42. Back to School Series: What to Do on the First Days of School

Ellie 0:00

Today we're taking a closer look at a very special moment that comes around every year, just once a year, the first few days of middle school. Remember your first day of middle school, the mix of nerves and excitement. The new faces may be a new building. It's a pivotal time for students and teachers alike. Welcome to the teaching toolbox. I'm Ellie, and I'm here with my friend Brittany.

Brittany 0:24

Hello.

Ellie 0:25

And today we're talking about those first few days of school and what teachers can do to make these first few days not only smooth, but memorable. Let's jump into 12 ideas that can transform those initial school days into an exciting gateway for the rest of the year.

Brittany 0:43

So first off, we have icebreaker activities who doesn't remember starting the year off or any meeting off with a fun game or two. Icebreakers are a fantastic way to lower everyone's anxiety.

Ellie 0:58

So one activity I always did, as soon as possible was a name game because I had to know students names. I mean, I guess it's kind of an icebreaker, it might not be your, your typical icebreaker. But it did help students learn a few names of students that they didn't know. Our students came from several different elementary schools. And so they might only know a few students in their home rooms. But by the end of that game, they knew at least a few more, and I knew all the students names, which made me feel more comfortable with calling on them quickly and and talking to them by name instead of having to hunt for their name tag.

Brittany 1:38

Yeah, I think that's definitely a good icebreaker to use.

Ellie 1:41

So another fun icebreaker is a two truths and a lie. I've used this one myself. And not only does it bring out some hilarious truths, but the guesses can be funnier, too. It's a great way for everyone to loosen up and start to get to know each other. I have a friend who always used to use I think it was I was born in Africa. I'm pretty sure that was it as one of her three facts. And everyone always chose that one as the lie because it seemed like really, obviously, of course, you weren't born there. But it was her truth. I think her father was in the military at the time, and that's where he was stationed when she was born. So that always made it really interesting.

Brittany 2:19

Oh, let's play this, Ellie. Okay.

Ellie 2:21

All right.

Brittany 2:22

Ellie 2:40

I'm trying to think about stories that you may have told me. I'm gonna guess that it's, you've been to 30 of the 50 states.

Brittany 2:51

You're correct. Darn it. I've been to 36

Ellie 2:55

36 Wow, that's a lot. I'm not sure how many events you I do remember you telling me the soccer camp story, the US Women's Soccer story. But that is an amazing one. If you hadn't told me the story, I would have chosen that. And you're but you're also the oldest, the youngest and only child and 1 of 6. Yeah. How is that possible?

Brittany 3:18

I have a stepbrother and stepsister so they kind of don't count. And then I have two half brothers and a half sister. And they're all older than me. So I'm the youngest of six technically, okay, but they're all steps and halves. And so I'm an only child of my parents. And so I'm the oldest child of my parents.

Ellie 3:53

Gotcha.

Brittany 3:53

Yeah, we have a very mixed family.

Ellie 3:57

That's exciting. I have a boring family. All right. Mine are I've lived in three different states. I taught in the same school district where I went to elementary school, and I'm one of five children and am the only girl.

Brittany 4:13

Oh my gosh. I think two of these. Let's see.

Ellie 4:21

I don't think so. Sometimes I'm like, Wait, did I do that?

Brittany 4:25

Oh, I've never heard about you living in different states. But that could be true. And maybe you just haven't told me and I know you have brothers. So you could be the only girl but I don't know that you have that many brothers. I'm gonna say your one of five and you're the only girl.

Ellie 4:47

That one is true. I have four brothers.

Brittany 4:50

Oh, wow. Okay,

Ellie 4:52

the one that is not true as the living in different states. I've always lived in the same state and almost the same town. So I did teach in the same district where I went to not just elementary school, but Junior High in high school as well.

Brittany 5:10

So you always can learn something about each other,

Ellie 5:13

right? And that's a great way for kids to learn something about each other and maybe things that they have in common things that are a little bit different.

Brittany 5:19

Second thing you can do with your students is team building games. They seem a lot like icebreakers, but yet they're different. They're another popular activity to engage in to help build camaraderie and group skills. There are common ones like the human knot challenging Capture the Flag, but there are also less common ones such as Hot Lava Lake, Sharkbait Escape, and Conehead Community. Those last two are my favorites.

