This term I will be undertaking a ‘sweet tweet’ community circle task. I wanted to build on the person outline task we did in term 1 in our learning logs to further strengthen our class community and to build our class culture even more. The person outline task we did during the first weeks of this year involved us each writing a special message to each class member around their person outline in their learning logs. This helped to break the ice, and get each of us to think about each member in our new class and appreciate what we knew about them then. I really found this task such a powerful activity as my students were buzzing after they read all of these short messages and it really helped each student to feel welcome in the class.
This term I wanted to do something similar as we are about half way through the year, and we now know more about each other. So I was lucky enough to purchase some ‘sweet tweet’ templates from a resource store in America and will be doing this with my class over the first 4 weeks of term. Each student will need to choose one classmate a day to observe and think about. Their exit pass for each day is to have written a sweet message for that classmate. This will be recorded with their initials in the grid on the cube under the board.
My learning intention with this activity is:
- To notice the great things about each of the members of our class
- Show appreciation for the things that our class mates do and say
- Understand why it is important to tell other what we appreciate about them
- Feel a sense of belonging to our class community
- Everyone getting that feel good feeling upon reading their messages from others
During our first community circle for week 1, we will be discussing this and the purpose of the task. We will also be discussing what kinds of things we will be looking for in our class mates, (linking these into our 4R’s and TRUMP’s etc) and how we need to be specific– as i don’t want messages like ‘you are nice’ etc. Children will be encouraged to write up ideas on paper for the board. Come check it out in Room 14 and have a chat about how it’s going with a member of our class.
Hi Elysia
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post about an activity building on from previous learning for your class! I like how you are linking all the social skills aspects with your learning tasks. How specifically does this link with restorative practices? I think it might be about the proactive, pro-social skills teaching that forms a strong relational foundation.
Myra
Hi Myra,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. This links in specifically with an activity from the section in the 'stop think do manual' entitled ‘liking me, liking you’. This section is about student learning about each other and realising that there is always at least one thing that we like about each other, and that we need to look for the positive in all of our class mates. If we can remember the things that we appreciate about our classmates and let them know what we like, then it helps us to feel wanted and included in our classroom. This also helps to support each other if perhaps at times we don’t behave the way that is expected. To remember the good in each of us if perhaps we are not behaving in a ‘good’ way.
But i agree it is definitely pro-social skills teaching and building a strong relational foundation in room 14.
ReplyDelete