Activities to Build Community by

Responsive Classroom "Greets"

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 15:35:04 UTC

Greets for Students on the Spectrum

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 15:38:02 UTC

Encore: retrieving song lyrics

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 15:40:41 UTC

Best used if students know a number of songs already.

Secret Handshake

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 15:41:58 UTC

One-minute greeting

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 15:46:00 UTC

This video models how to prepare students for an activity and how to debrief it, Responsive-Classroom style.

Allison Litten's Games for Littles

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 15:48:07 UTC

The best part: it's a video!

Carrie Toth Games

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 15:49:57 UTC

There's a set of no-tech games listed. Love them! Note that Quizlet Live is no longer free :-(

Bill Langley asked the Twitterverse for favorite games

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 15:52:29 UTC

Playing to Learn

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 15:53:02 UTC

Pedagogy of Play

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 15:55:51 UTC

It's not just for the littlest ones.

Slideshow of games (don't know whose! Sorry!)

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 16:02:24 UTC

Alison Nelson's list

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 16:03:21 UTC

Joshua Cabral's Jump Game

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 16:05:42 UTC

Señora Chase's games

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 16:06:40 UTC

Three Responsive Classroom Games

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 16:08:35 UTC

The Dice Game

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 16:10:15 UTC

Brilliant way to corral the dice!!

Srta. Spanish's No-Tech Games

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 16:12:08 UTC

Ashley's spreadsheet of even more activities: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13hElE6I7J_5ZWJcLg_cEsnsazs7PnWg47DtYN6GZQBQ/edit#gid=0

Bryce's Special Person Resources

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 16:21:42 UTC

Group Salutes

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 16:24:07 UTC

Supportive research here too.

Community-Building Ideas (general, not all about play)

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 16:25:13 UTC

See #1. I asked young children's parents to send me slides, and then I asked older students to contribute to a slide show to use this wonderful idea as a way to start introducing students from the beginning of the year.

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 16:30:34 UTC

Michele's template for preschool.

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-02 16:34:09 UTC

I sent a slideshow out to parents to add pictures with their children. Then we could talk about it for weeks, comparing, sharing, building community.

Erika's Game Center

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-06 17:52:23 UTC

Mostly younger students

Sarah Breckley's games and other downloads

wilwhale2 — 2022-06-07 18:01:31 UTC

Sarah Breckley's Move game: students form groups to duplicate a picture.

wilwhale2 — 2022-06-07 18:03:44 UTC

So many possibilities, including just gaining familiarity with art, plus adding favorite movie shots etc.

Pacific Northern Academy's list

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-08 16:15:17 UTC

A pinterest page of greets

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-08 16:25:48 UTC

Morning Greets

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-08 16:37:16 UTC

The purpose of a morning meeting greeting is to set the tone for the meeting and the day. It teaches students how to politely interact and communicate with their peers.

During the greeting, emphasize that students should make eye contact and greet their peers by name. If the specific greeting we chose did not specify who they should greet, you can encourage students to go out of their way and greet students they do not frequently talk to in class as a way to build their social skills and get to know their classmates better.

Some greetings are quick and short, while others can be more time consuming.

A quick and easy greeting can be something as simple as "Turn the people on either side of you and say good morning."

Other times, you can engage in a longer greeting such as the Spider-Web greeting. During this greeting, students roll or throw a ball of yarn to one another across a circle and greet each other when they receive the yarn. As a bonus, you can have students reverse the order of the greeting and unwind the yarn.

The time you have dedicated to your morning meeting will play a factor as to which types of greetings might be appropriate for that day.

Using movement to teach Math

michelejwhaley — 2022-06-08 16:46:56 UTC

We can do many of these exercises in our target languages.

Edutopia on a Responsive classroom school

wilwhale2 — 2022-06-14 03:41:50 UTC

Three ideas for connecting

wilwhale2 — 2022-06-14 03:45:05 UTC

Pass the Chicken: retrieval practice

wilwhale2 — 2022-06-14 14:30:54 UTC

Group sits in circle. One student holds the chicken until ready. That student passes off the chicken, which group tries to circulate all the way around before the student can name five (words from yesterday, ideas, plot points, etc).

Media Literacy: not community-building exactly, but if we use these ideas when sharing information about immigration and political figures, we can help our students be better readers in any language.

wilwhale2 — 2022-06-15 14:56:11 UTC

(Michele's private soapbox)

Vocabulary strategies that could be adapted to become brain breaks/activities

wilwhale2 — 2022-06-16 16:42:38 UTC

Michele Whaley

michelejwhaley — 2022-07-02 17:23:50 UTC

michelejwhaley@gmail.com

Grudgeball

michelejwhaley — 2022-07-03 15:32:17 UTC

Camp Circle Games

michelejwhaley — 2022-07-03 17:33:53 UTC

Sra. Chase's Pop-up

michelejwhaley — 2022-07-20 15:49:32 UTC

Love this! It's a way to differentiate without students knowing that you did so.

Six! (Sex, in Latin)

michelejwhaley — 2022-09-14 03:45:32 UTC

Translate sentences as fast as possible.

More Sra. Chase

wilwhale2 — 2022-10-25 00:22:08 UTC

Numbers, animals, whatever you need to "Get 'em moving!"

