Building Community by Fostering Connection and Belonging in a Preschool Setting

What does community building in a preschool classroom setting look like? For us, it’s building each other up, creating a sense of belonging and fostering connection within our room. Filling buckets, doing kind things for one another even when we think no one is watching, having photos and artwork on display in the room, participating in group projects, having children’s portfolios where they are easily accessible, and creating a sense of responsibility by giving each child a job to do for the day are all ways that we foster a positive community.

Filling Buckets
Have you filled a bucket today? Very simply, filling a bucket means showing kindness in some way to another person. This could be a kind word, offering a helping hand, sharing, including someone, making a card for someone else, etc.

This book shows us how filling buckets can be put into practice. Showing kindness, offering help, and including others not only fills other’s buckets, it also fills our own.
The Owls gave examples on how we can show kindness within our room, at home and in our community outside the classroom. Some examples were cleaning our room, helping to wash dishes, using our manners, sharing toys and donating toys, just to name a few. 
We have recently started a “Caught Showing Kindness” board. The children love seeing themselves showing kindness and offering helping hands to others.

Photos/Photo albums and Family Tree
​Each Owl has a picture of themselves on display and they frequently look at it and talk about what they are doing in the picture. Seeing pictures of themselves and everyone else in the room creates that home like feeling. That is the type of community we want to build. 
Again, having family pictures of everyone in the room, including the educators is inclusive of everybody and shows the diversity of everyone’s family and backgrounds. It makes us all feel important and valued in this community.
​This is our photo album entitled, “Making Memories with the Owls." We often look through it to reflect on how much we’ve changed and grown or the variety activities we’ve done since September.

​Collaborative Projects
At the beginning of September, the Owls were given a task. Each one of us, including the educators, filled an ornament up with items that were special to us. After each one was filled, we strung them up in our library area.
The hanging piece represents each one of us and the differences we have. It symbolizes how each one of us is unique, however, come together beautifully. This was a great community building activity as each of the Owls were curious about what the other's put in their ornament. 

​Each Owl has their own rock which they have decorated with markers. Once they arrive in the morning, they put their rock in the basket, to signify that they are signed in to their classroom. The rocks provides transparency for the children and their belonging in the classroom. 

​Portfolios
In the Owl room, the children have easy access to their portfolios. Portfolios are a reflective tool that provide the children with the opportunity to enhance their learning. Having access to all materials in the room teaches the children that they are valued and trusted members of their community. The Owls frequently go through their portfolios to see what has been added. They also take turns looking in each other’s portfolios. This has been a great way to further build our community.

Community Helpers
The community around us includes helpers, or people who do jobs which allow it to function smoothly. The same goes for in the Owl room. We have created job tags which the children are given at the start of each day and they include recycler, snack cart helper, table cleaner, sweeper, etc. The children are eager to receive their job for the day and frequently remind us about their jobs! They have thought of new jobs to add as well. Having these jobs gives them a sense of ownership and responsibility to ensure the job is done. It also has given them a voice to encourage their peers to help to keep areas tidy when no one is using them. 

​Building community is very important to us. It makes everyone feel like they belong and are a part of something special. We love seeing the smiles on everyone’s face when they see that their picture is a part of many on the wall or in our photo album. We ensure our classroom and everything in it is accessible to everyone. We are so proud of the community we have built together. Each member of our community is highly valued and their ideas are as equally important as everyone else’s.