building classroom community resources

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building classroom community resources
By Michelle R.

I am planning to start my year with a unit on community too, with the focus on building our own "caring community" in the classroom. The Responsive Classroom (an organization in Greenfield, Mass) has a whole series of books
that I have read this past year about building community - one of the best for this time of the year is entitled, "The First Six Weeks of School" - they have a website you can order from - www.responsiveclassroom.org
Gina, I am interested in your other ideas, it sounds like we have the same thing in mind. Part of our social studies curriculum is the study of colonial life, so I thought

I may eventually tie it to that, but I have been toying with the idea of having each student identify their unique abilities and qualities that would make them our classroom "expert" in a certain area... I've also read alot about using songs and singing together throughout the day/year as a community building activity...

I am searching for "the perfect book" to begin with and right now I'm considering using Charlotte's Web as a read aloud ( but each kid would have their own copy to follow along) and have students "study" the community in the story - Charlotte, Wilbur, Fern, Templeton, etc. and how they all contribute unique elements to the story and to their problem on the farm....

Just a few ideas, would love to hear what you come up with!