These are things we do in our classroom, during the first week of school. It is not comprehensive, but everything is free and helps build community.
Activity | Description | link |
Find Someone Who | Students move around the room, asking their peers questions, and finding matches to the grid on their paper. | 16 sq. here |
Find Someone Who | Students move around the room, asking their peers questions, and finding matches to the grid on their paper. | 25 sq. here |
Interest Inventories | Learn more about your students, as you begin the school year, with Interest Inventories. Three versions are available, primary, Grades 3-5 and MS. | Primary 3rd-5th MS |
Would You Rather | 80 “Would You Rather” questions to help build classroom culture. | here |
4 Corners | Use the statement prompts as a way of getting to know your students and/or introducing and reinforcing the 4 Corners Strategy. | here |
4 Corners Posters | Mount these posters to help with the activity, 4 Corners. Colors include: Capri Pink, Ibiza Blue, Laurel Leaf, Very Peri (Purplish) | |
Walk, Talk, Swap | 40 Question to help students learn more about each other, build relationships, and elevate community outcomes. | here |
Art Lesson | I use this lesson on the first day of school to explain perspective, talk about a growth mindset, and give all students a chance to work in the arts. Moreover, students return to this technique throughout the school year. | Updated here |
Saving Sam | Team building activity and introduction to cooperative learning | here |
Parent Communication | This is the Welcome Packet Aaron shared with his families. | here |
Math | Janda Lannigan created this assessment to gauge student understand in math. The assessment includes the student version, interpretation guide, and scoring sheet. Thanks Janda! | |
Riddle | The Fox, Chicken and Grain activity is as old an activity as they get. The YouTube video (here) walks students through the question and I have created a pdf with pictorial representations. | here |
Riddle | The 9 Dots riddle (here), in which students connect 9 dots using four line segments | here |
Assessement | Use this Form to help assess using the QSI. Very clever Marilyn! | here |
Management | Get to know you wheel. Spin wheel to have kids answer questions to learn more about each other. | here |