Building Our Culture

Year Level

Year 2

Duration

60 minutes

Learning Area

Health and Physical Education — Personal and Social Capability

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Victorian Curriculum Alignment

Content Description

• VCELY174 (Personal and Social Capability)
  Develop respectful relationships, including an understanding of respect, empathy, cooperation, and positive behaviour in group activities.

• VCPSCSO012 (Social and Community Skills)
  Recognise the importance of rules and responsible behaviour in social settings, including classrooms.

Learning Focus

• Understand the roles of cooperation, respect, and positive behaviour in creating a supportive classroom culture.
• Communicate effectively with peers to collaboratively establish class rules.
• Demonstrate teamwork and empathy while working with others.
• Reflect on participation in group activities to build self-awareness of social skills.

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Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. Explain why respect, cooperation, and positive behaviour are important in the classroom.
2. Participate respectfully and cooperatively in a team activity to build class culture.
3. Collaboratively create a set of class rules that promote a positive, inclusive environment.
4. Demonstrate communication skills to express ideas and listen to others.
5. Reflect on their role and behaviour in creating a supportive classroom community.

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Resources

• Large paper or whiteboard for creating class rules
• Markers/coloured pens
• Printed scenario cards showing classroom situations (respectful and disrespectful behaviours)
• Stickers or tokens for participation recognition
• Visual aids illustrating feelings and social skills (empathy, cooperation, respect)

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Lesson Breakdown

1. Introduction and Engagement (10 minutes)

• Warm-up discussion:
  Ask students: “What makes our classroom a happy and safe place?”
  Take a few answers, promote ideas around respect, kindness, and teamwork.
• Teacher explains:
  "Today, we will work together to create the rules that will help everyone feel respected and happy in our classroom."
• Learning intention: Share objectives in simple language.

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2. Teamwork and Communication Activity (15 minutes)

• Activity: ‘Respect Role-Play’
  • Divide students into small groups (4-5 students).
  • Each group receives two scenario cards — one showing positive classroom behaviour, one showing negative behaviour (e.g., sharing materials vs. interrupting a friend).
  • Groups discuss and decide what respectful behaviour looks like in these scenarios.
  • Each group shares one example with the class, explaining why respect and cooperation matter.
• Skills Developed: Listening, speaking, identifying respectful behaviours.

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3. Creating Class Rules Collaboratively (20 minutes)

• Group brainstorming:
  • Record all students’ ideas about how they can behave to make the classroom a positive place.
  • Encourage phrasing rules in positive terms (e.g., “We listen when others are speaking” rather than “Don’t interrupt”).
• Visual rules creation:
  • Write the agreed rules on large paper/whiteboard.
  • Allow students to illustrate or decorate next to each rule to personalise them.
• Final class agreement:
  • Read the rules aloud, invite students to agree by a group cheer or ‘thumbs up’.
  • Explain these will guide how students treat each other every day to keep the classroom welcoming.

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4. Reflection and Assessment (10 minutes)

• Whole-class reflection:
  • Ask students:
    • “How did working together help us make our class rules?”
    • “Why is it important to respect and cooperate with each other?”
  • Encourage use of “I think,” “I feel,” and “I noticed” phrases to develop emotional literacy.
• Observation for assessment:
  • Teacher observes abilities in social skills: respectful listening, sharing ideas, cooperation, willingness to participate.
• Participation tokens:
  • Give a token or sticker to students who demonstrated positive teamwork and communication during activities.

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5. Closing and Transition (5 minutes)

• Reinforce importance of the new class rules and encourage students to remember them daily.
• Preview next lesson's focus on practising these skills through daily classroom interactions.
• Provide positive reinforcement: “Together, we are creating a classroom we can all be proud of!”

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Differentiation and Support

• Provide sentence starters or visual prompts for students needing language support during group discussions.
• Assign roles within groups (speaker, recorder, presenter) to support participation diversity.
• Use simple language for explaining concepts and scaffold the creation of rules.

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Teacher Notes

• Emphasise empathy by linking classroom culture to how students feel when treated kindly or respectfully.
• Connect to everyday experiences (e.g., playground, home) to make abstract ideas concrete.
• Build ongoing reference to this culture during future lessons to embed social and emotional learning.

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This structure nurtures Year 2 students’ personal and social capability by engaging them actively in developing social norms that promote respect, cooperation, and positive behaviour — key to a supportive classroom. The lesson directly ties to the Victorian Curriculum’s emphasis on respectful relationships and social skills acquisition.