bulletin board to show the rest of the school who your students are. Let students share their crafts with one another so they can learn about their classmates.
Our ice cream craft is perfect for this! It is just what you need to sweeten up your first week of school! It includes the following prompts:
- My favorite food
- This year, I hope…
- Over the summer, I…
- My favorite book
- My favorite hobby
- Something about me
- On my sundae, I like…
- My favorite color
- My family
- My friends
Click here to see this craft on TPT.
Click here to see this craft on Missing Tooth Grins.
Final Thoughts
Building classroom culture is not a one-and-done activity. Revisit community-building activities regularly to keep the connections strong. During back to school time, it is easy to focus on the logistics like routines, rules, school supplies, and procedures. However, you must not forget that the heart of your classroom is connection to build your classroom culture. By greeting your students each morning, giving them a chance to share, taking the time to let your students get to know one another, you will lay the foundation to build a strong sense of community. I hope you have a wonderful new school year!
Check out these mentioned products for the back to school season:
- First Week of Kindergarten (TPT / Missing Tooth Grins)
- First Week of 1st Grade (TPT / Missing Tooth Grins)
- First Week of 2nd Grade (TPT / Missing Tooth Grins)
- All About Me Craft (TPT / Missing Tooth Grins)
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