Heading back to school? Looking for some engaging activities for the first few weeks? Check out these fun ideas and activities that can help your get to know your students!
Back to School Bingo
This is a great way to get to know each other! Create your own bingo cards using the names of students and teachers in your school! Or use pictures of school supplies or animals or whatever your students are interested in!
If you are looking to assess basic skills you could play Color or Shape Bingo games! Since the objective of this game is to identify whatever the caller calls out, it can be used in many ways across many subjects!
All About Me Booklet
Students love telling you all about their lives! What better way to do this than to have them create an All About Me Book!
They can share it with the class or display it on their desks for Open House!
Create Classroom Rules Together
While this may not sound like fun, it all depends on how you do it. Group students together and have them come up with a rule to share with the rest of the class. Then they could design a poster about their rule together and have it displayed in the classroom.
You could also play a "Which one doesn't belong?" kind of game. List 3 rules - 2 serious ones and one that is silly and clearly not a rule. For example: Which two do you think are the real rules? a) No running in the halls b) Always walk in a line c) Crab walk through the halls. Students will likely have a good laugh at the silly option. Cross it out and keep the other rules and talk about why they are important.
Design Name Plates
Students can make name plates for their desks. Give them markers, crayons, and colored pencils and let them go! See what lovely creations they make!
All About Me Riddles
Students can share more about their favorite things by creating riddles like these ones:
They can present their riddles to the class and have their classmates guess the answers!
Drama Games
Get your students to bond over group games and activities. One idea is to have your students make up skits in small groups. They could be skits with a purpose like teaching social skills or proper school behaviors, or they could just be silly skits that make them laugh!
Beginning of the Year Letter Writing
Students can write letters to themselves at the beginning of the school year that they will open on the last day of school.
They can include the things they like, things they are looking forward to, their best subjects and friends, and then see how they've changed or grown at the end of the year!
It may also be a good idea to have some Morning Work Packets on hand (depending on your grade level). It gives students something to do when they first come into the classroom each morning.
If you are teaching younger students, you might want to do a "soft start".
This involves having simple activities that students can do before they start any academic tasks. This could be coloring sheets, play dough, puzzles, books, drawing, or games.
Here are a few of my Back to School resources for students in Grades 1, 2, and 3.
Looking for some fun games for the first few weeks of school? Check out my Drama Activities blog post!