In our classroom we have a regular Community Meeting to start the day. Everyone who wishes to share news with us, has the chance to do so. Sometimes it’s something like “I went swimming yesterday” or “My mommy has a baby in her tummy”. While other times it is quite serious. Community Meeting is an essential part of our routine because it enables students to speak, listen, exchange ideas, and settle in differences. And this shows our Busy Bees what it means to be a part of a community that respects, and accepts one another and their opinions.
As a community we have routines and rules to follow. Both help us stay safe in school, be respectful and kind with our friends, and responsible for our work. In the classroom we discussed what the word "rules" means, what kind of rules we have at home and at school, and why it is important to follow them. Mrs. Amy Perdigone, our counselor, has given as a poster with all the School-wide rules we need to follow. These are the 4 B's: Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Respectful, and Be Responsible. We looked at the poster and thought of ways we can be safe, kind, respectful, and responsible in our classroom. Here is what we came up with:
In order to be safe in class we need to sit properly, keep hands and feet in our personal space, and walk.
In order to be kind we need to use kind words, take turns, and share.
We can be respectful by simply raising a quiet hand and waiting for our turn if we have something to say, using our listening ears, and staying quiet while others are still working.
We show we are responsible when we stay focused on task, and keep our classroom tidy and clean.
We were all great at following the rules, but there was something we couldn't really understand: "What exactly is our personal space?" we asked. We talked a lot about it and played several games, however some of us really needed to see what someone's personal space looks like. Well... that was a challenge but we found our way to go over it! We created our Spirograph! Each of us sat crisscross and traced with markers the limits of his/her personal space.
There will be times, however, when we will need to sit a little bit squeezed, and our personal space will be much smaller than usually. We played a game in order to understand it better. We danced on our personal space. Well, as fun as that was, it was just getting started. Next, we stepped off our personal space, folded it in half, and stepped on again. After a while we really needed to be very careful and move in very creative ways in order to stay in our personal space. That way we learned about our personal space and had so much fun at the same time!
Everything was great in the beginning, but… as it usually happens in all classrooms, we sometimes forget. So, we needed to do something to help us remember the rules. The teacher took us photos practicing the rules, and printed them, but where could we put those photos?
At that time we were learning about bees, and we saw pictures of honeycombs. As Busy Bees that we are, we worked all together to make a honeycomb in the classroom. Each of us made his own cell, and then we put all the cells together and created the prettiest honeycomb!
At that time we were learning about bees, and we saw pictures of honeycombs. As Busy Bees that we are, we worked all together to make a honeycomb in the classroom. Each of us made his own cell, and then we put all the cells together and created the prettiest honeycomb!
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After we finished, we agreed to stick the photos on the honeycomb, as they will remind us of rules. That would be our contract, and we all signed up that we’ll follow the rules by giving a high 5!
Here it is!
Just like what happens with everything new we learn, we need to practice in order to learn to follow the rules. It will take time, and we will often need reminders… but if we have you by our side to help us remember, then everything is going to be easier.