School Family Rituals

School Family Rituals
From Conscious Discipline by Dr. Becky Bailey
School family rituals are rituals happenings that occur specifically in the classroom. Absent children, moving children, new children, or a school event (like Field Day). The most important school family ritual is the school family song. This song is used as part of the Brainsmart Start and can be used for Closing Circle, before field trips, etc. School family songs can be written by teachers, students, or the class together.Here are some examples of school family songs along with rituals for other classroom events:

School Family Songs
You are my family, my school family. I feel so happy, when we are here. I hope you know friends how much I like you! When we're apart, I'll always keep you here! (cross hand over heart) (From Conscious Discipline, "You Are My Sunshine" tune)	We are intelligent thinkers who persevere through difficult obstacles. We show compassion to people around us. We practice self-discipline in our work and actions. Together we can help each other make the world a better place. (from Ms. Levitt's 4th Grade class in Gainesville, Florida, sited in Conscious Discipline)
We're a rainbow made of children, we're a school family singing our song. There's nothing that can stop us, our school family is much too strong!

Circle of Friends

This is our Circle of Friends board. It's a cookie sheet with magnetic thumbnails of each child, myself, and our paraprofessional Mrs. Wood. When someone is absent their picture is placed in the middle of the circle and we sing a "wish well" song to them. The Circle of Friends person is then responsible for creating a card or note to let them know they have been missed. If a child misses more than 2 days consecutively we call them on our classroom phone. When the child (or teacher) returns, we sing a welcome back song and they open their card/note. From Conscious Discipline

Here's a page from a packet on rituals from Conscious Discipline and other sources I put together for a presentation at the Orlando Tech Early Childhood Conference. Some ideas to get you started: