Today was a day that I was especially proud of my kindergarten class. A new student joined us today, and the students welcomed her by saying, "Awesome! We have a new friend!" The fact that they immediately made her feel welcome just by calling her a friend and not a student melted my heart! It shows how sincere and gentle our classroom environment is.
We have been learning about how to be a good citizen in Social Studies and have spent a lot of time talking about how to be a good friend within this unit. Together we brainstormed ideas of ways to be a good friend. It was amazing to see these ideas in action today!
Since we got a new friend, we spent extra time doing class building and team building activities to get to know her and to make her feel welcome. We took some time to learn new things about our teammates, which was perfect considering we recently switched teams. Some of the kids learned that they all LOVE chocolate ice cream. Others learned that they both live with their grandparents. It is always awesome to see the kids relate to one another and see how similar they are. In this team builder we rolled dice and answered the questions that we got!
Another team builder that we did was creating a team cheer. This is always a fun activity that the kids really take ownership of. At first in kindergarten, we all used the same cheers. The Roller Coaster cheer was our favorite for a while! After being introduced to so many different cheers, the kids have been getting creative and thinking of new and fun ideas. Here are some team cheers that the kids are really proud of!
Class building and team building are so important in the classroom because the students will interact better and on a deeper level if they feel comfortable in the classroom. The most crucial part of learning is that the students feel safe to share their learning!
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