It's almost impossible to get away from 'friendship issues' in the classroom. The second half of Third Grade seems to be the season for bickering and fighting, no matter how many community-building exercises we have done in the first half. I absolutely LOVE Third Grade, but it also seems to be the year where they discover that they can be mean to each other by intentionally discluding others in activities and saying generally unkind comments under their breath.

There are so many strategies for building classroom community in tough seasons like these. We've talked about love languages, and learned how to be bucket fillers, I've implemented whole-classroom curriculums on peacekeeping and gone to anti-bullying Pro-D seminars. Today I'm going to share one small activity that has made a big difference.

One of the more successful things I've found was a few afternoons of purposeful play. I would ask students to bring in a favorite board game from home and get ready to use it during class time. (Certain years my students weren't excited by board games, and I'd set out lego or other building materials as an alternative). Then, I would divide them into intentional small groups that would change each day. These groups were designed ahead of time so that students would get to know people outside of their regular social circles.

While students were playing I would project a get-to-know-you or deeper thinking question that they needed to ask their group mates. We'd go through 3-6 questions over the course of our 30-45 minute 'play' time. I always pull my questions from the book 'Q&A a Day for Kids', it's one of my 'secret weapons' as a Third Grade teachers. There are so many great questions. I use it for this activity and for morning meetings every Friday! (You can find it HERE, this is not an affiliate link).

My admin was on board with this afternoon break to play board games and build with Lego because it was purposefully character-building and my students were having a hard time with bullying and exclusion. This was really good for forcing students to get to know people outside of their preferred social groups. Do you have any quick activities to help when your students are being just plain mean to each other? I'd love some new strategies. Let me know below or connect on Instagram, @poet.prints.

With every first day back after a school break, I try to be very intentional about how to build classroom community and help my fourth-grade students re-connect with each other. It’s so easy to resort to just catching up with friends and going with what’s familiar, so one way to help my students connect with as many peers as possible is through “speed friending!”  It’s a great classroom community activity for any time of the year! 

In this activity, there are a series of questions that I show on Google Slides, and with each new question comes a new peer to interact with! It’s a great way to encourage students to make connections with peers outside of their usual social circles. I start the activity with a brief set of ‘rules and expectations’ that help to set us up for success.  

With twenty-four students, I divide the class into two lines with their chairs facing each other.    I tell one of the lines that they are now glued to their chairs and that the line of classmates across from them now moves one over with each new question. 

These questions range from silly “would you rather” style prompts to more intentional questions like “What is a quality you look for in a good friend?” Or today’s humdinger was “What is something that you really struggled with that you want to continue working on?” 

The question that received the most giggles was over “What are you really interested in right now? For example, your teacher is obsessed with Baby Yoda.”

And on the twelfth question, we end with a fun movement game where partners create a sequential rhythm with their hands and voices. 

What I love best is that the students are engaged with each new question, they enjoy the variety in different partners, and the community naturally restrengthens as the students bond over shared experiences and similar answers. 

What activities do you do that help facilitate conversation and connection in your classroom? I’m always on the hunt for new ideas.  Leave some ideas below! 

This was a guest post by Sarah, an elementary teacher in British Columbia.  She shares all of her upper elementary adventures on Instagram at @themissengteacher.  

Unpopular opinion: I find celebrating birthdays in the classroom to be quite stressful.

Okay, that statement isn’t entirely true. I love celebrating my students, but I cannot stand the mountains of cupcakes, cakes, ice-cream treats, jello, and candies that are inevitably brought into the classroom.  One student even brought in a pot of spaghetti on the morning of his birthday.  I wish I was joking.

While I do believe that birthdays are a great opportunity to celebrate each individual student, the sugary treats and unanticipated meals can make our day quite difficult.  Have you tried teaching 30 third-graders who are very hyper on cupcakes with mile-high-icing?  I have, and it is not easy.  Then multiply that by 20-30 different birthdays in the class… it’s a lot of sugar.  And when students spontaneously bring in a lunchtime item to share (spaghetti, hot dogs, pizza, etc.) there just often isn’t time to pass it out and eat it before the lunch bell rings.  At our school students get 20 minutes to eat lunch and passing out ‘special birthday lunch’ without notice means that students forego their outside playtime.

I also have a handful of students with a restricted diet (allergies, family preferences, naturopathic suggestions) and days with food treats just end up making many students feel left out.

There are so many other great ways to celebrate students and their birthdays without sugary treats. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Plan a game or activity for the class.  Bring in a soccer ball, parachute or any group game and have students play something together.

