Building Community in Kindergarten

Making new friends

  

Mixing "food" for a Gruffalo hunt

Transitioning from the long days of summer to kindergarten can be a big change for students as they encounter and navigate new spaces, faces and expectations.  Each child comes to school with a variety of needs, experiences, skills and hopes. Before the hard and important work of reading, writing and math can ensue, each student must feel safe, valued, heard and known. A strong classroom community fosters this sense of belonging and begins to build the foundation of our year together.

Indoor and outdoor informal play such as dramatic play and block building, and structured play opportunities such as collaborative group work, naturally draw pairs or small groups of children together as they share common interests and ideas. All of these are certainly important for individual growth, yet how can we connect as a larger whole class? How can each student been known throughout the class and not by just a few close individuals? How can we intentionally build community? 

Collaborative pattern block work

Sharing a common interest of drawing

One way for our kindergarten class to connect more deeply is through our daily morning meeting times as we share a different greeting each day, making everyone feel welcomed and included. While practicing looking at each other, using names and a friendly voice, the students build up necessary social skills. Next, we dig a little deeper in making classroom connections by posing a "sharing" time or question that has us learning more about each other's likes and magnifying common interests such as treasured books, weekend experiences or a favorite food. We might share around the circle, individually or use a partner share to connect. Our morning meeting then proceeds to a game or group activity that has us moving, laughing and creating a repertoire of common shared experiences. Ask your child which game is their favorite so far:  Be Still As a Rock, Busy Bees, When the Warm Wind Blows or Fruit Salad? Our intentional morning meetings set the tone for the school day while providing the place and space for building bridges and strengthening our community.

Book sharing and learning how to be an audience member and a public speaker!

Creating something together as a whole group also helps each community member to feel included and important, a part of the bigger picture. Each student created a self portrait to include in our larger kindergarten portrait. This visual representation of our class emphasizes how each individual is valued and appreciated and how we are here to take care of one another. We will be friends, learners, teachers, readers, writers, scientists, mathematicians, athletes and artists side by side, supporting and cheering each other on as we move through this wonderful experience of kindergarten together.

Being a member of a community also entails some important responsibilities. To help the students understand the effect our words and actions have on those around us, we read several books about kindness and care for others. A classroom favorite is Have You Filled a Bucket Today? The students quickly understood the metaphors about bucket filling and how your kindness fills someone else's (and your own) bucket. On the other hand, unkind words and actions can cause one to be a bucket dipper. Our class eagerly declared they wanted to be bucket fillers! 

Kid writing: A kindergarten friend's
wish for the year,
"I hope to be a bucket filler."

 
As a classroom community, we discussed why we go to school and our hopes and dreams for the kindergarten year. Ideas ranged from playing with new friends, learning more about drawing, wishing to be a bucket filler, going on field trips and learning how to write more words. We then asked the class several clarifying questions:

Can you reach your hopes and dreams on your own? Will you need help? Who can help you?

What will we need for us all to be able to attain our hopes and dreams?

What will our classroom need to look like for us to all feel safe, ready to try new things, take some risks and face challenges?

How can we have a joyful kindergarten year together?


 Their brainstorm started off with all the things the children thought we should not do at school: no hitting, no running, no mean words, etc. Intent on putting a positive spin to this very long and growing list of "should-nots," we turned the conversation to all of the things we could do at school: be kind, share, make friends, help one another. This list grew even longer and the children began to see all of the connections between their ideas. As a community, we whittled the "could and should" do list down to a short and sweet list that encompassed all the positives, making it much easier to remember! Thus, our classroom community care contract was created. The students took their community responsibilities very seriously as they signed the classroom contract, promising to work together so that everyone can reach and attain their kindergarten hopes and dreams, and so much more.

Our Community Care Contract

Each student had a hand in creating the way we envision our classroom, and it is our hope that this ownership will help each member of our community work hard to honor these shared ideals. Our community building work will continue throughout the year as the kindergartners grow together as a class and as individuals. We look forward to the joyful journey ahead as a community of friends and learners working together.