Are you having trouble getting your students to work together? Back in the day, we had kindergarten classrooms that were mainly focused around play. And while today that might be looked at as a bad thing, it was the what we needed. This is where we learned to work together.
With less and less time to figure this social skill out on their own, teachers are having to find time to make it work within their lessons. Here are some tips to help you and your students be successful with working together.
Squeeze a mini lesson into your day
WHAT!? Squeeze something ELSE into our day? I know that seems daunting but hear me out…
We all know that taking the time to really work on routines and cultivate relationships with our students at the beginning of the year can do wonders for our classroom management for the rest of the school year.
Finding the time to work in a little lesson and role play what working together looks like will help students start to grasp the concept.
Refer to the lesson often
As with all subject areas, a lesson doesn’t always stick after the first time. We have to refer back to what we went over and really try to get our students to make the connections with what was taught. The same goes for social skills.
Make sure you are getting your students to work together often. Give your students the opportunity to look back and reflect. Anchor charts are always a great way to do this!
Give students time to practice
If possible, try to tweak your lesson plans to allow more working together time. Working on math? Introduce some math centers that revolve around the concepts that you are teaching, give more opportunities for class discussions during reading time, or even have students complete work in groups.
While we sometimes try to avoid these types of activities because they are hectic, they can be extremely beneficial for your classroom culture and future classroom management.
Have fun!
While we want students to learn these concepts, we also want them (and us!) to have fun with what they do. Things will stick and be more memorable this way!
Just in case you were wanting a lesson plan and all the elements for an anchor chart already done, I created this set just for you.
It comes with:
- Complete lesson plans for you to get started with right away
- 2 anchor charts elements to build (working together in the classroom and working together around the school)
- Situation cards – students will thinking about these events and figure out what they would do in that particular situation
- Accountability sheet
- Black and white set for ink saving option
To grab this set for yourself, click here.
