As they go from student to student, they must introduce themselves and tell one important fact about themselves. Once students are settled in, instruct them to walk around the room to each classmate to see if their puzzle piece fits with another student’s piece. Here’s how this activity works: As students enter the classroom, hand each child a puzzle piece. K-5th Grade Ideas Meeting Your MatchĪ fun way to break the ice on the first day of school is to challenge each student to find another classmate that matches them. Here are a few getting-to-know-you, first-day-of-school activities and back-to-school games that will help you break the ice and create a comfortable atmosphere where students feel welcome. ![]() Getting your students to feel welcome and establishing a good rapport during the first few weeks of school should be your main priority. Students and teachers are filled with excitement and first-day jitters. Don’t forget to share my FREE Maternity Leave eCourse (and Checklist) for Teachers with your pregnant teacher-friends (or on your Facebook/Pinterest/etc.Back-to-school time is an exciting but nerve-wracking time for everyone. In the meantime, I’ll see you Thursday with an update on the first day and – super important – what I wore. If you try it – or have done something like this before – I’d love to hear how it goes! Click here to access and download: Back to School Bingo Boards I’m OK with that, but you can easily copy/paste the template and make more variations too if you want. This document has 9 different cards, which means that two or three kids in each class will have the same one. I went ahead and took out the words personal to me and left blanks there so you can add your own kids’/dogs’/principal’s names, college, etc. In case you want to take your chances and try it too, I’m including a link to my actual Bingo cards as a Word document below. It could be a disaster… But it could be really fun! Then, I’ve got a box full of random school supplies (composition notebooks, pencils, post-its, etc.) to give as prizes to the winners. I will hand out the cards to students as they come in and instruct them to circle or mark off the word on their card if they hear me say it, and yell “BINGO” (of course) when they get five in a row. Basically, I’ve created several different cards with terms that I’m likely to say while going over the syllabus and above Powerpoint: “respect,” “policy,” “late-work,” “credit,” “Sam and Nora,” and my trademark – “hilarious,” to name a few. I actually got the idea for this from our staff-inservice day – one of the assistant principals organized it, and I noticed it kept us slightly more engaged and excited about the mundane information being shared. This year, for a fun twist, I’m adding a Class Procedures BINGO game to the mix. So, for the last few years, I’ve stuck with a simple ice breaker on the first day (like two truths and a lie, Twitterature, or six-word memoirs) followed by a rousing rendition of “course syllabus and procedures” using my meme Powerpoint. ![]() Although I know there’s a lot of talk about “jumping right in,” I find that it’s better to take things easy on the first day and jump in on the second and third. ![]() Each block ends up being only about 45 minutes (instead of the usual 90), and nine years of experience have taught me that at least 15 of that needs to be devoted to letting kids squeal over seeing each other, fill me in on their summer, etc. ![]() Our first day of school has abbreviated classes because there is an assembly and extended “homeroom” time for distributing paperwork, etc. Well, tomorrow’s the big day! My classroom is looking pretty, my syllabi are ready to go (almost), and I’m anxious for my room to be full of bubbling teenagers once again in the morning (I’m already planning my nap for the afternoon too)!
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