How Classroom Rituals Help Create Community

As a fifth-grade public school teacher, April Archer is constantly looking for ways to bring warmth and intentionality into her classroom. Student-led conferences were coming up, and she wanted something to brighten the room—not just visually, but emotionally. With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, she invited her students to reflect on what they felt “lucky” for, but she encouraged them to go deeper than the typical video games or favorite snacks.

“What are things that maybe other kids your age don’t have?” she asked them.

They wrote down heartfelt acknowledgements of food, shelter, warm water, family, friends, and a few more lighthearted appreciations. Each answer became a link in a chain, which now stretches across her classroom ceiling as a gentle reminder of what matters most. It’s a small gesture, but in Archer’s classroom, small things often carry the most weight.

Archer’s commitment to creating a nurturing classroom environment extends beyond holiday projects. Her morning meetings, a staple of her teaching practice, provide students with structured opportunities to check in, share weekend experiences, and engage in interactive activities that build rapport. One particularly engaging routine involves students attempting to recall each classmate’s weekend story in sequence, reinforcing active listening and connection.

Though still early in her career, Archer has quickly learned that fostering connection doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Her daily rituals create a culture of belonging, something she believes is foundational to learning.

“I think if you jump into academics right away, it’s kind of too heavy. Start the day asking how they feel and reflect a little bit,” Archer says. “When students feel like they belong in their classroom and they’re heard by you as a teacher and their friends, they’re going to be more engaged and focused.”

Why connection matters

Young people’s mental health has been getting worse around the world since about 2010, and research suggests that one possible reason is that they’re feeling less connected to others in meaningful ways. However, building strong peer relationships and a sense of belonging at school could be an effective way to support their mental health during this important stage of life.

“As well as influencing behavior, peers play a key role in identifying and facilitating access to emotional support for friends,” write Louise Birrell and her colleagues. “Adolescents most commonly turn to friends and family over professional support for mental health problems.”

By encouraging connectedness and valuable friendships in schools, educators can help improve children’s sense of self-worth. Additionally, studies suggest that social connection is a key driver of student well-being. When students feel a sense of belonging at school, they are more likely to engage academically, regulate their emotions, and develop resilience in the face of challenges.

Archer’s school district has embraced these small rituals of connection. Some of her coworkers offer personalized greetings to their students at the door and practice creative art-based exercises. In her own classroom, Archer leans into her love for sports, incorporating hands-on team-building activities that resonate with her students. Other simple rituals might include morning circles, gratitude reflections, or sharing stories on a particular theme.

For educators who are looking to deepen student connections but are unsure where to start, Archer’s advice is simple: Start small. A weekly check-in, a moment to acknowledge emotions, or a casual “this or that” question during attendance—Was your weekend busy or relaxing? Do you feel tired or excited today?—can make all the difference.

“I think when teachers see a morning meeting, they think like a long, 30-minute process, but sometimes it’s really just a check-in,” Archer says. “And it could be a whole-class check-in like I do, or it could be a check-in at your table group.”

“Nowadays a lot of teachers are doing it, and it should be something that everyone should incorporate,” Archer says. “It’s so easy just to check in with your students.”

This year, Archer joined CalHOPE’s Cultivating Inspiration and Engagement in Schools, a community of practice facilitated by Salina Mae Espinosa and hosted by the Greater Good Science Center. The course offers educators and administrators the opportunity to learn more about the science behind different learning tools, while also providing them with the space to connect and collaborate with one another.

While this is Archer’s first time participating in a community of practice like this, she has already found value in the shared insights and best practices exchanged among her fellow educators.

She also discovered that she’s not alone in her approach to ritual and connection. Many other educators are finding that simple, consistent practices can transform classroom culture, starting with themselves.

From burnout to belonging

Espinosa, an educator with over two decades of experience in urban schools, spent years weaving daily rituals into her classrooms. From gratitude walks and mindfulness practices to songs and weekly eighth-grade meetings, she has seen firsthand how simple, intentional acts create a foundation of belonging.

Although Espinosa is no longer a classroom teacher, she currently works as a mindfulness coach and consultant and is a lead facilitator with The Teaching Well in Oakland, specializing in building creative, inspired, and socially awake curricula that lead to action in the areas of mindfulness, social justice, and systems change.

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“The more connective opportunities we have for our students to participate in, the more regulated their nervous systems are,” Espinosa says. “Especially for students on the margin, students that are feeling like ‘we don’t belong’ or ‘I’m not included,’ we create a more cohesive, a healthier, a more loving classroom where we’re less likely to see behaviors like bullying, or harassment, or teasing.”

In her first four years of teaching eighth grade, Espinosa approached the classroom with strictness and rigidity, until a period of burnout forced her to shift perspectives. Out of sheer desperation, she turned to yoga and, in doing so, uncovered the power of ritual and emotional regulation, both for herself and her students.

During that time of emotional exhaustion and dysregulation, simple practices like breathwork and other body-based exercises became essential for her. These tools weren’t just personal lifelines; they eventually became shared classroom rituals, offering opportunities for co-regulation, a process where people help each other feel safe and stable by offering their presence, connection, and empathy to one another.

“It was good modeling for them, and it was accountability for me,” Espinosa says. “I’m asking students, in a moment of their stress, to try using a social, emotional tool or a somatic or mindfulness practice.”

Making it work in the real world

While these rituals can help unify and stabilize classroom environments, introducing practices is not always easy. Teachers often face logistical challenges, time constraints, and, at times, resistance from school systems focused on rigid academic benchmarks. However, Espinosa emphasizes how these practices don’t have to take up large amounts of time in order to still have an impact.

“With older students, when you have them in a class period versus the whole school day, it’s a little more challenging, but we can still have a ritual that we do, a practice that we engage with,” Espinosa says.

In a world where students, especially those in under-resourced communities, often feel disconnected from themselves, each other, and their environment, taking a moment to sing a song, take a breath, or create a shared moment can be exactly what students and teachers need to thrive.

Whether in urban schools with limited green space or suburban classrooms with more resources, these rituals of connection can help transform learning environments into spaces of refuge and renewal.

“It brings us together as a community, and it gives us and our students something to look forward to,” Espinosa says. “It’s giving our students tools and skills that they can use for their lifetime.”