The New Teacher’s Ultimate Guide to Classroom Culture Day 2

Dynamic Learning

building classroom culture with craft — Students love making themselves as quality students.

Welcome back to A New Teacher’s Ultimate Guide to Building Classroom Culture! Let’s begin Day 2…

If you are a new teacher, and didn’t get a chance to read Day 1. You should read that post because it introduces the idea of building classroom culture. You can read it here or save it for later. The first thing I do is have my students listen to the Quality Student song because I want them to learn the words in the song so they will understand what “quality” means in my classroom. My students love this song! Be sure to read Day 1 to see what the motions to the words are.

Want to learn more how to use this kind of vocabulary in your morning meeting? Check out this workbook.

Morning Meeting to Help Build Classroom Culture

Then my students sit in a circle for our morning meeting. I remind them to think about what they think a quality student is and be ready to share when it is their turn to speak. I tell them to say,

“My name is_________________ and a quality student __________________________.”Remember from Day 1, they hold Quality Quentin while they are speaking. My students learn that whoever is holding Quentin is the only one allowed to speak. You can use any stuffed animal you want. If you don’t have a class mascot, you can let students bring in animals to use for morning meetings.

After we have our class meeting, I send the students back to their seats to make a quality student craft. They make these to look like themselves. These crafts make a great display for the hall, and the parents loved reading them on Back to School night! Teachers could also place them on students’ desks for parents to read. I love reading what my students have already learned about being a quality student!

quality student display — Parents love reading what their child wrote about being a quality student.

First you take a 12″x18″ piece of construction paper and fold it so you have 8 squares.

Turn the paper horizontal and cut out the first and last square on the bottom row. Put them aside as you’ll be needing them later.

Cut out a small triangle in between the two remaining bottom squares to make pants.

Fold the first and last square on the first row in the middle. Remember those two squares you were saving? Time to use them! Have students glue them on either side of the folded squares to make sleeves.

Cut out a circle for a head and glue it on the back. If you want to make it more challenging, encourage students to create whichever shape they want for their heads.

Next the students will decorate them with yarn for hair or they can just draw hair. My students love the yarn! My girls also decided to make skirts.

This guy decided to add a mustache.

Some of them also added shoes and hands. Lastly, the students wrote their names, and what made them quality students. They had a lot of fun using their creativity!