Ellie 5:48

I've never heard of some of these. What is Shark Bait Escape?

Brittany 5:53

That game is played by putting kids into partners and then blindfolding one of them. You tell the blindfolded one, their goal is to get the other team out. You tell the sighted player that their goal is to protect their partner, and that is the key. Then you explain that the blindfolded player will throw pool noodle chunks at the other teams. And if a pool noodle chunk hits either member, that team is out and must move to the side and sit down. Last team standing is the winner. But afterwards, when the game is done, you then have a discussion about how many sighted players fed their blindfolded player pool noodles. How many just handed their blindfolded player pool noodles because they didn't know where the pool noodles were?

Ellie 6:46

Uh huh.

Brittany 6:47

Versus how many moved their blindfolded player to a corner of the room and stood over them and protected them. Oh, the kids will realize they didn't meet the goal of the game. They heard what they wanted to hear and did what they wanted to do. And so it kind of teaches the kids you have to listen better, you have to listen to the real objectives. That it's not always about winning. It's about doing what's right.

Ellie 7:17

Interesting. Sounds like a fun game.

Brittany 7:21

This is actually included in my free opt in of 10 team building games. And we'll link that in the show notes. But it has calm and quiet games, all the way up to very engaging very rambunctious games like this one.

Ellie 7:35

Oh, that's awesome. That's fantastic. Everybody should go grab that one. Okay, something else we can do in the first days of school is create a classroom time capsule. This is a favorite on the first or second day of school have each student bring in a small item that represents something important about themselves. All of these items get sealed in a box to be opened at the end of the year. It is truly wonderful and exciting to see how much everyone grows and changes from day one to day 180.

Brittany 8:12

That's awesome. We've done a school time capsule before, but never classroom one. That's a neat, neat activity. Yeah, a fourth activity you can do as a goal setting workshop. You can have your students at the beginning of the school year set goals both personally and as a class. This can really set the tone for the academic year students can make both personal and academic goals is a powerful way to teach students about planning and accountability.

Ellie 8:42

Mm hmm. I love goals. And goals can be for grades, homework completion, absentee days, days without a late paper, days without a tardy and more. Depending on your subjects. Students could set a goal to read X amount of pages or books, they could set a goal to not get sick during a science lab, or to earn their way to a field trip, that kind of thing. I also think it's really important to talk to students about systems. A while back, I read the book atomic habits, maybe you've read it. And one of the points in that book is that it's our systems that help us reach our goals. We can have goals, but if we don't have any way to get there, we don't have any systems, it's not going to be likely that we will reach the goals. Our classrooms often have many systems that help students like how we post our homework assignments, how we guide them to write their assignments down, how we help them prepare for classes, and how to help them remember, you know what to take to class, what materials to take home to help with their homework, but we might need to give them some guidance on their own systems when they aren't in the classroom, like systems for studying systems for making sure they don't have those late papers systems to make or that they aren't late, so that they can meet those goals. I do have a blog post about systems for students, if you want more information about that, that has a free handy calendar for students that you can download, and we'll link that in the show notes as well. And we do have an episode on systems coming up in the near future where we'll get more into this topic.

That's awesome. Yeah, I think a lot of teachers, not a lot. But there are some teachers out there who just tell kids that they have homework or don't write it down on the board, or whatever, and you're doing a disservice to kids. With that, yeah, agreed. A fifth thing you can do is a school scavenger hunt. If your students need to learn their way around the school, you could take them on a tour, and just go in a line and look at look at different rooms and stuff. But why not do something more fun and exciting, but also completely practical. A school scavenger hunt helps students learn the way around the building. And it's a perfect excuse to explore those out of the way corners of the school grounds. You can split kids into pairs or small groups, give each group a pencil and a list of items and have them locate the items. And in the process, find the various rooms they'll use throughout the year, instead of find the music room or find the cafeteria, I like to run mine with clues more like find the giant poster of Mozart at the piano, then I have a line which asked the students to tell me in which room they were when they found that item.

