Chore charts are commonplace in kindergarten classrooms, as they ensure that all students take an active role in helping keep the class running and help students learn the basics of being part of a community. As you start the year, engage your students in a chore chart-related craft by having them make student clothespins. Give each student a clothespin along with construction paper and other art supplies. Ask each student to decorate his clothespin in some way to represent him. One student may choose to create a person cutout and decorate it in her favorite clothing while another may make a symbol, such as a football or basketball, to represent himself. Use these decorated clothespins on your chore chart to highlight student duties.
Let your students step into the shoes of community helpers by having them create community helper costumes. To begin this craft, create a list of community helpers. This list could include anyone who helps keep the community running, such as doctors, firefighters and teachers. After creating your list, divide students into groups, assigning each group a different individual. Give the students scrap materials, such as cereal boxes and food wrappers, and ask them to work in their groups to create costumes to represent each of their assigned helpers. One kindergartner may, for example, cut out some glasses and put them on to represent his bespectacled teacher.
Show your kindergartners that an important part of being a member of a community is showing your thanks by having them create thank you cards. Print out small shapes for students to color, such as penguins, stars and flowers, sized to fit on greeting cards. Have students color these images then clip them out. Give each student a blank greeting card and ask him to glue his image onto the front. Help him write the simple message "Thank you," along with his name, on the interior. Allow him to select someone to whom to give the card.
Make your classroom more of a home to your students, increasing the sense of community, by creating classroom decorations. Print out large pictures for students to color, have them create chains of paper and help them turn tissue paper into flowers. Place these student-created decorations around your room, beautifying the space. Explain to your students that these types of beautification efforts are part of creating a community. Discuss the importance of beautification projects in your community, such as planting trees along parkways and planting flowers outside the public library in the spring and summer.