A Warm, Caring Classroom Community

Start your year right with Social Emotional Read Alouds that will help you build a caring classroom community!

This is my best advice to creating a community both you and your students will love to be a part of each day. Taking the TIME it takes to read stories that teach lessons and foster rich discussions about how to treat others, solve problems, manage feelings/emotions, initiate friendships, learn manners, and build habits is SO worth it. It will save you so much day-to-day stress down the road and help your students become stronger leaders in the classroom. The students become more independent and learn to take care of each other! Parents are so appreciative when their students come home with meaningful reflections, strategies, and improve compassion. It helps set the tone for a great year!!!

After all, we've all heard the quote- students do not always remember what you taught them, but they remember how you made them feel!

I use situation cards and have students model how to solve scenarios using their MANNERS. Explicit teaching of manners might sound so basic, but it helps students reflect on how they treat each other. They make an effort to use this language and it puts a more positive spin on your daily environment. Manners cards and Posters are available HERE.

After reading The Case of the Tattle Tongue students can discuss how to solve problems. I teach them I-Messages and we practice, practice, practice!

Every week we honor a "Bucket-Filler of the Week" and that person works to be a role model all week long. Then, this student chooses a student he/she noticed was also a role model all week to be our next "Bucket-Filler of the Week." Students give their peer compliments about what he/she did well after being selected. Get your poster FREE here!