Community Building in Kindergarten

Ms. West and I teach in a co-teaching kindergarten classroom. We each have a full group of students that we merge together to create one classroom community. We have been teaching in the same classroom now for 3 years... but we knew right away that we would have to teach our students to work together if we wanted this setup to be successful.  Of course we have learned a few things over the years and each group of kids is different. Here are some of the community building concepts we worked on this year. We usually spend a few days to a week on each concept and we finish it all out by creating a classroom peace promise.

Self Control- students learned to use self control by doing the bubble pop activity. Students learned to control themselves while waiting their turn to pop the bubbles. We also read the book Too Loud Lily and Lily's Purple Plastic Purse.

 Kindness- students learned about kindness by doing the tooth paste squeeze. After we read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes students worked in groups to think mean thoughts while squeezing the toothpaste out of the tube. Students then were told to put the toothpaste back in but they couldn't. Much like when we say mean things and can't take our words back.

We also did the apple activity. We used two apples ( and named them ) We left one alone and set in on the table. We called the other one mean names and each time we would drop it or bang in. Once we were finished we cut them open and saw how our mean words bruised the inside of the apple.

 Active Listening - students learned about active listening by doing different following directions activities and also playing this game called Back to Back. Each student works with a partner and sits back to back. They each have the same set of blocks. One student builds and then explains what to do to their partner. They are not allowed to turn around until they are both done to see if they communicated well enough to have the same building.

 Friendship - students also learned about being a friend through many different stories. One of our favorites is My Friend and I about two friends who argue over a toy and break it. They then use a band aid to fix it. Students each put a band aid on themself to remember the story's message.

 Teamwork- students worked on teamwork for a long time and we still use it daily. Their first activity was to put together a puzzle. Each student got a small bag of pieces but they soon realized they couldn't do it because they didn't have all the parts. They then realized all their pieces were supposed to make one large puzzle. We worked on puzzles for a few days. We also did beading to hang above our tables, painted our color blocks and did several loose parts activities to practice working together.

 Peace Promise - our promise took longer to make this year than last but we weren't ready and it shouldn't be rushed. Students gave us a list of things they thought they could do every day. We then compiled it into our promise. Several of our students worked together and painted a background. Each student and teacher that works in our classroom community made a peace sign with their signature and then we put them all together.

Our community is important to us. When we notice that we are struggling with one of the character traits on our peace promise we stop and have a community meeting. It takes a lot of time to keep up with it and be proactive rather than reactive but it's worth it when kids show kindness towards others and love to work together.

Here is our hallway community building web display.

Creativity in Kindergarten

For the past few weeks, we have been working with our kinders to develop a sense of creative expression and imagination. Through these activities we have also been able to work on teamwork, fine motor skills and even documentation.  Although it's easier for some students than others... they are all starting to make some progress!

Too Much Glue

One of our favorite stories to start off creativity is Too Much Glue.  It's a great book about a little boy who gets into some sticky trouble at school by using too much glue. Each of the kids used "beautiful stuff" to decorate t-shirts.

Not a Stick

Another story we read is Not a Stick. In this story, the little pig uses his imagination to pretend his stick is many different things. Our students then used a stick to make their own creation. They practiced fine motor skills by wrapping and knotting yarn and string with beads onto the sticks. We then hung them from our big tree branch and suspended some from the ceiling in the hallway.

Writer's Workshop
For writer's workshop we worked on using imagination while drawing. We did two different stories... Harold and the Purple Crayon and Not a Box.

This story is similar to Not a Stick except it's about a rabbit who uses his imagination with a box. Students shared ideas about what their box could be and then "wrote/drew" during writing time.

For Harold and the Purple Crayon, Ms. West worked with the students on using their imagination to draw with one color Crayon. It was difficult at first because they wanted to use more colors but after a few days they got it!

The Most Magnificent Thing

This book is about a little girl who makes a plan to build something but it just doesn't turn out the way she wants. After she gets frustrated because she's having a hard time she realizes she can use parts from her creations to make one magnificent thing. To work on fine motor skills and to introduce clay... we made magnificent thing sculptures. We talked about how clay can be really hard to manipulate at first but once you keep working with it- it gets easier and softer. The students made a clay base and then used pipe cleaners and beads to make something magnificent!

Documentation
As we are preparing to begin our play based learning centers... we are teaching the students to document what they created. The first day we had students work together and then draw a picture of what they made.

The second day we had the students work independently and then document and they got the concept so much better.

Hallway Display
Here are some of our creative pieces on display in our hallway.

Next week we will see how we can use our creativity as we work in our centers with our teams!