The final lesson in the First Days of School series focuses on how to build a classroom community where all class members can feel safe, heard, and valued. The resource includes step-by-step directions for engaging pupils in developing...

Wouldn't it be lovely if we all had a space where we were seen, heard, and valued? As part of creating a safe, respectful classroom community, participants envision such a space and then generate a classroom contract that will establish...

Scholars continue their exploration of the concept of community by first completing an anticipation guide and then engaging in a Four Corners activity to share their responses. They analyze an essay in which the author defines community...

In the post-pandemic classroom, it's more important than ever to begin the school year by building a strong sense of trust and community. Using the Make Meaning and Big Paper teaching techniques, groups develop a definition of community...

Here's a great way to build community during the first days of the new school year. Participants read personal narratives, then craft and share their stories with others.

If you could frame something important to you, what would it be, where would you hang it, and why would you choose this particular thing to frame? These questions launch a lesson designed to help class members get to know each other....

Names come with all sorts of nuances and can influence how we see ourselves and how others see us. To gain insight into the power of names, class members journal about their names and then read a short essay about a girl and her feelings...

Many of us have multiple identities. There's who we are at home, school, friends, and strangers. And often these identities come with different names. The third activity in the First Days of School series examines how names reflect...

Rumpelstiltskin understood the power of names. The second lesson in the First Days of School series focuses on building community by recognizing the importance of the relationships among names, identities, and cultures. Learners engage...

Masks, a pandemic, remote learning, and isolation; scholars reflect on the past school year and consider what positive things they would like to see continued in the current school year and what negative things they would like to...

Change is inevitable. Kindergarteners discuss coping skills to properly manage changes that can occur outside the family.  Scholars reflect on their life changes after starting kindergarten. They discuss their feelings and draw a...

Have you ever wondered where the money comes from to pay for your school, teachers, supplies, and building? The 1989 Supreme Court case Edgewood ISD v. Kirby lays a framework for open discussion on the funding of public schools. Using a...

A wonderful moment has just happened in your class, and you'd like to tell the child's parent, but by the end of the day, you've forgotten. What you need is this app! You can keep in touch with parents and archive classroom moments for...

First graders go on an in-school scavenger hunt to get to know the many kinds of people that make up an elementary school community. They work in small groups and use digital cameras to take pictures of the workers they find.