Back to school activities. Fun activities for the beginning of the year

On the first day of class, I have three objectives:

1. To make my students feel accepted.
2. To make my students feel loved.
3. To have them enjoy themselves.

If I achieve this, they’ll want to come back to study the next day. On the first day, don’t worry about procedures, rules, or academics. You’ll have plenty of time for that. But you only have one chance to make the first impression that your students will have of you.

This manual includes:

• Ideas on how to turn the first day of class into a party for your students and thereby achieve these objectives.
• An editable Canva template for creating an invitation for your students.
• 2 activities to get to know the teacher.
• 10 activities for students to get to know each other, and for you to start getting to know them a bit.

Activities:

• Word search: find your classmates’ names.
• My object: select an object, take a photo, and describe why it’s important to you.
• My cubicle: decorate your cubicle with things that are meaningful to you.
• Compliments hallway: walk through your classmates’ cubicles and leave them a compliment, a quality, or something good you remember about them.
• Create a calligram.
• Star of truth: write an assertion about yourself in each corner of a star. Three must be true, and two false.
• Star of truth: write five assertions about yourself, but you can only use a number or a word. Your classmates will have to guess what you mean with that information by asking you questions.
• Unconventional puzzle.
• My 10.
• Friendship diagram.

The students’ activities are available in Google Slide format if you want to use them that way, and in PowerPoint format for printing. If you prefer printed activities, you can use the Google Slide presentation as a guiding presentation for your students.

Some activities may need to be modified or adapted by the teacher.