We have a group of three girls in our kindergarten classroom who are being very clique-y. There is an obvious leader of the group, who, at numerous occasions, has been very unkind to other students. She has a strong, dominant personality and likes to take control of situations and tell other students what to do. The other two girls follow everything she does and are beginning to be unkind to other students as well. We've informed the parents of the dominant student's behavior and they are very supportive at home and of what we do at school. In the classroom, we always emphasize being kind and caring and overall, the kids have great behavior and treat each other with respect. So, the expectations about classroom and friend behavior are very clear. We have rewarded these girls when they make good decisions and we have tried to separate them at lunch and during classroom activities. We're afraid this is a case of "Mean Girls" in kindergarten. Any ideas to help with this?
It seems that you have tried rewards so maybe it is time for consequences. I would continue to keep them separated when you need to but begin taking away favorite activities. You can also do activities with each student in a different partner group. It's all well and good to establish a positive atmosphere in the class, but sometimes you need to bring in the tough love, even in Kindergarten.
