Building Relationships With Classroom Openers

Teachers and school counselors play a vital role in assisting with building relationships and creating classrooms where students feel safe, supported, and valued. Strong classroom relationships are very important because they impact the overall learning environment.

When there is a welcoming classroom climate, students are more engaged and are more likely to make positive developments socially and emotionally.

I recently received a copy of a new book that was created to tackle the task of building relationships from day one of the school year. 10-Minute Classroom Openers is written by Tina Dietrich and Steven A. Bollar. The activities were created for the elementary grades (K-5).

Today, I want to tell you what this book is all about and why I believe you’ll want to check it out.

Building Relationships With Daily Activities

I love the idea of taking a few minutes each day to build relationships and to increase a positive classroom climate. This book begins with an in-depth description of culture and climate in the classroom in order to help the reader understand why implementing daily activities can make a difference.

A quote that puts this section of the book in a nutshell says, “In order to create a culture that supports everyone feeling welcomed and invited, it must be rooted in values and practiced daily.” 10-Minute Classroom Openers suggests that identifying values and reinforcing them consistently is the key to creating a positive environment, and I couldn’t agree more.

The activities are organized by days of the week, but you can choose to share them in whatever way works for you. You will discover that the activities are named specifically for a certain day such as Mindful Monday or Truthful Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean you can’t change the name to make it fit your plan. You can also repeat them as you see fit as well.

Building Relationships with Classroom Openers - Savvy School Counselor — “Consistency is the key.”

Classroom Opener Categories

There are five categories included in the book. Each of these categories has a picture that represents it. Activities that include the categories will have the pictures at the top. Categories include:

Growth Mindset – For these activities you will see a picture of brain lifting weights. Mask It Monday is one example that focuses on self-awareness. Another is Turn It Around Tuesday where students change fixed mindset statements into growth mindset statements.

Building Personal Strengths – The picture for these activities is four hands connected in a circle. Examples of this category are Terrific Thursday which is all about boosting confidence and Wordy Wednesday where students make as many words as they can from a character trait. This one could be replicated with different traits.

Mindfulness – A drop of water making a ripple effect on water is the picture for this category. You will see it in activities like Take 5 Thursday which prompts students to use the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique and Take a Minute Tuesday which focuses on breathing.

First Weeks – This category is represented with a picture of two kids talking with each other. These activities are great for the first weeks of school when building relationships is one of the main goals. An example is Twinning Thursday where students look for someone in class who they have something in common with.

Movement – Two moving silhouette kids are pictured for this category. When you see this picture, you’ll know the activity will get your students up and moving. Examples are Walk Around Wednesday which involves a scavenger hunt and Freeze Dance Friday which is pretty self-explanatory.

You’ll find that there are some activities that don’t fall under either of these categories as well. There are so many options to choose from.

The last thirty pages of the book include activities for special celebration days such as the 100th day of school, St. Patrick’s Day, and Cinco de Mayo. There are also activities for National Superhero Day and the last day of school.

You can take this book and outline a plan for an entire school year. I would even suggest looking at some of your school’s behavior data and comparing it to the same data after a few months of implementation or a full school year of implementation. Does implementing consistent activities such as these decrease office referrals? Do teachers see a decrease in class disruptions or conflict and discover they are actually able to teach?

Building relationships with students and helping kids to build them with each other is so important. I really love the possibilities of positive change this book can create when implemented consistently. I’m certain that once this becomes a routine, students will definitely look forward to what each day will bring.

As the book talks about, I’ve walked into classrooms where the students are quietly working and the climate feels inviting. We all know of those teachers who have the gift of building relationships with their students and creating a positive classroom culture. Imagine if all of the classrooms you entered at your school began to transform into a more positive culture with just 10 minutes a day. I believe it’s worth a try!

I’ve had the privilege of hearing Steven Bollar speak during a school counselor conference, so I was already familiar with his work. I decided to look into other books Tina Dietrich may have written and ended up finding this great podcast interview which gives the story behind 10-Minute Classroom Openers.

The podcast is Steven Bollar’s Stand Tall Leadership Show. After listening to the episode, everything came together. I learned that Tina was the school counselor to Steve’s children. Pretty cool connection!

Check out the Podcast Episode

I am sure that this book will be an excellent addition to your school counseling library. It provides so many great daily activities that can help with building relationships and creating a positive climate school-wide. And, as the school counselor, you can take the lead in implementing it!

How would you use this book in your school counseling program? Let me know in the comments!

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