State College Area School District Community Building and Social Emotional Learning

Our purpose: Help and ensure our kids feel safe, welcome, and joyful while learning

Priorities: Explicitly share and help others understand why our district is taking precautions

We are prioritizing our focus on getting to know each other by building relationships, creating community, and supporting students' social and emotional health. We will continue with our morning meetings, collaboration with our school counselors, and use of lessons from our Second Step counseling curriculum.

We will begin by teaching students what it looks like to communicate in this new environment, explain our operational procedures, share our rationale for why we are doing this, (ie) speaking to one another, standing, body language, etc. We will

• teach appropriate mask wearing and how to put on and remove masks

• teach and model patterns of movement in the classroom and school

• share and model expectations for washing hands one at a time

• include students in contributing to setting up this environment.

• communicate expectations in a firm but respectful way

• teach technology tools and expectations throughout the first several weeks

Community Building and Social/Emotional Lessons Focus:

• social and emotional well being

• overcoming challenges and feelings related to wearing masks.

• student voice in creating norms and expectations

• self advocacy - speaking up when needing a break, etc.

• social interactions - what do friendships look like 6 feet apart

• outdoor activities and games

• movement and mindfulness (GoNoodle and other activities)

• share learning by using technology