4 Classroom Community Building Activities Using the IB Attitudes & Learner Profile
Sometimes classroom community building activities can feel more like laying down the law in the first few weeks of school! And while laying down the law definitely has its place in my classroom, it has to be balanced with growing relationships with the little people in our classroom.
The first school I taught at was an International Baccalaureate (IB) school. And even though I don’t teach at an IB school anymore, I’ve taken a few of my favorite elements from that philosophy with me! The IB attitudes and learner profile were some of my favorites of that curriculum. I love spending classroom community building activities2 at the beginning of each year talking about what kind of attitudes we should show and what kind of learners we are expected to be in our classroom. Not only does it help me learn my students better, but it also helps me “lay down the law” in a more positive way!
IB Attitudes Read Alouds
Each day we read a book (find the list of books here) and discuss the attitude the character did or didn’t show in the story. We chart our ideas…(grab these anchor charts templates to help!)
Add the book covers only to the templates, or add notes from your attitude word discussion too!
Brag Boards
And these templates even work great as Brag Boards! Hang the anchor charts up in your room blank and add student names to an attitude chart when they show that attitude! …work that positive reinforcement to your advantage! 🙂
If you like these awesome attitudes posters, download the FREEBIE sample!
IB Learner Profile Anchor Charts
The other thing I love from the IB curriculum was the learner profile.
I love that these words give kids purpose at school. With awesome attitudes, I am teaching little people how to be awesome adults. With the learner profile, I’m training little people to become life-long learners.
We have a similar routine with the learner profile words as we do with Awesome Attitudes….
We read and brainstorm ways to demonstrate our focus learner word…
I love attaching each learner profile word with a part of our body because the learner profile is who we are!
“I Am A Learner” Booklet
Then, we add our focus word in our “I Am A Learner” booklet and illustrate the meaning of the word.
This packet even includes writing prompt papers and more anchor charts and poster options for these words!
Download a FREEBIE sample of the learner profile packet too! 🙂 Let’s make this a *great* start with some engaging classroom community building activities for our school year!