The purpose of this lesson is for students to help build a safe, positive classroom community where everyone can learn.

Building a classroom community through kindness and respect creates a safe space where students feel supported to learn and grow. It boosts academic success by increasing motivation, engagement, and willingness to take risks, while kindness fosters empathy, better peer relationships, and fewer conflicts. Strong student-teacher bonds build confidence and resilience, leading to improved behavior, fewer disruptions, and reduced teacher burnout. Ultimately, this foundation helps students collaborate effectively and thrive long-term.

kind, safe, respect, community

Activity 1: (15+ minutes) GET TO KNOW THE TEACHER

Teacher Tip: These activities are designed to help students get to know their teacher as a person while laying the foundation for a positive, trusting relationship. When students see their teacher as more than just an authority figure, they are more likely to feel comfortable, connected, and engaged in the classroom. Select 1 or more options below to introduce yourself to your students.

Option 1: Letter from the Teacher 

Materials Needed: Letter from the Teacher template (1 page per student, optional), envelopes (1 per student), stamps (1 per student)

Teacher Tip: Before the school year begins, send each student a personalized welcome letter as soon as you receive your class list. Introduce yourself and share a little about who you are as a teacher; you may even include a photo to help students feel more connected and comfortable before the first day of school. Use the letter to express your excitement for the upcoming year, share goals and hopes for the class community, and provide important information such as Back-to-School Night and other key dates. A thoughtful welcome letter helps students and families feel valued, welcomed, and excited to join your classroom community. (Teacher Tip: Feel free to use the Letter from the Teacher template.)

Option 2: Teacher Mystery Bag

Materials Needed: Bag, objects representing your life

Prior to this activity, fill a bag with objects representing your life (e.g., favorite book, photos, sports item, a souvenir, hobby artifact).

Invite students to come up, one at a time, to pick an item out of the bag. As they display the item to the class, invite students to guess what that item tells about you. Elaborate as much as you would like for each item. Continue this process until all items have been picked.

Option 3: Teacher Timeline

Materials Needed: Blank paper (1 per student)

Draw a timeline on the whiteboard and place important age-appropriate events from your life on it (e.g., born, learned to ride a bike, school memories, jobs you have had). Invite students to ask questions about any of the events on the timeline.

Give each student a blank piece of paper. Have the students place their paper landscape (or hot dog style), and draw a line in the middle of the paper running across the whole paper. Invite students to create their own timeline, writing down important events from their lives on their paper. 

Have students participate in a gallery walk to see each other’s timelines. Have a discussion: 

• What did you notice about the events on other students’ timelines? (EQ)

Option 4: This or That: Teacher Edition

Teacher Tip: This game is a great one to play when you have a few minutes of extra time.

Choose a “this or that” statement and say it to the class (e.g., Pizza or tacos? Beach or mountains? Dogs or cats?). Invite students to guess what your preference is. Ask students to stand on the left side of the classroom if they think their teacher prefers the first option and the right side for the second option. After each question, briefly explain your answer. Ask the students what similarities they have to you.

Activity 2: (20–30 minutes) BUILDING A POSITIVE COMMUNITY

Materials Needed: LEGO block (1), Building Blocks handout (1 block per student, cut apart), art supplies, scissors (1 per student), tape, poster (optional)

Invite students to think about their favorite class, team, or group that they have been a part of. Ask the students what made it feel good to be there. Allow a few students to share.

Share the definition of the term “community” from the slides. Have a discussion: 

• What communities are you part of?
• How does belonging to a community make you feel? (EQ) 

Explain that a positive classroom community is a classroom where everyone feels safe, respected, included, and supported while learning together. 

Review the definitions of the terms “kind,” “safe,” and “respect” from the slides. Have a discussion:

• What are things you can do to help create a positive classroom? (EQ)

Write students’ keywords of a positive community on the whiteboard. (Possible Answers: safe, kind, respectful, helpful, inclusive, encouraging.)

Explain that when there is a positive classroom community, students can feel comfortable asking questions, trying new things, making mistakes, and helping each other learn. It helps everyone to do their best. A classroom community is like a team. Every person’s actions affect the group. One kind action can make someone’s whole day better.

Hold up one LEGO piece. Ask the class if one piece can build something amazing all by itself. Students will likely say no; if they say yes, hear their reasoning for why.

