Building community bonds early
Matamoras. Students discover commonalities and build connections in their first days back to school.
| 03 Sep 2025 | 01:50
Chloe Flood, Gabriel Gause, and Cameron Mady (photos provided)
Vayda Kresse, Ella Thiers, and Dominic Ulbrich
Salvatore Lastella, Elizabeth Sicina, and Za’Daiyah Rosado
Samuel Daniel, Devlen Dorcas, and Whatt Barkhimer
Lexi Conkling, Xander Hamilton, and Kiara Castellanos
Mrs. Nelson’s fifth grade class at Delaware Valley Elementary School had a fun community-building activity on the second day of school.
To kick things off, the students were divided into groups and given a stack of blank index cards. The goal was for each group to write down something they all had in common on one card. As the groups continued to talk and share, they filled up more cards with their commonalities.
The twist came when they were challenged to build the tallest tower they could — using only the index cards that had these shared traits written on them. This encouraged the students to communicate even more, collaborating to gather as many common cards as possible.
The activity was a great success in helping the students discover surprising connections with one another. One group realized they all had brothers, another learned they all took the bus to school, and yet another discovered they were all born in the same year.
The kids were fully engaged, and it was a great way to help them bond as a class right from the start.