Trauma-informed practices for school start up

By the Teacher Magazine Advisory Board

Many of us have our go-to activities for the beginning of the school year that help us get to know the new students in our classrooms and start building community. Being mindful of the way we introduce these activities to students can make a big difference in making them feel welcome and accepted. The following strategies for common school start-up activities help make sure your practice is trauma-informed; they recognize that summer break can be a difficult time for some students, and not all students have the same opportunities to explore or play over the summer.

Write about something you did this summer

When introducing this activity to your students, you as the teacher can share a local activity you did over the summer, instead of something extravagant. For example:

This summer, I took a trip to the community pool. I started by carefully packing everything I would need: my bathing suit, googles, towel, flip-flops, and a snack. Then I walked with my family all the way to the pool. At the pool, I swam in the deep end, splashed in the shallow end, and sat in the hot tub until it got too hot to handle. After a while, I even worked up the courage to jump off the high dive.

By sharing a local, accessible activity as your story, the activity becomes less intimidating for students who might initially think they don’t have anything to share.

Other writing prompts about summer could include the following:

• What didn’t happen this summer that you wished had happened?

• Should summer break be extended or shortened?

• Write a summer advice column.

Make friendship bracelets

Students can make friendship bracelets with one bead for every member of the classroom community. If members join the class later in the school year, students can add a bead to their bracelet to make sure everyone is represented. Instead of encouraging students to swap bracelets, encourage them to wear their own bracelet or keep it somewhere safe.

Write or share about something important to you

With this writing prompt, students can choose to focus on their family if they’d like to, or instead, they can also choose a friend, a pet, another safe adult in their life, a favourite toy, or an artifact they treasure. Family can be a sensitive topic for some students. Teachers may not have a thorough understanding of students’ family dynamics or home life, especially early in the school year, so giving students an opportunity to opt out of talking specifically about family can make some students more comfortable.

Identity hexagon

Students can create a hexagon with sections representing different parts of their identity or different things they enjoy. Then, in small groups (and eventually as a class), they can match sides of their hexagons with others’ ideas. This builds class community by giving students an opportunity to learn about their classmates and see what they have in common. Focusing on identity in a way that invites students to think about how they define themselves gives students more agency and control over what they share.

This activity can be used instead of activities that focus on the history of students’ names or activities that ask for information about specific aspects of identity. Not all students have access to their family history or cultural history. As such, not all students will know the story of their name or what it means. And not all students are comfortable sharing all aspects of their identity.