Group Share: How WE Build Community and Connection by Crystal Orozco

2025-10-04 22:31:57 UTC

In Kinder, we share and present our family pictures. They see how our families are similar and different. Students ask the presenter questions about their family, what they eat and what they like to do.

English 9 and 10

nrodriguez405 — 2025-10-04 22:32:37 UTC

For English 9, I create a bingo sheet I like to call "Friendship Bingo" and it's mostly to break the ice on the first day of school. At the end of the activity, I go over the winning bingo card and ask students more about their answers.

Newcomers group

2025-10-04 22:34:00 UTC

We make drawings and share our favorite food from our country of origin.

Commitment Cards

2025-10-04 22:34:18 UTC

Write 1 tangible/reachable goal on a 3x5 card that will test your potential limits.

Hand that card to someone else. That personal will check in with you on commitment day. You will tell that person whether you reached your goal and they will give you feedback on why you did/didn’t reach your goal

English

nrodriguez405 — 2025-10-04 22:34:23 UTC

Something that I am familiar with that I want to incorporate in my classroom is the use of an ancestral map. You use Padlet's map and give students access to drop pins where their ancestors, both blood related or not, are from and their connections to them. I did this in graduate school and want to incorporate it to my Mexican American Literature class.

In first grade. We show 5 pictures of animals. For example 1) sleepy dog 2) happy dog 3)sad dog and we ask students to share how they are feeling right now.

2025-10-04 22:34:53 UTC

Students connect by identifying their own feelings as well as notice how others feel.

Personal Collages

2025-10-04 22:36:00 UTC

To generate conversation in my Spanish class, I build “Class Presentations” in Google Slides. Each student gets a blank slide where they can share images and/or words about a specific given topic, such as My Favorite Toy (when I was a child).

Four Corners

2025-10-04 22:36:35 UTC

I ask students a question and provide four options for answers. Sometimes this is a check-in question for classmates to get to know one another better and sometimes it is a question directly related to the lesson they are doing that day (Which One Doesn't Belong for a math lesson or a question related to their reading passage). Each of the four options is posted at a different corner of the room. Students stand up and move to the corner of the room that aligns with their response. Once all students have selected their corner, they either engage with a partner in the same corner as them and discuss their reasons for being in the same space. Or they partner with someone from a different corner to hear a different perspective. Afterwards, they share what they heard from their partner, which gives me an opportunity to assess their listening skills.

2025-10-04 22:37:44 UTC

I loved the privilege video! So very appropriate even for Kindergarten! 😊

I also agree that every child in your class needs validation. Building rapport with every child is absolutely critical in making those connections. This is what opens the door for a safe learning environment for students.