Have you heard the saying August is the Sunday of the year for teachers? Somehow the phenomenon of summer coming to an end happens annually; however, some of us have a difficult time getting our minds wrapped around the concept. Every time I mention summer is coming to an end, I can see the look on teachers’ faces. It is one of sadness and anticipation. Of course, we never want summer to end, but the thought of the new school year does secretly excite us (I hope).
Over the summer, I have been thinking about icebreakers and first-week activities that could be helpful to new and veteran teachers. Sometimes we get stuck in a rut, and we do the same things year after year. At some point, it is good to give a good revamping to how we start school.
It’s easy to fall into the habit of using the same back-to-school activities year after year, but even our favorite routines can start to feel stale. If we’re feeling bored by our first-week lessons, there’s a good chance our students will pick up on that energy, too. Below are a mix of tried-and-true activities I’ve used successfully over the years, along with a few new ones I’m excited to try this school year. I hope you’ll discover one or two ideas that make your first days back more engaging for both you and your students!
This is an activity I have done for years, and I still enjoy it. It is a poem that students write about themselves, secretly putting in information that tells us a bit more about them. Along with this poem, I have students bring in a portrait of themselves so we can connect a face to the name and information. I do this at the start of the school year because they make lovely work that can go on your walls for back-to-school night.
Upper-level students can sign this information, and it would work well as an activity in your poetry unit too.
This one does need a small purchase made by you since M&M’s need to be supplied to students, but you will be the favorite first-day teacher. Providing candy or food always makes students happy. Each color M & M is connected to a different conversation question. Whatever questions you want students to share about themselves is up to you. Keep them simple and not too intense. Remember, it is the first day of school. Students get nervous. We don’t want them to clam up; we just want them to talk to each other.
Place a small amount of M&Ms in baggies, or you can choose to directly place the candy into each student’s hand. Before they can eat them, they must say something about themselves according to the list and color of M&M. Skittles can work for this activity too!
I like this getting-to-know-you activity because it speaks to the artistic students, but it also allows us to learn a lot about students and who they are outside of our classroom. However, students who are not artistic can do this activity too by cutting out images, using words or symbols, or attempting to draw using stick figures. This activity also makes great wall decorations showing off student work for back-to-school night.
Have students trace their hand or use a template of a premade hand for more uniformity on your walls. Then have them decorate the hand with things that interest them. You can also have them draw a self-portrait using a blank head template. Students can fill the headspace with information about themselves.
This one has zero prep time except for a quick trip to the dollar store. Bring in rolls of TP and have students pull some off as they enter the room. Once all the students have the toilet paper, explain that they will need to share something about themselves for each square they took. This one gets a lot of giggles and moans depending on how much TP they took. I think we are all safe to use TP now that the pandemic has come full circle.
Let’s face it, there is no duller activity during the first week of school than discussing the syllabus. Make it a bit more fun by creating a worksheet with questions highlighting the most important bits of information in your syllabus. Allow students to work together in partners or small groups to get them used to working with each other. Students can answer the questions, then you can conduct a group discussion to clarify, explain, and answer any questions students might have.
This is just a classic. Create your bingo board and fill the squares with questions you want students to know about each other. These can be “Find someone who has the same number of siblings as you,” but I like to learn a little more about my students by asking questions that relate to ASL. Try using questions like “Find someone who knows the manual alphabet” or “Find someone who has a deaf family member.”
Build a cooperative classroom environment by allowing students to have a voice. Ask students questions about how they see their role in the classroom and what expectations they have about you. You can include other things like what rules the class should have and what goals students have set for themselves for this class. This activity is best done with a worksheet since students are more likely to write down this information than to share it with the entire class. You can even grab these FREE QR Code Classroom Rule Posters to place your newly established classroom expectations on.
This activity is great for both ASL newbies and long-time students. Have students work in teams to learn information about the Deaf community from A to Z. This is good for new students to get a feel for what to expect from the class and a great review for upper-level students.
Give students a device or allow them to use their own phones. Working in small groups, students can research cultural information about Deaf people. Afterward, allow students to share out their answers.
Getting-to-Know-You Bingo is a back-to-school classic for a reason! It’s an easy, low-prep way to get students moving, talking, and learning about their classmates while building a positive classroom community from day one. To save you even more time, I’ve created these bingo boards for you—and they’re FREE in my store. Simply print the boards, hand them out, and you’ll have a ready-to-go activity for the first week of school that students always enjoy.
Who knew that Scrabble was a first-week activity game! Place a bunch of Scrabble tiles in a central location and give a topic like food (easy) or names of famous deaf people (difficult). Allow student teams to create words. If students have an original answer, they get a point. If they have the same answer as someone else, no point is awarded. This is a great cooperative learning activity for the first week of school.
You can find most of these activities and corresponding worksheets already made for you at my TpT store.
Of course, there are many more activities out there for you to use. Try to incorporate one new activity for the first week of school while you are building your routines. You can also use these during a term to reset the class and get them focused again. Here are a couple more ideas you can try.
You can also choose to use these activities in a more station rotation-type setting so students are not trapped in one desk during the first week of school.
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