2. Bring an in-class activity. I’ve had students bring in a small drawing project, an outdoor game, or a quick STEM challenge

3. In lieu of cake/candy, families are welcome to bring in a small toy or pencil

4. Do something different – last year we decorated an 11x17 piece of paper for each student.  In the center of the paper, I wrote “Happy Birthday Joe” in large letters.  As students arrived they wrote a short encouraging note on the paper.  Then, the birthday student took a picture holding the sign and wearing a birthday hat.  This was a great keepsake for the student and the picture looked awesome on a bulletin board. 

Don’t have time for a celebration like this at every birthday?  Try picking one day per month to celebrate birthdays!  Students love knowing that a celebration is coming and I like to be able to plan ahead of time for these activities.  Plus, it allows all monthly birthdays to participate, even if their family has not sent in a game or activity!  

I’d love to know how you celebrate birthdays in your classroom.  Does your school have any rules about sugary treats?  Let me know in the comments below or find me on Instagram! (@poet.prints)

We’ve all had ‘those days’ in the classroom.  You know what I mean, the days where it seems like nothing can go right.  The math lesson flopped, the social studies’ guest speaker canceled at the last minute, a child is in tears because their paper is” too wrinkled”… and you are about to lose it.  This is #teacherlife, am I right?

I am currently spending a year substitute teaching, and I can’t tell you how many days I have walked into a classroom to a plan that says “Find something to do for reading, writing, math, and PE” or, better yet, walked into no plan at all.  

These days are inevitable, and they happen to everyone.  This year, more than any, I’ve learned to have a handful of on-the-go games ready at any time.  These games can fill a few minutes and allow you to gather your thoughts before you proceed with the day.  Sometimes I use them as a ‘re-set’ after a tough lesson. Hopefully, they can help you as well!

Activity 1: Silent Ball

I always keep a small dollar store ball in my teaching bag for this very game.  In Silent Ball, students sit (gasp!) on top of their desks. Then, a ball is passed to the first student.  The goal of the game is to keep the ball moving around the classroom without dropping it or making a peep. If the ball is dropped or someone speaks the round is over.  You can keep ‘score’ by counting how many passes are done, or timing how long the students can keep the ball going without dropping it. I love this game because it is cooperative and forces students to work together to achieve their goal.  

Activity 2: Charades

I almost always have a deck of charades cards in my teaching bag.  This game is great for almost all levels, and meets some important Speaking and Listening outcomes at the same time. I play charades in a few ways.  First, we play the classic version where students have to act out the card pulled. I also play an alternate version where they have 30 seconds to describe as many cards as they can.  Then, after all cards have been described, students have another 30 seconds to describe the cards using only one word. That one is a lot of fun, and usually draws on students’ memory from the previous round.  I haven’t yet met a class that doesn’t like a charades break!

Activity 3: Go Noodle

Wiggly group? Energy coming out of everywhere?  Go Noodle is my best friend in these occasions. Accounts are free for teachers, and there is plenty of free content to get your students up, sweating, and moving around.  My younger students love “Koo Koo Kangaroo” while my older students prefer “Fresh Start Fitness”. So far, all kids from K-5 have loved the track-and-field style channel “Go With the Pro”.

No internet connection or projector?  Keep a few high-energy, kid-friendly songs, ready to go on your smartphone.  A quick game of freeze dance will have almost the same effect on K-3 students!

Activity 4: Four Corners

This is a classic in-school game and for a good reason.  Students love being able to get out of their desk and try to win in a game of Four Corners.  To play this game, label each ‘corner’ of the classroom 1, 2, 3 and 4. Then designate a student to be “it”.  This students sits in the middle of the room with a blindfold (or very covered eyes) and slowly counts down from 10.  During this time, students must sneak to one of the designated corners. The ‘it’ students then yells out a corner number, and all of the students in that corner are out.  The game continues until only one student is left. To keep things moving, I tend to ‘close’ a corner as fewer students remain in the game. By the end, the final few students are only allowed to choose from two of the corners.

What are your go-to activities for a tough day?  Do you have any favorite classroom games or activities? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.

How often have you just wanted to pull your hair out because the students won’t get along? No classroom is immune from conflict. And conflict comes in all varieties: fights, misbehavior, kids being rude, you name it. How many times have you heard some of these in your classroom:

“He started it!”
“It wasn’t me!”
“Dooonnnn’ttt!”
** eye roll **
“I don’t need to listen to you!”
** budging in line**
“Teacher! He pushed me!”

