Celebrate Diversity in the Classroom

Family Tradition and Heritage Project "Our Roots Began In..."

This is a project I did last year and I will do it again this year. Many of my students are first generation here in the United States.  They were asked to share family heritage and pick one family tradition to share by writing a few paragraphs about it, creating a presentation, and presenting it to the class (in various formats.)  It is a great way for students to teach their classmates about their heritage, customs, and traditions.  I also learned so much myself, as you can see I had a very diverse classroom. It helps students accept differences respectfully and become more knowledgeable about different countries around the world. The students were amazed to hear about different holidays, family routines, roles, birthday celebrations, board games, food, and more! This is a very important piece of any classroom. If you want information on the entire project (students had to research, write, and present) I will send it.  I used two rubrics to grade their written piece and presentation. It was a fun project for all.

At the end of the project the students wrote their last name on a star and the country their roots began in.  We put it up on the map and kept it up all year! 

Magnetic Word Wall

Magnetic Word Word- Great for building phonics and vocabulary skills

While setting up my new classroom, I decided to use one board for specifically word study and writing center. The good part about this is that the words are all magnetic, so if I need the board I can easily take it down and not have to remove staples. I start the word wall by having all the students' names on the wall first.  They decorate a tag with their name and place it up.  It gives the students ownership of the word wall and helps them spell names! This will be used each week as the students learn new spelling words.  The spelling words will be put in the proper place.  The words stay up all year long and we add to it each week. Students can see spelling rules and patterns. 

Job Chart

Classroom Jobs! 

I decided to get crafty this school year and more organized.  Last year I only had 6 jobs that rotated between students.  I decided this year to give every student a job. It will teach the students responsibility and help the classroom run more smoothly.  I bought the envelopes at Lakeshore, labeled them, laminated, and cut a slit on the top to place people shape name markers inside.  As you can see some envelopes have more than one person.  A few of my colleagues used this last year and found it really helpful.  If you have any suggestions of how to make it even better, please comment!