In the times of distance learning, it can be difficult to build your classroom community in the ways that teachers are used to. I wanted to share 3 easy tips for building a classroom community virtually.

Before I dive in, I wanted to let you know that you can watch/listen to all the information in this blog post by watching my YouTube video below. Every week, I upload tips, strategies, and free ideas that you can take and use in your K-2 classroom. If that sounds good to you, be sure to subscribe to my channel while you are there.

If you want to read the tips, just keep scrolling!

Tip 1: Hold a Morning Meeting

Just a few weeks ago, I shared a ton of information on how to hold a virtual morning meeting and I even shared all these free slides for you to use (and edit) to make work for you and your students.

I won’t spend too much time going over this tip, because you can read ALL about it in my >> morning meeting << blog post, but holding a live or pre-recorded morning meeting is a great way to build community. Students are able to share how they’re feeling. They are able to see and connect with students. Even if the meeting is pre-recorded, they get to check in with you, their teacher, review what their goals are, and feel great kicking off their day!

Tip 2: Type Letters to a Friend

I know with my own son, Theo, heading into kindergarten my biggest concern is him making friends! That’s what every parent worries about right?! Well, if your students aren’t physically in school, it may be difficult for your students to really connect and get to know one another.

I thought a fun way to have students make connections and get to know one another would be to have them type letters to a friend! This also helps them get used to typing and using the digital platform you want them to use this year. To aide in this, I went ahead and made this free letter template for your students to use:

It is available in both Google Slides and Seesaw so students can easily type things about themselves, attach a picture, and send it off to a friend. You can choose to have students do this once or twice a month, it is up to you! They could get paired with a classmate, like a pen pal, or they can switch it up and write to different people each time. It is a great way for students to express themselves and get to know their classmates. You can grab the links to the free letter template, here >>> Letters to a Friend.

Tip 3: The “Me Too” Game

This is a game I shared last year to be used in the classroom, but this works virtually as well! Essentially the premise of the game is to figure out how we are all different (eye color, skin color, number of siblings, etc.) and then we see how we are the same! You can see more about how to play this fun, community-building game and grab the free picture templates down below:

Free templates: Me Too Game

You don’t need the templates in order to play the game, but it’s a fun addition to the game!

There are 3 easy ways to help build your classroom community virtually! If you have other ideas to share, please list them below in the comments!

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