How many times have you witnessed something like this in your classroom? How often have you just wanted to pull your hair out because the kids won’t get along? No classroom is immune from conflict. And conflict comes in all varieties: fights, misbehavior, kids being rude, you name it. What can we do when our students do something wrong? I’ve had to privilege of working alongside some gifted teachers who have taught me a lot about dealing with conflict and I’ve learned some helpful things along the way as well.

Talk It Out

When given the opportunity, most students are quite articulate. Try to get to the root of the problem and give the student a chance to speak. All too often, the teacher does most of the talking; sometimes it’s important to do most of the listening. Often times, problem behavior comes from something else. Chances are, the students are not acting up because they want to misbehave. Rather, they might be tired, hungry, sad, or a plethora of other reasons. By giving students an opportunity to talk, you feed a positive student-teacher relationship. Through talking and listening, you show your students that you care about their thoughts and feelings.

Give Space

Give your students space to cool down, if necessary. The immediate moment following an incident may not be the best time to debrief. Let the student go for a walk down the hall, or sit outside the door. Some classrooms use a cool down space to give students a safe place to regulate their emotions before they are ready to talk things through. You can find more information about this in my post about anxiety. 

Give Perspective

After a student does something wrong, it’s important to help the student see how his or her actions affected others. Young children, especially, are quite self-interested. They do not readily think about cause and effect. Thus, we have a responsibility to teach them how their actions involve others and affect them. Some may come to this realization on their own, others may need help. Perspective can be taught through role-playing, drawing the situation, social stories or a graphic organizer. I use these behavior reflections to help students to reflect on what happened and reach conclusions about how their actions affected others.

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Teach Restoration

Students need lessons on how to ‘make it right’ after an incident occurs. In my classroom, after I have talked through an incident with a student, it always ends with an apology and a way to ‘make it right’ with the person that was hurt. A Kindergarten teacher friend teaches her kiddos to say “I’m sorry. What can I do to make it better?” This gives the student who was hurt an opportunity to feel cared for. I’ve also seen teachers encourage students to draw a picture, ask the person to play at lunch, or share a snack with the person (although some schools have strict policies against sharing food). I’ve found that apology letters also work quite well. Plus, this integrates literacy into character building! 

Conflict is present in every classroom and in every grade. No classroom is immune. But there are many things that we, as teachers, can do that will help our students build character. If you’ve discovered any tips and tricks that have helped you, feel free to share!

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Around this point in the year, I like to do something a little bit different with my classroom organization.  This is more than putting students in groups.  Physically, we move our desks around, and we also lightly restructure a few of the ways I interact with the students in my class.  In our room, we are now divided into five learning communities.  (Loosely based off of this book) The point of these groupings is not to pit one group against the other in a reality-show-style standoff, but rather to build a tight-knit mini-community within our already close classroom community.   Let me explain…

By now, we have spent a good portion of the fall learning how to be bucket fillers, and what it means to show expected behavior . Students know my expectations to be kind, gentle, put others first, and follow the rules of the classroom.  We have done this in the context of the whole classroom where each child has been asked to generically look out for everyone else, and the teachers are the ‘overall’ support system if something goes wrong.  We are now switching up the model

With the introduction of community groups, I’ve explained that, within the classroom, each group is like a family.  (Of course, if “family” is not a safe word, you may want to use something different).  A group works together to do their best, to work hard and most importantly, to take care of each other. If one group member is upset, or frustrated, or confused, it is first up to the rest of the group to try and help them before they go to a teacher or someone outside of their group. 

At the beginning, we use a points system.  This is not intended to be used as a competition, but to encourage group to work together in a kind, respectful, and cohesive manner.  As a group, they are supposed to show expected behavior and be bucket fillers.  When I notice a group is encouraging each other, speaking kindly, helping a friend who is not understanding an assignment, all on-task, gently reminder a member to focus, etc.  they receive a point for their group.  (I also make a big deal that bragging, especially in the context of points, is not okay).  Then, on Friday, we have a points ceremony, and it is a big deal.  We have envelopes, and prizes and everyone wins something.  And then it re-starts for the next week.

Gradually, the points system is phased out, and just the groups remain.  But every year, my hope is that the cohesion and community will remain.  Some years it does, other years it takes more work, but overall, I have found that working in groups tends to yield incredibly positive results. 

Other things that we do to build community within groups:

• Group journals: each group member writes an encouragement sentence in every other group members journal (more on this later!)

• Group leaders, one person per week is the group leader

• Play time in group groups – either ‘free time’ or structured play with specific outcomes, a chance to have fun is a great bonding experience

How do you feel about grouping your students in groups?  Have you tried something like this? How has it gone?

- Rachel