Building a Classroom Community

Bulletin board where they sing their songs

October 8, 2010

Today was my first visit in Mrs. Thomas' first grade class. I absolutely love it! My teacher does a great job building classroom community. As students first arrive to school, they put away their bookbags and then go straight to specials. After they come back, my teacher really makes them feel comfortable and welcomed. The students know to go to their assigned spot on the carpet and the teacher immediately starts "The Days of the Week" song. This gets the students warmed up for the next song they sing, "The Months of the Year." One student goes to the board and takes a pointer to point to the months as they are said. The rest of the students do a modified version of the Macarena dance as they are singing. Students take turns coming to the board to point. The students then sit down and the teacher pulls five names from a cup. These five students are then able to share something that happened to them after they left school the day before. She keeps those five names out so she doesn't draw the same names the next day.

This is a perfect example of building classroom community. In class, we talked about how important it was to establish a sense of belonging among the students. The teacher makes every single student feel important by taking an interest in what is going on their own personal lives. We talked about how it is so crucial that students feel comfortable in class and feel like a family. The teacher used the calendar songs to get the students warmed up and feel comfortable. This is something that they do every day and it is comforting for them to have a routine to stick to. Obviously there are many more than five students who would like to share something that happened to them, but the teacher emphasizes that everyone will have a turn to share.

During my previous clinicals I have completed, I have noticed teachers doing this same thing. It wasn't until after taking this course that I really understood how important it was. When I was watching the students singing and dancing, I caught myself smiling. The kids seemed so happy. I really like the teacher's method of drawing five names out of a cup. This way 23 kids are not trying to all share a story; however, she keeps the five names out to ensure that every child will have a chance to share. I thought that was really cool. I plan on carrying out some of these ideas in my own classroom one day.