It’s always so exciting to welcome a brand-new group of kindergarten students at the beginning of the school year. The way you welcome your students can set the tone for the rest of the year. This is especially true when it comes to creating a feeling of community in your classroom. In this post, I’m going to share some tips for building community in kindergarten. I’ll also share one of my favorite community-building activities for the beginning of the year!
5 Tips for Building Community in Kindergarten
There are many ways that you can make your students feel like they’re welcome and safe in your classroom community. Here are five tips to help you get started:
1. Learn Student Names
We all know how important it is to learn student names as soon as possible. It’s vital for classroom management, but it also helps students feel welcome and included in the classroom. It’s also a good idea to encourage students to learn each others’ names. There are a variety of name practice activities, like poems and chants, that give students the chance to learn the names of their classmates.
2. Display Student Work
Another easy way to help students feel like they’re part of the classroom community is to display their work around the room. This also gives students the chance to notice and appreciate the work of their peers, which also helps to build community.
3. Create Cooperative Learning Opportunities
When students work together to complete a task, they are able to build relationships as they work toward a common goal. This can be through learning centers, problem-solving activities, or other learning investigations.
4. Be Part of the School Community
Our students should also feel like they’re part of the school community. Kindergarten students are new to the school building, so they haven’t had a chance to meet many of the staff members outside of the kindergarten classroom. Be sure they’re given a chance to interact with older students and additional staff members. This is when activities like reading buddies can come in handy!
5. Have Fun Together
There’s just something about laughing together and having fun as a class that can break the ice at the beginning of the school year. Students are able to feel more at ease when they can see that their new teacher is a regular person who likes to have fun!
Must-Try Community Building Activity
If you’re looking for a way to incorporate all of these community building tips into your classroom, I have the perfect activity for you!
This Cookie Detectives activity is the perfect icebreaker for the beginning of the year, although you could use it any other time. In this activity, students will be solving the mystery of who took the cookies from the cookie jar. As your students progress through this mystery, you will be building community in your classroom at the same time.
Learning Names
You can start with a fun name practice chant: Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? This classic name game fits right in with the cookie mystery and gives your students a chance to connect names to faces.
Getting to Know the School Community
Once the students are excited to solve the mystery, it’s time to gather the clues! Their hunt for clues will direct them to different parts of the school. As they collect the clues they need to solve the mystery, they will be able to meet different staff members within the school community.
Working Together
With all of the clues gathered, it’s time to figure out the suspects! Students will learn about different fingerprint patterns, which will help them solve the mystery. The suspect left behind a fingerprint, so students will work together to analyze the fingerprint patterns of each suspect and decide who took the cookies.
Displaying Student Work
When the mystery has been solved, students can complete a craft and writing activity to summarize the mystery. The finished cookie detective crafts look so adorable on a bulletin board display!
Once they are hung up, students are so excited to find their cookies on the board. You can often hear them chatting with their peers about where their crafts are hanging. This is such a simple way to break the ice at the beginning of the school year!
Having Fun
Most of all, this cookie detective activity is a great way to have a little bit of fun with your class at the right off the bat. For many kindergarten students, this is their first time in a classroom setting. This can be very intimidating for them! Taking the time for a themed learning activity at the beginning of the year can go a long way in helping your students feel at ease in your classroom. They’ll be ready for a successful year of learning!
The fun of this activity can also extend into other areas of your curriculum. You can incorporate detective-themed literacy and math practice into your centers or small group instruction. This is an easy way to increase the engagement of your content area skill practice.
Printable Cookie Detective Activities
I have put together a resource with everything you need to put together your own cookie detective activity in your classroom. It includes all of the printables and instructions to help you set up the cookie mystery for your students. You’ll also find themed learning activities for both kindergarten and first grade, making this easy to modify for the needs of your students.
If you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this easy-to-use resource, you can find it in my TPT store. I hope you and your students love it!
Save These Tips for Building Community in Kindergarten
Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite kindergarten board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these tips and resources when you’re looking for ways to build community in your kindergarten classroom.
