Are you busy planning for the first week of school? There is so much to do the first few days of school but not much is more important than getting to know your students! Getting to know your students will help build a foundation of trust and understanding for the year to come.
The following are four ice-breaker activities that will help you and your students get to know each other better.
Ideas for Getting to Know Your Students
Paper Bag Introductions
In this get-to-know-you activity, the students will learn about you! First, place 5 items that represent you and place them in a paper bag. Then, to introduce yourself you take the item out of the bag, share it with the class, and explain why it is significant to you. Continue pulling items out of the bag and sharing about yourself.
A spin on this would be to have the students bring their own bags and share with the class about themselves! Or if you want to keep it anonymous, students bring in their bags and the class has to guess who it belongs to.
Ask for their Opinion
I bet not too many students are used to being asked, “What kind of teacher do you want?”!
They are used to hearing from others how they should behave but not too much on how their teacher should behave.
Ask them! And chart it!
This activity will only take about 5-10 minutes but will be so powerful. It will help you understand your students and what they want, more importantly, what they need.
You might even be surprised at the cool ideas that they come up with.
Finally, end the activity by promising them that you will uphold those ideas. Let them know that you value their opinions, that their ideas and opinions matter to you. Even though they have smaller voices, they are being heard when they are with you.
I’d suggest posting this chart in a special place that you will be able to see daily.
Beach Ball Throw
This is fun and inexpensive! Have a beach ball or a few? Write some easy get-to-know-you questions on the ball. Place students in one circle or multiple circles, if you have more beach balls. Students throw the ball and whoever catches it, has to answer the question that is facing them.
Possible questions:
- Tell one place you went this summer.
- Share one fact about your favorite animal.
- What kind of games do you like to play?
- Do you prefer warm weather or cold weather?
- What is your favorite sport?
- How many siblings are in your family?
- Do you like to bike ride? Where do you go?
Want to do this year round? Instead of writing the question on it, write a number on the beach ball! Then you can have a set of index cards with the corresponding number and a question. Use it for science, math, social studies etc.
Find a Friend
In this Find a Friend activity, students walk around and get to know their classmates by asking questions. They find things they have in common or learn things about each other and write their new friend’s name in the square.
This is a great activity to get kids up and moving and talking with each other. If you don’t have time to finish the whole page, do it in short spurts throughout the week.
So, if you have an extra 10 minutes to fill have them “find a friend”.
Your students will start to get to know each other in no time and will become friends quickly!
Want more ice-breaker ideas? Check out Ice-Breaker for Back to School by Jen from Teacher Karma!
What are other fun ideas that you have to get to know your students??? I’d love to know! Please share them below!
Happy Back to School season!!
~Laura
This post originally appeared on www.agracefilledclassroom.com
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