10 Experiential Classroom Community-Building Activities to Start the Year Off Strong

I pride myself in creating classroom community in my experiential learning high school that is strong, positive, and trusting. 

I don't claim to be fantastic at everything related to experiential learning, but I place priority on creating community in the classroom from day 1 of the learning year because it plays such an important roll in the experience as a whole. ​

My students are close like family. They respect each other, take each other under their wings, support one another, impact the community together through impactful and learning experiences, and more. 

And how do I do that? How do I go about creating classroom community that is strong, collaborative, and trusting?

I prioritize creating community in the classroom from the beginning and continue to maintain it throughout the course of the year with specific learning and community-building experiences. 

I'm going to take this blog post to share some of those classroom community-building activities with you! 

Creating Classroom Community in Your Experiential Learning High School

Class Goals: 

Create goals as a class. Examples:

• Foster a safe and productive learning environment for all. 
• Advocate for our classroom, school, and local communities by staying informed about needs and issues, and acting on them. 
• Represent our group and school in a positive light. 

Norms/Expectations: 

One of my go-to strategies for creating classroom culture is to co-develop advisory rules and/or expectations together. It may seem counterproductive to have students weigh in when it comes to class rules. Their rule would be “the rule is there are no rules!”, right?

Surprisingly, this is not how students respond when you tell them they will participate in creating and implementing their own group expectations. These expectations will in part reflect their class goals.

For example, if one of the goals is to cultivate a safe and productive learning environment, one rule might be to respect everyone’s space and physical boundaries at all times. ​

Grab you free tool kit

Group Challenge: 

A favorite go-to activity for creating classroom community at the beginning of the year (and periodically throughout when we need a little pick-me-up) is to take them out of the building to do something together, preferably something challenging. 

I usually take my students to climb a fire tower, hike to a breathtaking view or lookout, or hit up a city skyscraper, taking the stairs to the top. Each of these activities are both physically and mentally challenging, especially if those participating have a fear of heights. Therefore, it is a great accomplishment for students to achieve together.​

Themed Class Projects: 

Ask students during the first week of school to complete mini-projects (independently or in pairs) under a specific theme, and have them present to the other classes at the end of the week.

This strategy for creating classroom community allows students to bond with their classmates, showcase work that they are proud of, better get to know students and staff members from other classes, and more.

Theme ideas: creating short documentaries, upcycling projects, family traditions, cooking, creating games, showcasing hobbies, trying something new or building a new skill. The options are endless.

This type of classroom community building activity gets students on the same page, working toward the same goal. They feel united by a common objective.

Develop a Class Brand:

Developing a class brand is an awesome method of creating community in the classroom. It's also a great team-builder.

I usually have my students come up with a class name at the beginning of the school year. A name is fun, but useless in the long-run if it is never used. Try the following add-ons: 

• Class logo: ask students to design a logo. They submit it, and the class takes a vote.
• Class slogan: ask students to brainstorm advisory slogans. Submit, take a class vote.
• Class song or cheer: ask students that are interested to write an advisory song. 
• Class promotional video: ask students to produce a video advertisement for the advisory. Submit, take a class vote, and publish on your school website or class website.

Service Learning: 

There is no better way of creating classroom community that is strong, positive, giving, and empathetic than service-learning. There are a variety of ways you could do this.

I have found these experiences to be most successful when I give the students voice, when they are passionate about the issue or purpose, and when the experience involves the entire group.

The experiential approach would be students heading out into the neighborhood to learn about community needs. Then they choose a need that is important or meaningful to them, make a plan to meet that need, and take action.

This particular classroom community-builder casts a net over the bigger community rather than just the school or classroom itself. Using the place and the community as an authentic resource is a great element of experiential learning.

Plan and Host School Events: 

Hosting school events and activities bring students together. It is something that they can take pride in executing as a team. My students have planned some of the following school-wide activities. 

• Spirit week
• Career day
• Movie night
• Community clean-up day
• A walk, demonstration, sit-in or protest (with discretion and guidance)
• School field day
• Mental illness awareness week
• Game tournament 
• Advisory challenge activity (advisory against advisory games)
• Cook-off
• Pie making contest
• Presentation night
• Parent night
• Open house
• Pancake breakfast
• School speaker series

Student-Led Class Fundraisers:

Every year my students choose to plan several fundraisers with the intention of raising money to add to the class budget.

The money we raise almost always goes towards field trips or fun learning materials. They could also donate the money to a charity. The process of planning and executing an event is such a great way of creating a classroom community that is positive and fun.​

Large Group Project:

Unlike the theme project that is done independently or in small groups, this classroom community project is done as an entire class.

​It takes some coordination on your part but is worth the time and energy. Each student of the classroom community plays a role in the bigger picture.

My students have done all of the examples below. There are so many more options! Talk with your group.

• Morning show: have students produce a morning show to broadcast to the school, family, and friends to view.
• Newsletter: have students create a class newsletter for parents. They will need writers, editors, idea people, advertisers, photographers, etc. 
• Group theme projects: I have implemented a “Trip Around the World” group project with my advisory in the past. Each month we would choose one country to focus on. We would talk current events in the country, culture, geography, landscape, take relevant field trips, etc. Each student would choose a topic in relation to the country, complete a mini-project and come back together to share with the group. 
• Hosting any event, fundraiser or service-learning could also be considered a group project, as it gives each student a small role to contribute toward one outcome. 
• Problem-based learning: solving real-life problems with progressive solutions is a great way to bring students together.  

Sparks and Community Experts:

Invite community members into your class periodically to speak. It can be on anything. It could be related to a current event you’re discussing in class. It could be related to one of the life skills seminars you are giving. It might just be an interesting speaker that you think your students might like. It could be ANYONE. Examples:
​

• Addiction counselor
• Emily Program specialist (eating disorders program)
• Animal shelter volunteer with animal guests
• Raptor center speaker with animal guests 
• Domestic violence speaker
• Self-defense instructor
• People from various careers of interest
• College speakers
• Neurologist
• Public health official
• Holistic medicine expert
• Magician, yes magician! Also the founder of the school!
• Green energy speaker
• Zumba instructor
• Software company
• Screen printing company
• Professor of biotechnology from the U of M​

The experiential school where I have been my entire teaching career highly values and encourages relationship building. Creating classroom community where students feel safe, are inspired to learn, excited to be there, support and encourage one another, and so on, is essential. 

If you are sensing apathy, discouragement, behavioral issues, conflicts between students, etc., start to remedy those situations by creating community in the classroom. Hopefully there is something here in this post that you can start with! Good luck!

I love the quote below, for one, because Amy Poehler said it. I also like to use it as the goal for my advisory: to create a space for my students where they are "challenged and inspired". 

More Resources for Culture-Building

Helpful Digital Courses:

Join our experiential learning Facebook group!
Did you know there is an experiential learning Facebook group? Check that out - Experiential Learning Community for K12 Teachers - and join in the discussion about experiential learning ideas!

Find us on social media!
​
Follow Experiential Learning Depot on Pinterest, Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram for more on experiential education, and check out my shop for experiential learning resources. ​