Building Community in 2/3!
In Bree and Marie’s 2/3 group, we have worked hard over the first six weeks to build a strong classroom community. A strong community will enable us to have fun, learn, and take risks together throughout this school year. Building community is especially important in Miquon classrooms, because of our commitment to group work and student-centered learning!
Our community-building work starts first thing in the morning as we meet for morning meeting. Students begin our meeting by choosing a morning greeting. Through this daily opening, we show how happy we are to see each other and, in doing so, make everyone’s presence valued.
Also during meeting time, students sign up to share with the group. Students often choose to speak about about stories from last night or last weekend; share memories about a family trip; or pass around a special memento. Not only does this daily activity strengthen our bonds, but it builds confidence in our public speaking and improves the listening and conversation skills of young students. The student pictured below is sharing about a special, golden coin that she found on a scavenger hunt. The class had many questions and comments when she was done speaking!
This student is sharing about his trip to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. He taught us about the mummification process.
The 2/3’s have also worked to build a strong reading community over the first six weeks of school. We are committed to discovering who our classmates are as readers. Students meet with others to discuss observations they had while reading and to read portions of their books together. Daily reading partnerships allow students to learn from each other. More importantly, it instills a love of reading!
Building community is also evidenced during math time. Right now, students are working together to solve place value and addition activities. In our addition unit, students share the different strategies they use to solve problems. You can see students learning together and sharing math strategies below.
Finally, we believe that a community must be constantly nurtured to maintain its strength. When there are aspects of our community are in need of nurturing, students are empowered to voice their opinions during the Good of the Class Meeting. This is modeled off of Miquon’s school-wide Good of the School Assembly. During our first Good of the Class Meeting, students shared their opinions on what could be improved in our classroom. Then, the class focused their discussion oon how to make others feel included during choice time. The students brainstorms many ways to make everyone feel involved in our daily outdoor play. One student said, “If you see someone alone, run over to her and ask her if she wants to play with you.” Another student said, “We can try to play games that need a lot of people. They can involve everyone.”
Marie and I are so excited for this school year. The strength of our classroom community will surely give us the capacity to do great things this year!
