It's important to build up a sense of team work and cooperation right from the start. I encourage a new class to learn each other's names and find out something about each other early on, and keep getting different groups to work together so that, quite soon, there are no strangers.
Then there are activities that foster a sense of comradeship. Team games and competitions are fun and often valuable, but if you make everything competitive or get too serious about it, you risk a "one-upmanship" environment where people only work together against another group. Creative projects are better, where the point of the activity is the product - story, collage, whatever - rather than who did the best.
Also, if you include the whole class in whatever you do, they are more likely to see the class as a "community" where everyone is involved. For instance, if someone has a question, get the others to try and answer it before stepping in yourself. If there is a problem, look for a group solution, and so on.
Then there are activities that foster a sense of comradeship. Team games and competitions are fun and often valuable, but if you make everything competitive or get too serious about it, you risk a "one-upmanship" environment where people only work together against another group. Creative projects are better, where the point of the activity is the product - story, collage, whatever - rather than who did the best.
Also, if you include the whole class in whatever you do, they are more likely to see the class as a "community" where everyone is involved. For instance, if someone has a question, get the others to try and answer it before stepping in yourself. If there is a problem, look for a group solution, and so on.
