Building a Community!

Building a community in our classrooms is one of the biggest parts of having a successful year.  

I'm always looking for new ways to create friendship and trust in my classroom!  

Chrysanthemum is always a favorite back to school read. :) 

I saw this idea on Pinterest and HAD to do it!

If you haven't seen it before, here's how it works.  I painted that big, beautiful heart.  After reading Chrysanthemum, we talked about how words can hurt us.  Even things that you may not really mean, like telling someone "you're not my friend anymore" can really hurt someones feelings.  I asked the kids to tell me things that others had said to them before that made them feel sad.  For each thing, I crumpled up the heart.  You should have heard the gasps!!

After our poor heart was all wrinkled and ripped, I asked if the kids thought they could flatten it back out and make it look like it did before.  Everyone had a chance, and guess what.....it wasn't as beautiful as it was when we started!  That's because even if you apologize for mean words you say, others may still have wrinkles in their hearts from it.  So we have to really think before they say something that may not be nice!  I think they really got it!!

Each of the kiddos then signed their name to a bandaid and put it on the heart.  They were all trying to put the bandaids over the rips to fix them....it was so cute!  I plan on leaving it up all year as a reminder to always be kind to others! :)