Sample Class Building Activities
Inside-Outside Circle: While the students are in one large circle, have them number themselves alternating one's and two's. All the two's take three steps forward to form an inside circle. Establish two concentric circles. The inside circle faces out, and the outside circle faces in. (Each student should face a partner.) Have students from the inside circle share something with their partner on the outside circle. Then, have partners reverse sharing/listening roles. Lastly, have the inside circle rotate to a new partner on the outside circle. As students rotate have them share a greeting with the classmates they pass. Repeat the sharing activity using a different discussion topic.
Brown-Bag-It: The teacher models this activity using a brown lunch bag filled with four items that represent himself or herself. Some suggested items include pictures of favorites, hobbies, momentos, crayons to represent hair or eye color, academic or sports achievements, etc. This should be given as a homework assignment. When the brown bags are turned in, the class forms a Community Forum, and each child introduces himself or herself using the items in the brown bag. This would be a great opportunity to video tape the class.
Find-Someone-Who: Distribute the Find-Someone-Who handouts to the class. Preview and then read the handout together. Direct students to circulate throughout the classroom, looking for students who meet the criteria of the various categories on the handout. You will want to set guidelines for circulating throughout the room before you begin. When a student locates another student who fits the criteria, they write down that person's name on the handout. This is a good opportunity for the teacher to play and get to know his or her students as well.
I Like My Neighbor: Have the class sit in a circle with one student in the center of the circle. The student in the center becomes the leader and makes a statement such as, "I like my neighbors especially those who are wearing blue." Then, all the students wearing blue get up and find a new seat. The person left standing becomes the new leader.
Guess-The-Fib: Direct the students to write three statements about themselves. Two statements should be unbelievable facts, while the third is a believable fib. You may wish to model this. While sitting in a community forum, have each student share his or her statements with the class. The class then proceeds to guess which statement is the fib.
Similarity Groups: The teacher announces a topic, such as desserts. Guide the students through a visualization of the topic using verbal clues. For example, think about your favorite dessert. When was the last time you ate it? What did it taste like? Then, ask students to jot down their favorite dessert. Students then get up and circulate throughout the room trying to form a group who like the same or similar desserts. Have students partner with someone within their similarity group, who is not on their home team, to discuss their favorite dessert.
Who Am I?: In advance the teacher needs to gather various pictures of famous people. While the class is sitting in community forum, attach these pictures to the back of students using tape. Explain to the students that they will need to guess who they are by asking a partner yes-no questions. Partners may ask three questions and then switch roles. Students continue to switch partners and ask yes-no questions until they guess who they are. Once a student guesses who they are, they may move their picture to their front and circulate throughout the room to assist other students. You may need to model yes-no questions for the students. For example, am I male? Am I alive? Am I a sports figure? Am I a president? Am I a musician? Am I an actress? Who Am I?
Business Cards: Using a teacher developed model, discuss the use of business cards in the real world. Discuss how people use business cards to introduce themselves and remember people that they have met. Partner students up and have them interview each other using an interview worksheet. When pairs have completed the interview process, each partner creates a business card representing his or her partner. The business cards can be created on PowerPoint, Hyper Studio, Kid Pix, MS Publisher, or any other multimedia tool. Have partners share the created business cards with the whole class.
Class Cheer: As a whole group, discuss the class standards and how these can be exemplified in a class cheer. Develop, practice, and perform this cheer as an energizer for the class.
Class Memory Book: As an introductory activity, give each student a blank memory book page. At home, they should create a page that reflects who they are. In Community Forum have each student share his or her page. Add these to the class memory book. As significant events occur, for example, a class trip, have the class develop a new page for the memory book. This memory book can also be created electronically using Hyper Studio or other multimedia tools as the basis for the memory book pages.
Coat of Arms: Discuss what the significance of a coat of arms is. Share with the students various coats of arms. Distribute a coat of arms handout. Explain what each section of the coat of arms is to represent. In Community Forum have each student share his or her coat of arms.
Line-Ups: The teacher announces a category by which the students can be sorted (height, birthdays, bus #, # of family members, alphabetical order, etc.). The teacher explains that the students may not use oral communication, but must rely on non-verbal cues. Students position themselves in the line-up according to where they belong in respect to the other students. In community circle, discuss how non-verbal cues can communicate both positive and negative attitudes.
Value Lines: Value lines can be used to help students realize that there are no right and wrong values. The teacher defines to the students an issue on which there is likely to be a range of opinions. For example, students should be required to wear school uniforms. After some think time, each student marks their own individual value line. The teacher then directs the students to move to an imaginary value line the length of the classroom. Students can then pair up with someone next to them on the value line. The value line can be folded so that students on the agree end walk to the disagree end of the value line. When the value line is folded the student who most strongly agreed is paired up with the student who most strongly disagreed. Value lines can also be split so that, the person in the middle (neutral opinion) is paired with the person with the strongest agreement/disagreement.
