Welcome Back, Teachers!
You can plan for weeks, but nothing quite prepares you for the final rush before the classroom fills with students. During my teaching career, I typically spent two weeks in my classroom before students returned, mostly because I loved to decorate bulletin boards! And because I wanted to make sure I had lessons prepared, copies made and supplies ready before the week of endless faculty meetings began.
Although I’m no longer setting up a classroom for a group of rambunctious middle schoolers, I haven’t forgotten the excitement – and chaos – of those first few days of school. That’s why I’m sharing some of my go-to activities and a few tried-and true tips to help you get your year off to a positive start.
Here’s the thing: Every teacher has similar lessons for the first few days of school, which means by lunchtime the kids are tired of filling out “Who Am I?” surveys. After listening to the sighs and watching less-than-enthusiastic students write about themselves, I changed it up. Here are a few of my favorites:
One of my students’ favorite activities was this drawing activity. The paper has a partial drawing on it that they complete. The only requirement is that the drawing must represent something about the subject area (Spanish, science, etc.). These drawings became one of my first bulletin boards! And it was a great way to get to know my students without a survey.
There is a mountain of ice-breaker STEM activities for you to choose from if you need something that is more team-oriented. Students love working together and building with unusual materials. Check out these two options if you’d like to get them engaged and working together!
One of my first goals for my students was to build positive, working relationships amongst themselves. Many of my class activities required some type of group work, and usually the better they knew each other, the more willing they were to work together throughout the year. Here’s an easy questions activity that gives even the quietest student a chance to share.
I liked using “Would You Rather” statements as Exit Tickets. They were quick and easy, and they loved to answer them. You can make slides with the questions or simply have a list ready to go. A great way to end the class for the first few days of school and get to know your students at the same time.
One year one of my students commented that they share so much with me about their lives, but they hardly knew anything about me…welp. So, to avoid awkwardly introducing myself, I would create 2-3 slides of information that had true and false facts about myself. After presenting it to them, they would guess what was actually true. Basically, two truths and a lie, but teacher-style!
I would delay explaining classroom routines usually until the end of the first week or even sometimes into the second week of school. I found that they were typically overwhelmed by all the other classroom procedures and wouldn’t remember mine anyway. Once we got to them, this is how we did it:
My classroom walls were filled with information. Some of it was general subject area content, and some was procedural. Instead of walking around the room and pointing everything out to the students, I created a scavenger hunt. You can use a platform like Goosechase or simply create a table with questions as a digital or printed resource. The questions lead them to discover where to find things like the pencil sharpener, handouts, and extra pencils. Other questions can be for fun, so they actually read the bulletin boards! Once they completed the activity, we reviewed it, and then it went into the front of their binders. If your students use iPads or Chromebooks, then they can save it on the desktop for easy reference throughout the year! Need to review a syllabus? A scavenger hunt is a great way to go over it as well.
This was my least favorite activity, but the MOST important one to set the tone for the classroom for the year. I’d approach this every way possible, and this was the one that worked best for my students and, ultimately, me. After getting to know the students for a few days, we would then work on establishing procedures for learning, especially when I taught middle schoolers. I would ask my students to write down one to three things that they needed in the classroom to focus and learn. You can have students submit this anonymously, either on paper or digitally. Once all students responded (and yes, everyone had to write at least one idea) we worked as a class to consolidate and determine what they needed the most from their classmates and me to do their best. Since these classroom guidelines were created from student input, it made it easier for me to address many of the disruptions throughout the school year.
Each year during our first faculty meeting at one school where I taught, I had a principal tell us that one of the most unique parts of being in the teaching profession was the opportunity to start new every single year. If something doesn’t work in June, you can let it go and start fresh in September. I loved this idea. Taking his advice, my classroom was never quite the same from one year to the next.
Try something new this year, it just might work.