Classroom Family

Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamt of creating a classroom family with my students. Of course having 5th graders my first year, they laughed at me. However, by the end of the year they were calling games family times, having group hugs, and writing me letters that were signed "family forever". (that made me cry!) Throughout the summer I want to reflect on how I was successful in creating such an environment!

One HUGE contribution to the learning, social, and emotional environment to my classroom was the part of responsive classroom management style in which every morning we have a class morning meeting. This is an excellent way to start the day on a positive note and became my favorite part of the day!
*I will go on and on about how amazing responsive classroom is in later blog posts but click the link above if you want to learn more now.

Morning meeting consists of 4 parts:

• Greeting
• Sharing
• Activity
• Morning Message

Today I will be focusing on activities. These games/ activities can be used in ALL classrooms at any time of the day to build student bonding and trust. 

Three of My 5th Graders Favorite Activities 

When I first introduced Duckie Wuckie I thought that my students would think it was a little young for them or silly but they LOVED it. They would beg me everyday to play it if they got their work done early. The first day we played this game was the hardest I have ever laughed as a teacher. The quietest kids in my class came out of their shell to be goofy. The class embraced each other's "weirdness" and praised their creativity for silly actions. It was AMAZING to watch! By the end of the year we had a "Duckie Wuckie champ" and the "go-to laugher" who laughed when you even looked at him. It was a safe place where all kids could be their goofy funny selves! 

Unfortunately my class did not try Elimination until about April but it became a regular request after that! This is a very simple quick game that gets kids energy out moving around the room but in a very controlled way. My favorite was when I would roll "1" and the kids would hug themselves! Also, during the mingling time, some of my students wrote a mingle song that they sang while roaming around the room. This 5 minute game created fun memories and moments that the students talked about for months after it happened. 

      One note about this game which I encountered in 5th grade is that some boys and girls are uncomfortable with linking arms with each other so I allowed them to just stand next to each other if they wanted to. 

 What a creative game! This game is really great for teaching watching and being conscious of others movements. I did many trial runs of 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish discussing strategy after my students were discovering who grabbed the object too quickly. They picked up on it very quickly and LOVED being able to help hide each other in the group and "trick" the caller. This is more of a quiet, focus game but kept my students very actively engaged! 

I did not create these games, they are from various Morning Meeting Responsive Classroom books. It is fun sometimes to offer students to create games! 

These instruction cards are from my morning meeting activity cards pack! Click the link to purchase!

Head on over to my TpT store to purchase OVER 80 of these fabulous games!  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Morning-Meeting-Activity-Cards-1773828

Have a terrific Tuesday! :)