The first few weeks in Lower Elementary classrooms (ages 6–9) are when a class builds its community. In our gatherings at the beginning of the year, we talk about how we want to feel in our classroom and what each of us needs to do so that everyone can feel that way. The children’s answers become the basis of our community agreement: the freedoms and responsibilities everyone in our community has so that we can joyfully learn and grow together.
Learning Responsibility in Elementary Classrooms
Elementary-aged children need a feeling of responsibility, and the need to be active contributors to their community; whether that community is their family, a group of children they are working with at school, all of the people in their classroom, another group like Scouts or a sports team, or even humanity as a whole. Learning how to care for their environment is one way that Elementary children practice responsibility to themselves and others.
