Teachers: What are some fun activities that you do for the first few days of school.?

Question

I need fun activities to for my students to build community and get to know each other. Since I teach multi-age most of the kids know each other so I need some new ice breakers and other getting to know you activities. Nothing about really getting to know the school or classroom but more group things or even ART activities! I need ideas for 2nd and 3rd grade students only.

Answer 1

Cut out buisness card size pieces of cardstoc for every kid. Have them write their names on it in cool writng. Trace iver with glue and sprinkle with equall parts jello mix and glitter (you can miz it yourself and put in in bowels) It will end up scratch and sniff! Tape them on once dry!

Give each child a paper. On each table put TONS of RADOM supplies and magazine cut outs etc. Let them go crazy making a poster "All about Me" and hang them up around your room.

Sit in a cricle. The person who is "it" stand in the center and says "The wild wind blows to anybody....Wearing pink. (or wearing blue, or in tenishoes, or with red hair etc.) Then everybody who fits that catagory gets up and they all scramble including "it" to find a new spot, The one left in now it.

Make a list of 50 items of which you can have a favorite (cereal, dinner, color, book, ice cream, car) and have each kid pick a number from 1-50. Then they chare the answer to the coresponding item. It is fun! I swear!

Answer 2

The first thing that all teachers do is to play name games such as eg, hello my name is jackolantern and i like sauseges then the other person repeats the name and the hobbie and also says what he/she likes and there name always repeat what the person before them said and also say yours until it's the last person .

Answer 3

how about taking a huge sheet of paper [staple/glue smaller sheets together] or plain bedsheet, pinning it on the wall & letting the kids come over & spray paint, or make palm prints, or draw, or paste, or whatever - just let them loose. let them come up in small groups [depending on the size of the sheet], so that they get to know each other & have fun together. you can provide the colours, etc. or tell them in advance so that each can bring in stuff they want to.

teach them, or even better, ask them to teach you & the class, to do something creative in art/craft... it could be an origami model, a new game, even a new word, an anecdote/joke, .....anything. don't force every child to do it, let them feel comfortable & come out themselves.

hope you all have fun :-)

Answer 4

I have an "ice-breaker" ball that we throw around the room.  It has funny questions like "what kind of pajamas do you wear and stuff like that.  It let's the kiddos get a bit personal and laugh together.  It is a blow up ball like a beach ball.  You can get them on the web.  Just google "ice breaker clever catch ball"

You can get them at amazon for about $11.00

Answer 5

  I have a couple of fun art activities that we do in our school

Have the kids sit in their own seats and look out the window.  Give them a sqaure of paper that they will use to represent one section of the window (Ours are divided into four sections per window).  Ask them to use watercolor paints or pencils and to represent what they see.  This takes some time, helps them to focus, and gives us a starting point for some art discussions.  We then repeat this process, from the same viewpoint, in each season of the year.  The kids take home the four pieces of art at the end of the year.

One more: have them use pencils or sharpies to create name tags for their desks. I use a big name tag (4 in by 8 in).  The tag should include:

a skill, a hope, a goal, a hobby/interest, a dream.  I do one first to show what I mean: I include a skillet to show that I can cook, a book to show that I hope to read a lot of new books this year, some math to show that I hope to improve in this area, a music staff and notes to show an interest in music and a beach to show a dream.  We use them to introduce ourselves and each other, and we use them on Parent's night in the fall to help the parents find their child's desk.