Emphasize that when building something, like a LEGO creation, the pieces work together to create something amazing. A classroom community becomes strong when everyone works together. Have a discussion:

• What makes a classroom feel safe and happy?  
• How can one person change a classroom community?
• What kind of classroom do we want to create? (EQ)

Pass out a block from the Building Blocks handout to each student along with scissors and art supplies. Invite students to choose 1 word that describes the kind of classroom community they want to help create (from the board or otherwise) to write on their block. Students will then decorate and cut out their block. Collect all the blocks and tape them to a poster or directly onto the wall to create a display you can refer to often.

Activity 3: (10 minutes) HELP OR HURT? 

Remind students that their positive actions can help build our classroom community.

Tell the class that you are going to read situations from the slides. If the action helps build a positive classroom community, give a thumbs up. If it hurts the community, give a thumbs down. Read the situations from the slides. After each one, have a discussion: 

• How would that action make people feel?
• Would this action help build our classroom community? 
  • If not, what action could be taken instead to help build our classroom community?

Activity 4: (20 minutes) CLASS GOAL

Share the strategies for building our classroom community from the slides. As a class, select 1 strategy to focus on and write it on the whiteboard. Brainstorm a list of simple actions students can take to model or emulate that strategy.

Have students vote on 1 simple idea from the list that everyone can work on, and that will contribute to your classroom community (e.g., Talk at a whisper volume during independent work time, say “Hi” to someone you do not know every day, everyone participates in a class activity at least once a day). Set a reasonable goal for the number of times your class can perform this action in the next week or 2. Create a simple system to track your progress, such as marking tallies on the whiteboard. 

Decide on a fun reward for reaching the goal, such as 10 minutes of extra recess, a fun classroom party, or bonus digital learning game time. Have a discussion:

• How will working together to accomplish our goal help to create a positive learning community? (EQ)

Activity 5: (20+ minutes) GET TO KNOW THE SCHOOL  

Materials Needed: School Scavenger Hunt handout (1 per student)

Pass out a copy of the School Scavenger Hunt handout to each student. (Teacher Tip: Feel free to add or remove locations based on your school and the needs of your students.) Help students build comfort and familiarity with the school environment through a guided walk-through. At each stop, briefly explain any behavior expectations associated with the area. Remind students the expectations for walking in the hall (e.g., voices off, hands and feet to self, stay in a straight line) as you move throughout the school.

Activity 6: (20+ minutes) GET TO KNOW SCHOOL HELPERS

Teacher Tip: Prior to this activity, review the options and make arrangements for visiting staff members or inviting them to visit your classroom.

Explain to the class that a positive learning community is built when students feel safe, supported, and connected to the people around them. School helpers all play an important role in helping the school run smoothly and making students feel cared for. As a class, brainstorm a list of school helpers on the whiteboard.

Emphasize that a positive learning community includes everyone, not just the students in their classroom.

Option 1: Meet the Helpers BINGO

Materials Needed: School Helpers BINGO handout (1 per student), small prize (optional)

Teacher Tip: Invite school helpers to come into your classroom and explain their role at the school. If it works better for your class, allow students to walk around the school and visit the different school helpers to complete their BINGO boards.

Give each student a School Helpers BINGO handout. Explain to the class that, as they listen to the school helper explain their role at the school, students are to look at their BINGO cards and mark off the box that fits what they are hearing. Students may turn in their filled BINGO cards for a small prize. (Teacher Tip: The handout has boxes that do not apply to any school helper. This is to check for student participation.) Have a discussion:

• What is one thing you learned about a school helper? (EQ)

Option 2: School Helper Guessing Game

Review the list of school helpers on the whiteboard.

Display the different scenarios from the slides. As the slide is shown, ask for students to raise their hands if they can tell you which school helper is needed in each scenario. Have a discussion: 

• Why is it important to know who can help us? (EQ)

Option 3: School Helper Thank You Cards

Materials Needed: Colored paper or cardstock (1 per student), art supplies

After students have learned about the different school helpers, invite them to create a thank you card to give to one school helper. Encourage students to write why they appreciate that particular helper and why the school community is better because they are there. Once students have written their thank you cards, collect them and sort them by school helper. As a class, deliver each of the thank you cards.