Some people have an issue with talking about first day of school activities in July. I am not those people. The first day of school is my favourite day of the year. Although, I feel like I may have more trouble with it this year. My middle daughter starts Junior Kindergarten and I won’t be there to see it. Sob! Instead of dwelling on it I will turn my attention to some great first day of school activities that you can use when planning out your first day activities.
1. Using Icebreakers as First Day of School Activities
Once all the administrative stuff has been taken care of I like to start off with an icebreaker game that gets my students interacting in a non-threatening way. First day of school activities can sometimes be cheesy. You can find this game and a few others that will be sure to engage those middle schoolers at Cult of Pedagogy. Here’s how to play:
First, explain to your students that the purpose of this game is to find out what they have in common with each other. Instruct them to listen to your prompts and line up or “blob” themselves together in a group according to the instructions.
- Line up in order of tallest to shortest
- Make a blob of people who have the same hair colour as you
- Line up in alphabetical order according to last names
- Make a blob of people who have the same eye colour as you
- Make a blob of people who have the same number of siblings as you
- Line up in order of birthdays, starting with January 1
- Make a blob of people who are wearing the same style of shoes (running shoes, sandals…)
- Line up in order of who has the most vowels in his/her first name
- Make a blob of people who have the same number of syllables in their last name
One thing I would suggest, is to play this game with your students. When we played this together I was able to see what I had in common with my students and what made us different. The biggest difference – I was the only person in the class who didn’t have brown eyes.
2. Classroom Expectations Chalkboard Splash
Another one of my favourite first day of school activities is to go over classroom expectations. Top-down expectations aren’t very effective. So, how do we involve our students? By the time they reach sixth grade they know what is expected of them. I came across this post from Mrs. Skowronski’s blog and adapted it for my class.
First, I set up the 5 pieces of chart paper using these prompts and hung them up in different spots around the room.
- What will you need to do in order to be successful this year?
- What will Mrs. V need to do to help you be successful this year?
- What do you expect to learn in Grade 6 this year?
- What should we be doing to make sure our class runs smoothly?
- School is important because…
Next, I discussed that we are a community of learners. We will need to work together and be on the same page in order to have a great year. Then, students generated their responses on sticky notes and stuck them onto the appropriate chart papers.
To debrief, I had students walk around the room and read their classmates’ responses. Using the “Chalkboard Splash Debriefing Form” they jotted down any similarities, differences and surprises. Students returned to their table groups and shared what they noticed. We then returned to the carpet and shared with the whole class.
3. First Day of School Activities + Emojis = Love
I am spoiled in that I have an amazing Learning Coach who lives down the street from me. She’s an incredible educator and one of my favourite people. In addition, she’s the person I go to for ideas and this is one of the first day of school activities she suggested. What I love about this activity is that it gets students writing and expressing their feelings on the first day of school.
First, print off a bunch of different emojis and post them around the room. Underneath each emoji place a basket with extra copies for your students to take to their seats.
Then, instruct your students to walk around the classroom and pick an emoji that represents how they are feeling about the first day of school. The students will take the emoji back to their seats and complete a Quick Write about how they feel about their first day of school.
After, students will meet under the emoji they selected and share their Quick Write with classmates who also chose the same emoji.
4. First Day of School Activities that Make a Difference
By now you may know that I love using quotes to inspire my students. Check out this post about Keep the Quote if you want more ideas. I am that teacher that assigns homework on the first day of school. Not a lot, mind you, but enough to set expectations that they will have work to do this year. I am always looking for first day of school activities that incorporate my students – their voice and faces. We Make A Difference photos do both and my students see themselves reflected in our classroom. Head back over to my old blog for a super detailed post about how to set up this project with your students.
5. Incorporating Art with a Map of My Heart
For me, first day of school activities need to incorporate some sort of art. Additionally, we need to get some stuff up on our walls! This project was inspired by Sara Fanelli’s “My Map Book.” Amazon has it available for $287 but you can do this project without it.
First things first, you need a sample which means you need to create your own heart map. I encourage my students to jot down a list of things that are important to them. For example, family, TV, church, Fortnite, their pets, etc. Then, I have them rank them in order of most important to least. I like to promote higher order thinking by having students defend their first and last choices.
You can use any materials for this project. I used 11″ x 17″ construction paper and pastels. Students will then draw a giant heart and section it off in some way, making sure the number of sections matches the number of items on their list. Important sections get a bigger piece of the heart while less important ones get smaller pieces. Have students use a black Sharpie to label the sections. After that, they can colour and illustrate their hearts.
Celebrating similarities and differences is one of my main focus when planning my first day of school activities. I want my students to know that I see them in all their uniqueness. But at the same time, I want them to know that they all have at least one thing in common – they are members of our learning community. Looking to get your hands on some of these activities? Check out my package of First Day of School Activities. I’d love to hear what you think!
