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getting to know

The article shares various engaging activities for teachers to use on the first day of school to help students get to know each other. Activities include sharing favorite animals, creating unique name murals, and playing a detective game with Clue Sheets. These activities aim to foster a fun and welcoming classroom environment while allowing teachers to learn about their students' personalities and abilities.

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Felipe Andres Diaz
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getting to know

The article shares various engaging activities for teachers to use on the first day of school to help students get to know each other. Activities include sharing favorite animals, creating unique name murals, and playing a detective game with Clue Sheets. These activities aim to foster a fun and welcoming classroom environment while allowing teachers to learn about their students' personalities and abilities.

Uploaded by

Felipe Andres Diaz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LESSON PLANNING ARTICLE

Getting to Know You: Activities for


the First Day of School
Every veteran teacher has his or her favorite first-day-of-
school activities. Here are a few of mine. Let me hear about
your favorites too!

Excited about the first day of school? Terrified?

If you're an experienced teacher, you probably have a few favorite activities that you use every
year to get acquainted with your new students. They work --- so you stick with them -- or
maybe this will be the year when you try something new.

I'll share a few of my favorite first-day-of-school activities if you'll share your favorites with me!

A FEW GETTING-TO-KNOW-YOU ACTIVITIES

My favorite first-day-of-school activities aren't particularly unique or creative. They are intended
only for fun and to be helpful to me as I get to know my new students. Let's jump right into our
first circle activity.

My name is _____, and if I were an animal I'd be a _____


because.... Share Your
I demonstrate for my students: "My name is Mr. H., and if I
were an animal, I'd be a turtle," I say, "because I'm always Favorite Icebreakers
rushing around. Sometimes I wish I could slow down."
Have you a favorite
icebreaker activity that
works well with your
students? Why not share
Then I give the students a little time to think about what animals that idea with others? We've
they might like to be -- and why. I encourage them to be set up a special Favorite
creative, to be different and unique. The first student to one Icebreaker Ideas message
side of me in the circle starts out. After the first student finishes, board. Log on and join in
I say, paraphrasing, "My name is Mr. H., and if I were an this conversation!
animal, I'd be a turtle because I'd like to be able to slow down.
This is Emily, and if she were an animal, she'd be a hyena Still looking for more ideas?
because she likes to laugh a lot." Then it's on to the next child. Don't forget our archive of
After each child speaks, I try to repeat all the other kids' name- more than 150 icebreaker
and-animal combinations in order. That's always good for a activities.
laugh or two -- shows the kids right from the start that the
teacher isn't perfect!

Next, I ask the kids to draw themselves as their animals, leaving space at the bottom of the
drawing for their first writing assignment. I ask them to write at the bottom of the page a
complete sentence following the form "If I were an animal, I would be a(n) ____ because..."
When we're all done with the activity, I know all the kids' names and a little something about
them.

As I call on students during the day, I always repeat their names -- and their animals! But I
learn a lot more about my new students from this little activity. I find out who is able to follow
simple directions. I learn about their writing abilities and their creativity. And I have a hint about
which students might be independent workers.

We are all unique!


Each day throughout the school year, I introduce a Word of the Day. The first day's word is
unique. I write the word on the board and ask students to read the word. (I don't recall any of
my third graders ever identifying the word without a few clues. My last clue, using proper
emphasis, is usually "This word is a unique word!")

Then I use the word in several statements, the last of which is "Each of us is unique." We talk
about ways in which we're each unique. I'm the only one more than 6 feet tall. Mia is the only
one who's wearing a pink shirt. Sam is the only one of us who has a pet ferret. (I learned this
from the previous activity.) And so it goes.

Next step: Out comes the roll of white mural paper. I tear off a sheet about 10 feet long.
Sometime during the day, each child goes out into the hallway and uses markers to draw his or
her name on the mural paper. "Make it unique!" is my only direction.

I start out by writing "Mr. H" in big bubble letters inside an explosion design such as you see
declaring NEW! or IMPROVED on product packaging in the grocery store. I draw colorful polka
dots inside the bubble letters. When completed, this colorful mural makes a great hallway
bulletin board under the cutout-letter headline We Are All Unique! I can also see from this
activity who some of the truly unique characters will be in my new class!

Let's play detective.


I hand out a Clue Sheet to each student. We go over the statements on the sheet, and then I
ask the students to find a quiet spot where they can fill in the blanks in statements such as

 "My favorite hobby is ________."


 "When I grow up, I want to have a job as a _________."
 "The most fun thing I did all summer was __________."

I preface this activity by telling the students that this will be one of the few times this year that I
don't want them to put their names on their papers. As the students finish filling out their Clue
Sheets, each picks up the sheet and a book and joins me on the rug for a class meeting. They
hand the sheets to me and read quietly while the rest of the class finishes the task. Then I
introduce the activity. I hand an anonymous Clue Sheet to each student. If a student ends up
with his or her own sheet, we make some switches.

"I want to see whether you're good detectives," I tell the students. Then I invite them to move
around, asking questions of their classmates, narrowing down the list of "suspects" until they
find the one person who matches all the clues they hold.

Note: If it's a nice day, you might move this activity outdoors. Set up boundaries -- the
basketball "court" -- if that isn't carrying the detective-suspect theme too far! -- for example, or
the base paths on the ball field. When all the students have located their "suspects," each
student takes a turn introducing the guilty party, telling others in the class a little about that boy
or girl.
Article by Gary Hopkins
Education World®
Copyright © 2005 Education World

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