Seven

wilwhale2 — 2022-11-14 05:05:49 UTC

Donna explains the game Seven on her blog

Secret Number Game

wilwhale2 — 2022-11-14 05:07:02 UTC

Back to back

wilwhale2 — 2023-01-15 22:55:40 UTC

Students mingle to music. When the music stops, they stand back-to-back in pairs and listen for a question. They turn face-to-face and answer the question, talking until the teacher starts music or rings a bell, at which point they start to mingle again. This gives a group a chance to hold some of the conversations they just need to hold, but limits the time.

Bertha Delgadillo's Hexagon

wilwhale2 — 2023-01-15 23:05:29 UTC

One one side of hexagons are questions for each part directed by the teacher: What month were you born? What's your favorite color/movie/type of music? Students put their name or picture in the middle (self-portrait?) and the class uses to create a connected bulletin board or to discuss.

Who am I thinking of?

michelejwhaley — 2023-01-17 03:23:53 UTC

Squiggles: an art game

wilwhale2 — 2023-02-02 23:42:00 UTC

Each person makes a long connected squiggle with a pen/pencil on a sheet of paper. Pass to the next person. That person takes a heavier marker and outlines a shape visible in the squiggle. It might be an animal, an object, or a body part. The teacher can gather the drawings and talk about them/make stories, etc.

Hachi Pachi, or "What's your name?"

wilwhale2 — 2023-02-02 23:46:59 UTC

One person is out of the circle of students. The group chooses a leader who starts a motion. The student returns and stands in the middle of the circle. The leader switches the action, trying not to be caught. The student in the middle asks students who are suspected of being the leader their names. If asked, the leader answers "Hachi Pachi." Otherwise, they use their real name. The class responds, "Too bad/how sad!"

See Annabelle Williamson's video of this game.

Boom Clap Snatch

wilwhale2 — 2023-02-07 15:45:28 UTC

You can use any vocabulary you want. If you play with young children, either give each one an object to avoid tears, or let children decide whether or not to have a friendly competition.

Higher or lower

michelejwhaley — 2023-03-03 21:39:55 UTC

Higher or Lower

One student comes to the front of the room.

The teacher writes a 3 digit number on the
board behind the student so he/she cannot see it.

The student calls out a number while marching in place. The remainder of the class marches in place until the number is called out.

If the number is too high, the class squats
(guess lower). If the number is too low, the
class jumps up and down (guess higher).

When the correct number is identified, select a different student to come to the front and repeat.

Eyeball game

wilwhale2 — 2023-05-05 19:46:29 UTC

Stand in a circle. "Close your eyes." "Open your eyes." Look at someone.

If you are looking at someone who is looking at you, both sit down.

A Responsive Classroom game.

Squirt

michelejwhaley — 2023-05-25 19:55:23 UTC

Directions are at the beginning. It's possibly a better brain break than a community-building activity because of the advanced language needed to explain and the lack of language needed to continue. BUT...it looks like a lot of fun.

El Toro, by Ashley (Srta Spanish)

wilwhale2 — 2023-05-27 01:14:22 UTC

I can see mixing this up with sets of words that your students know (#s 1-10, days of the week, a set # of colors, months, seasons, classroom objects, first-person verbs, third-person verbs, movement verbs, clothing, foods, and so on. It's not a beginning game. Students could help come up with the lists.

Would you rather...?

wilwhale2 — 2023-06-03 20:34:32 UTC

This should be under Special Person – it's a video by Erica Burges about choices in the classroom to discuss...could combine with Sea/Land...She suggests googling "What if questions to ask children" if you need ideas.

Annabelle's Trashquetball version of Andrea's version

michelejwhaley — 2023-06-20 17:43:37 UTC

Stuffies

michelejwhaley — 2023-06-27 02:24:46 UTC

Te lo tiro
Para ti. Para mi? Para ti.

Marker game

michelejwhaley — 2023-07-13 17:53:55 UTC

Grab the marker if the statement is false. One person from a team can correct the statement for two extra points.

Either/or bingo: students create their boards.

michelejwhaley — 2023-07-13 17:59:00 UTC

Draw either/or pictures for each square. "Draw either a rat or a puppy."
Draw either a mom or a dad.
... so students have one picture or the other of two in each square. This means the teacher needs a list of double the number of squares s/he will use.
Go around the room, commenting as they draw. "Oh, you drew a ___."
Then ask questions: what does Brandon want? (a puppy)
This person thinks that Brandon peed on the floor, so she called the doctor (the mom).
Students put a small check in the squares that get used so that students can play the game several times. Then...pass the drawings...do it again!

Guess the song

michelejwhaley — 2023-08-06 17:51:09 UTC

After the class knows several songs, a group or a student offers charades to help the class guess which song they have chosen. (Teacher could assign specific songs.)

Games from Claudia Elliott

wilwhale2 — 2023-10-14 19:58:48 UTC

Name Moves

wilwhale2 — 2023-10-18 20:59:10 UTC

Students stand behind their chairs. In turn, each student says his or her name accompanied by a special movement. For example a student might say, “Kayla!” while dramatically dropping to one knee and doing Jazz Hands. After the student does his or her move, the rest of the class says the student’s name in unison and imitates the move. Then it is the next student’s turn.

Donna Tatum-Johns

donnatatumjohns — 2025-09-19 16:48:53 UTC

donna@comprhensibleclassroom.com

Zip, zap, zop

wilwhale2 — 2025-09-24 17:57:48 UTC

Reverse Charades

wilwhale2 — 2025-09-24 18:05:28 UTC

A tweak on Blind Retell...but with individual sentences.

Head shoulders knees color game

wilwhale2 — 2025-09-24 18:06:38 UTC