Activity Ideas to Promote Solidarity Among 3Rd Grade Classmates

In my experience, even in a Christian school the behaviors that you are seeing are part of being socialized primarily by your peers (instead of your parents).

Believe it or not - where I have seen the strongest "anti-clique" mentality has been in our homeschool groups. I think it's because the kids spend significantly more time with adults who care about them, and when they do get together with other kids they are not as desperate for attention, dominance, etc. (and thus more likely to pick on one another). Our homeschoolers have been the strongest demonstrators of their faith, too (not that all homeschoolers are perfect - not making that argument).

Prior to homeschooling, we were in a couple of different private schools for a good number of years - and in every school I saw the clique situation get worse with age (and it really seemed to peak in 7th and 8th grade).

I applaud your initiative to nip it in the bud early - I'm just not sure it can be done due to the innate structural inadequacies of the way we educate children today. I hope you can do it though. Good luck.

When my son went to private school the pecking order was worse than when he went to public school. There was a clear teachers pet, and there were a few who simply could not possibly care less whether the class accepted them or not. They marched to a tune SO different they landed in the principals office for regularly disrupting the class. Part of it is just the nature of any small group. The dynamic is different when there's 12 in a class vs when there's 25. When there are more kids, there are more opportunities to observe good (and bad) behaviors. There will be kids who take an instant liking to each other, and others who can't stand another kid and they don't even know why. There are catty cliques - no group is immune to them.
For my son, it's not so much broad lessons which help him see how to be a good person. What seems to help is if I talk with him all the time about how things are going and what happened at school today.

I don't have the answers for you. I mainly read this to get more ideas for my kids. However, something not mentioned, is having a school wide lesson on bullying could help some. Our homeschool group just did a day on it. They called it friendship day. They watched a movie then broke into small groups to discuss what does and does not make a good friend. It seems to have made a difference to have everyone more aware of their own actions and seems to have made a difference. I am also looking into a class called Kid Power to take my kids to. I hear their are currently some available in the east bay. Our school (CAVA at Sonoma) just started a PTA and one of the first things I want us to raise money for is to pay for a Kid Power workshop for the school kids who want to attend. Feel free to contact me privetly and keep in touch about what is helping and what is not.

I remember that in 3rd grade our class went on a camping trip. It was awesome. The teacher paired us up with kids not in our normal seating sections and it really brought more of us together.

I noticed in our daughters elementary school that when we went on field trips, the parents and their children were paired up with kids our own children did not normally "hang out with".. Same results.

So maybe a project like building a garden, with each "group" on charge of a part of the project.The kids would not be in their normal groups, so they will learn to work together.

Sorry to say even in churches there are adults that act like this, so where do you think these children have learned this behavior? It is part of who humans are.

It is not pretty and we will each experience it at some point. I hope that the instructors and then the actual Church elders speak with the school children about what it means to be a good Christian.

And yes, you will have to tech your so to stand up for what is right, even if it is just for himself. When we are good, people will be good to us. If they are not it is their loss.