Say Thank You, Welcome and Happy Birthday as a class! So much of building our classroom communities comes from recognizing the people within it! Small gestures like saying Thank You to generous classroom volunteers, Welcoming new students and celebrating Birthdays set the foundation for a classroom community that is cohesive, supportive and kind.
You have to have those warm and safe feelings if you want students to be vulnerable enough to learn. I use classroom books to help my students get in the habit of communicating these emotions. I am a huge fan of using writing in the elementary and special education classrooms to insert social skills lessons where I can (you can read about it here!). These books are just another way I like to sneak it in 🙂Â
Each book contains pages with primary lines, pages with standard lines, and graphic pages. This way students are able to work on a page that matches their ability level and everyone is held accountable for contributing. These writing tasks are both engaging and meaningful! More than that, they lend themselves nicely to the creation of a classroom culture that students can thrive in. You can try a sample of my Classroom Welcome Book, Classroom Thank You Book, or Classroom Birthday Book for free!
