Easing into a New School Year

Ah, the first days back at school—a whole year lies before you, full of anticipation and potential. While it may be tempting to jump into a week of thought-provoking lessons, young brains coming off a summer binge of sleepovers and late night video game marathons need time to ease into the new school year. As routines are established and names are learned, you can incorporate a couple of these ideas that will activate brain cells without overloading them.

Icebreakers

When your new class arrives on the first day, have kids sit down to a word scramble or word search made from classmates’ names. Encourage them to help one another, but require them to introduce themselves. For very young students, you may need to include the capitalized first letter of each name which will provide a hint of where to start. Older students, who have probably known each other for quite a few years, will have fun making a personal license plate that includes their name as the county, a state name, eight characters to describe themselves, and artwork. For example, mine was Mrs. Bailey, the state of creativity, FUN2LERN. Afterward, individuals can explain the plate to their new classmates.

Multi-Step Directions

Following directions is a skill that is needed every day. A fun way to practice this skill is to give each child a sheet of paper. Instruct them not to look at each other’s papers because there is no right or wrong answer for this activity. Instruct younger students to:

1. Draw four straight lines from one edge of your paper to the other.
2. Draw five circles anywhere on your paper.
3. Draw one curved line that starts at one edge of your paper and ends up somewhere in the middle of your paper.
4. Color in two of the circles, any color you like.
5. Fill in three areas of your paper however you like.

Older students can:

1. Draw four straight lines from one edge of your paper to the other.
2. Draw two more straight lines from one edge of your paper to the other and make the lines cross over the lines you have already drawn.
3. Draw five circles—any size—anywhere on your paper.
4. Draw two curved lines beginning at the edge of the paper and ending up somewhere in the middle of the paper.
5. Fill in three of the five circles.
6. Fill in four areas of your paper however you like.

The end products will amaze you in their likenesses, as well as differences. You now have something to hang in the halls, and it is only the first day—a major bonus! 

Numbers Are Everywhere

The Summer Numbers project can be assigned early in the week and finished projects can be presented as they are completed. The objective is for learners to see how numbers are part of daily life. The requirements can be varied depending on age, but I suggest a minimum of five numbers accompanied by pictures or drawings. For example:

• I swam 240 minutes each week
• My fastest time in a meet was 32 seconds
• I ate two scoops of ice cream every night
• I mowed the grass eight times
• I read 3,000 pages.

Participants will get to recap their summer adventures without the dreaded, “How I Spent My Summer,” essay and get to practice speaking in front of an audience about a topic they already know well.

The First Cross-Curricular Activity

For reading teachers, I love this activity that introduces students to their basal textbook. Give each child three Post-it® notes and tell them to look through their book and mark the three stories that look the most interesting. They can move their Post-it® notes as many times as they want. When time is up, approximately five to eight minutes, ask a volunteer to name one of the stories he marked. Write the title on the board and have the volunteer put his Post-it® note above it. Anyone else who selected the same story will add their Post-it® notes above the first one. Continue adding titles and Post-it® notes. At the end, the white board is a bar graph of the stories that the class is most looking forward to reading.

Your Teacher…Only Younger

Just as you want to know more about your new faces in your class, they want to know more about you. One way to satisfy their curiosity and work on writing skills is to display a photograph of yourself at approximately their age. Candid pictures work best, maybe one from a family vacation, a birthday party, or the first day of school. Ask them to study the picture and then write what they imagine was happening just before or after the picture was taken. For some reason, children really enjoy this activity. Of course, after the assignment is completed, you must tell them the real story.

For more first week back-to-school ideas, check out these resources on Lesson Planet:

How to Calm Back-to-School Nerves, The Paperless Classroom, Ground Rules for Discussion