I believe that it is very important to establish a sense of community within your classroom, and it is important to do so in the first few weeks of school. Both teacher-child and peer-peer relationships are so very important so here are some strategies I will use within the first 2-3 weeks of school to promote a positive classroom community and good relationships among all!
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Teacher-child strategies:
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Learn all students names and address them by them as often as possible
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Greet students every day at the door in a way that THEY want to be greeted! Allow them to choose between a hug, handshake, high five, wave, fist bump, or whatever they prefer
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Take into account what the students provided in their student surveys and also what they parents wrote in the surveys
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Allow students to share, ask questions, and really get comfortable in their new learning environment
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Share things about myself! I want my students to see me as a friend as well as a teacher.
Peer-peer strategies:
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Teach social skills, expectations for interacting with peers
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Utilize and promote interaction among peers- do lots of team building activities, group work, partner work, etc.
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Have students do activities or games that make them have to recall information about one another
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Utilize common interests- group students according to interest, similarities, etc. if possible
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Have kindness buddies where students get a secret buddy to do an act of kindness towards in the week or day