Previous Issues

How Do You Measure—and Treasure—a Year?

Small Ways to Maximize Time in the Classroom

Issue 4 I Summer 2024

5 Ways to Build Classroom Community During Back-to-School Season

Every classroom is not only a literal community—a collective group of people with shared characteristics—but also an opportunity for community. You can feel the energy and excitement for learning in classrooms where students value and support one another.

This social-emotional sense of community cannot be manufactured, but it can be nurtured. As a teacher, you’re likely already planning and doing things that create community—even if you hadn’t thought of it that way. Here are five ways you can intentionally build community at the start of the school year.

Names

The seemingly simple act of speaking our names and having them recognized by the class goes a long way in creating a joyful sense of belonging. Displaying names can help everyone feel seen.

Invite students to write their own names for display on a bulletin board, classroom door, or on their desks to honor their unique voices—and contributions—to the class.

Physical Space

The physical organization of your classroom plays an important role in establishing and maintaining community. Consider these questions as you think about the room’s layout:

• Where can the whole community gather inside the classroom?
• What tables or spaces can be designated for collaborative small-group work?

A healthy community respects individuals’ needs for privacy and independence, too.

Classroom Library

Does your classroom library contain books that represent the students in your class? What gets space in the classroom conveys what is valued there, and that’s as true for what gets stocked on the bookshelves as it is for what gets hung on the walls.

At the beginning of a new year, as the community is getting established, variety may be more important than quantity. Consider these questions as you think about which texts to put on display:

• Is it easy for students to find texts written by authors that look like people in their families?
• Can students relate to the characters, settings, and circumstances in the books?
• Are your students’ interests represented as well?
• Is there a balance of nonfiction and fiction?
• Are there texts like graphic novels and magazines in addition to chapter books?

Beginning/Closing Routines

A consistent morning routine at school helps students transition from the outside world to the classroom. Familiar procedures and activities signal mind and body to shift energy, language, and behavior.

You might, for example, explicitly teach students how to arrive in the classroom each day: Hang your backpack and coat if you have one, return your take-home folder to the basket, and then choose a quiet morning activity from one of our classroom stations.

Consider coming together as a group early in the day. A read-aloud, song, joke, or problem-solving activity can be a joyful kickoff to the day. A short meeting to review the day’s schedule also helps set expectations.

At the end of the day, you might gather again to reflect. Invite students to share something they learned, noticed, or wondered. Pause to let everyone acknowledge moments that made them feel grateful, confident, or appreciated throughout the day. Ending on a positive note can help students carry those feelings into other areas of their lives beyond the classroom.

Listening Mantras

Listening—not talking—is our most frequent form of communication in life, so good listening skills are a must for a healthy community! Help students brainstorm to define deep listening by inviting them to recall a time someone else deeply listened to them:

• What did it feel like to share your thoughts with a good listener?
• How did the person look as they listened?
• What qualities make a great listener?

More Classroom Community-Building Resources

Zaner-Bloser’s back-to-school issue of The Hive, a free enewsletter for teachers in grades K–6, is full of additional resources to help you build and sustain your classroom community. Read the full issue to find prompts for gratitude journal entries, active engagement strategies to try, classroom organization ideas, and more! Like what you see? Sign up for a free subscription!

Looking for more ways to be mindful?