Academic and reading company, Scholastic released their top games and suggestions for teachers to get to know their students this new school year. With classes just beginning, now is the perfect time to brush up on good icebreaking ideas for your classroom.
Everyone remembers their first days of school growing up. Nothing can be more nerve-racking than meeting your teacher and your new classmates. The same can be said for teachers as they survey the new crop of students they will be teaching for the next nine months. As Scholastic points out, there is no better way to create classroom camaraderie than by starting your year off with some good teambuilding activities.
Read some suggestions from teachers on the Scholastic message board:
Getting Acquainted - Create a Class Slideshow
Submitted by Angie Kelly, Grade 3 teacher, Shelbyville, IL
On the first day of school, I begin by reading Miss Malarkey Doesn't Live in Room 10. We discuss the fact that teachers are "real people" and have normal lives. Next, I share a PowerPoint slideshow with my students. I include pictures of my family, my home (and all of the rooms in it), pets, what I did over the summer, things I do for fun, etc. After I share, the students are to write an introduction of themselves. When they finish writing their draft and editing, they type what they have written. I make a slideshow of their introductions and include their picture on the slide. On parent orientation night, I have their PowerPoint showing on my television. The images of each student and their writing rotate automatically as I am giving my orientation "speech." It's a relief to look at 22 sets of parents and not have their eyes fixed on me. Instead, they are reading what my students have written. I also leave the slideshow opened on all of my computers for the first couple of weeks of school so that students can read what their peers have written.
Human Analogy Game - Build a Community With Older Students
Submitted by Sherry Roland, grades 11-12, Jonesboro, AR
I have several activities I use to help my students get to know me and my expectations and many that allow the students to work well together and appreciate one another's unique personalities and skills, and I use these activities, games, and lessons throughout the year (not just at the beginning).
In the picture, students are playing a learning game: the human analogy game. I use this to teach analogies to prepare them for college testing such as the SAT), I will say the hand is to arm as the foot is to ________. Then they have to match their bodies to the correct part. (This was a very mature class; it wouldn't work with all classes or grades, but they loved it and always wanted to play it.)
Have any games or ice-breaking activities of your own to share?
Comment below.
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