Building a Classroom Community

The beginning of the school year brings so many new things- new routines, new friends, new challenges, and new opportunities to learn who we are as people.  These all involve building a community within the classroom environment.  One definition of “community” is: “a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals”.  In the early years, “community” is the child’s family, neighborhood, and their classroom (teachers and peers).  Communities that are built upon teamwork and kindness.  This is what we hope to foster in our classroom at the beginning of each school year. 

In the Blue Room we use the books listed below to help us prepare for the learning and play we will do together in large and small groups, as well as individually.  We also use them as inspiration for writing classroom rules together, how we keep the flow of learning going by having control over our bodies and actions, and how we can make new friends while still maintaining old friendships.

Some of the books we have been reading to support community building and settling into the classroom routine include: 
A Letter From Your Teacher on the First Day of School by Shannon Olsen
Collaboration Station by Shannon Olsen
If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School- Don’t! By Elise Parsley
Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
Our Classroom is a Community by Shannon Olsen
No, David! by David Shannon
The Day the Crayons Made Friends by Drew Daywalt
The Pigeon Has to Go to School by Mo Willems
The Way I Act by Steve Metzger
You Can Sit With Me by Rachel Tawil Kenyon