Dancing Flamingos Key Important Conversations at Grant Ragan

There are a lot of things to like about first grade.

“I like math and I like the challenges that first grade has done instead of kindergarten,” says Archer Thomas.

It’s also a great time to make new friends.

“I make them cards and then I just write that I like them and then I write, do you want to be friends?” says Marnix Wetzel. “Sometimes I just make stuff for them to make them happy.”

Friendship connectivity is a huge part of daily life at Grant Ragan.  It’s also the central focus of their routine morning meetings. 

“We do them every mornings in our classrooms, building friendships and connections, kids noticing things they have in common,” says 1st Grade Teacher Keri Ross.  “It’s really fun to have that time together to start our day.” 

“When they know they are cared about first, they care more about learning, with and for themselves and others,” says Kindergarten Teacher Hilary Breon.

This week these important meetings are also looking toward next year.

“We know we are all going to be coming back together next year, so how can we work to make sure that our virtual learners are connected to our in-person learners and vice versa,” adds Grant Ragan Instructional Coach Val Jansonius. 

These morning meetings have a new look. Everybody in 1st grade is on the same call, from all parts of the world.

“It was just really important to let all of our students know that they matter and that they belong,” says Jansonius. “We want them to feel connected or reconnected to our Grant Ragan community.

That way they will be more acknowledgeable of the fact that there will be more people in our school next year,” adds Breon. “We can take what we do and apply it to more groups of people next year when we start building those classroom families.”

These morning meetings including a greeting, simply saying hello. A sharing, finding connections to new friends and an activity. For first grade, that means a game called Magic Rock.

“I had kids hopping around like flamingos and slithering around like snakes today that never would have done that at the beginning of the year,” says Ross. “It’s fun for them to branch out and open up their hearts a little bit.”

These morning meetings will be a part of every classroom at Grant Ragan this week, serving as a semi-jump start into our next school year. 

“Some of them haven’t stepped foot in a classroom in a really long time,” says Jansonius. “Our responsive classroom team is hoping these morning meetings are saying hey, we know you are out there, we know you are still learning and guess what, we are really excited to welcome you back.”

It’s not reading, science or writing, but connection is a huge deal at Grant Ragan. The kids know exactly why.

“Be kind to everyone and if someone doesn’t have anyone to play with, you let them play,” says 1st Grader Evelyn Christie.