Students work together to design and test simple routines, agreements, and kindness habits that help every classmate feel welcome, respected, and included. Through cooperative challenges, reflection circles, and sticky-note evidence, they build a shared understanding of what trust, listening, turn-taking, and respectful speaking look like in daily classroom life. The week leads to visible class tools—a Belonging Charter, a Welcome Week routine guide, and a community wall—that students can keep using to strengthen teamwork and belonging every day.

Students will practice active listening, turn-taking, respectful speaking, and shared decision-making as they complete cooperative challenges and design class routines that help everyone participate. They will identify, test, and revise clear roles, agreements, and daily habits that build trust, kindness, safety, and inclusion in a middle school classroom. Students will gather evidence from peer feedback, self-reflection, and sticky-note observations to explain which actions help classmates feel welcomed, respected, and connected. They will present a team-created routine or agreement and contribute to class artifacts that the community can use every day, including the Belonging Charter, Welcome Week routine guide, and kindness and inclusion wall.

Students will create a class Belonging Charter poster that names shared routines, roles, and agreements, then add sticky-note evidence showing how those choices help classmates feel included. In teams, they will design, practice, revise, and present a short Welcome Week routine guide that teaches listening, turn-taking, and respectful speaking. Throughout the week, the class will build a community wall of kindness and inclusion habits using sticky notes sorted into themes of safety, respect, connection, and everyday teamwork. By the end, these products become the centerpiece of a gallery walk where students share the routines and habits they want to keep using all year.

Start with a Connection Challenge Circuit in mixed teams, where students rotate through 3–4 quick tasks that require listening, turn-taking, encouragement, and respectful problem-solving. After each station, teams add sticky notes naming one action or routine that helped everyone feel included, safe, and able to contribute. Bring the class together to sort those notes into themes and use them to draft the first ideas for a Belonging Charter and a Welcome Week routine guide. Close with a brief share-out around the question of how a class can build trust, kindness, and belonging in just one week.

Host a Belonging Builders Gallery Walk where teams display their Belonging Charter poster, Welcome Week routine guide, and themed kindness-and-inclusion wall, then explain how their routines help everyone participate, listen, and feel respected. Classmates and invited guests rotate through stations, use a simple rubric to celebrate communication, participation, and inclusion, and leave sticky-note feedback about habits that help people feel safe and connected. End with a Team Trust Expo or Inclusion Celebration Loop in which each team leads the class through one short routine they designed, followed by a peer praise circle and a final wall sort of the strongest community practices to keep using all year.