It’s as simple as it sounds. High Five Fridays are an easy, free, and effective way to reinforce positive relationships between Staffulty and students.
Activity Goal: Develop relationships with all students.
Preparation Time: None!
Timing: Before or after class on any Friday.
Materials: Fun gloves, hand-shaped cardboard cutouts, foam hands, speaker (optional)
Cost: $0-$20
Submitted by: Washington Elementary School, Wyoming
Instructions:
- Greet students with high fives as they enter the school building in the morning.
- A single school leader can give all the high fives, but is even more fun if a group of people participate.
- Consider playing music to amp up the fun atmosphere.
Additional Idea & Opportunities:
- Order super-sized foam hands from the Renaissance store in red, yellow, blue, orange or kelly green.
- Do this in your Yearbook classroom! With your editors, greet staffers with high-fives at least once each week as they enter your workspace. Consider playing music to pump up the vibe!
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Last year, I started standing out by the bus lane/student parking, playing music and greeting students as they came to school. When Fridays would come around, I would greet each student with a High Five. It became a tradition that students would look forward to and would start asking me about early in the week. “Are you going to be out there this Friday?” “Tomorrow is High Five Friday!” This summer another group of teachers went to the Jostens Renaissance Global Conference and came back with a better understanding of building school culture. They started joining me on Fridays and each week the group grows. High Five Friday was started to make students feel good, but every time a new staff member comes out to participate, they always leave saying, “This was amazing, my heart is full!”
– Keith Bellof, Buffalo Grove High School, Illinois
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