Oh, I love that that's fantastic. Our students used to get the chance to kind of, you know, make their way around the building at an orientation session in the summertime. But then by the time they came back to school, they might have forgotten where some of those places were. So that's a fantastic idea. Love it, you can do some about me presentations, encouraging students to make a short presentation about themselves can be very enriching. It gives students a moment in the spotlight and helps everyone feel valued from the get go. Even if they're a little bit hesitant, you know, they're a little bit shy, maybe letting them do that in a small group is helpful. So they don't feel anxious about it. I did some presentations with students making drawings of themselves on really large paper, they would add notes about themselves all around the drawing. So they'd actually have something to prompt themselves when they were doing their little presentation. So maybe they would write down what they would see. Or they would draw a picture of what they would see like the number of people in their family, what they would hear like the kind of music that they like, they might draw a picture of what they would taste. So if they really liked to eat pizza, they could draw pizza, things that they do with their hands, like play the piano, or things that they do with their legs, like play soccer. So in all of those different parts of the drawing, they can add things about themselves. So it would take a few days for students to actually get finished with this. And then they would share them with small groups or if they really wanted to share with the whole class they could do that. When we start switching for math class, I would take time for getting to know you with those students as well. I have fun, meet the mathematician, wheel that students complete and design. The sections of that we'll include things like who are you, hobbies, favorite math topic, we have to throw favorite math topic in their birthplace, math skill to improve. So not just thinking about what they really liked, but where they might feel like they need to improve. And then around the wheel, there are more questions about students that they're supposed to answer using math expressions. And then they can share those in small groups to get to know each other a little bit as they start out their math here together.

Those sounds great. Another thing you can do is interactive classroom rules, instead of dictating the class rules, allow the kids to create them collaboratively. This approaches and fosters a sense of community and makes the students more likely to respect and adhere to the rules. Because they've helped create them. They've bought into them. Ellie, have you ever tried this approach?

I have. Yeah. And the funny thing is that students typically end up coming up with the same basic rules that I would include, but they think you know, they've they've come up with it. So they do you value it a little bit more.

I usually pick two or three core rules that are non negotiable, like you respect yourself, others, materials, ideas. That's usually one I have up on my wall at all times. But then I put the kids into groups of four to six and ask them three questions about how they want the classroom to run, sound and react to issues. And then students have colored strips of paper. And after they discuss their answer and all agree on a final output, they put it on the paper and then add it to the board underneath the question. And when all groups have contributed, we review and discuss each of the submissions.

Awesome, that sounds very interactive. Another thing we can do is a reading circle. Now not all of your students will come in roaring and ready to go. So starting a class with a book discussion might sound traditional, but it's a calming way to start a school year. Choosing a compelling story that's relevant to the student's age, and the transition they're going through can spark a love for reading and set a reflective tone for the year.

Having some reading time each day is is a lovely way to get through the day as well. It just helps those kids who are overstimulated by everything going on to just calm down and relax a little bit. Another thing that you can do that is relaxing is an art project. This is another calming, wonderful, expressive outlet that, especially for students who might be feeling a bit overwhelmed by the new environment. It's also a perfect way for teachers to observe their students creative sides, you can have students create a picture of themselves, or give them a template to emulate, let them just drawn color or try mixed media arts create a torn paper collage or a blackout poem, The options are endless.

Yeah, and it is relaxing for most kids. You can start with a problem solving activity. Something you can do right away on the first days of school is a problem solving activity. It allows you to see the kids at work processing through a problem coming up with creative ideas, working together, maybe presenting their final approach. I have used pentominoes for years, just for this purpose. And it's so neat to see the kids working together to try to get all of the 12 pentominoes to fit into a given area. I don't give them a lot of direction, just that they need to fit the pentominoes in this space with no gaps and no overlaps. students work in small groups of three or four. And as the class period goes on, I might give a hint or two to the whole group about where they can start with maybe where to place a couple of the pentominoes. I don't like to give too much help, because I want to see how persistent they are with a frustrating but fun task. I love love this activity so much. I can't say enough about it. I do have a blog post about it. So you can check the show notes for the link to that it has been in valuable for the first days of math class for me for several years.

I like doing this activity as well. It's mind blowing for some of the groups when you tell them, you can flip the pentominoes.

Yeah. That is true.

Another thing you can do on the first day of school is provide a question box, provide a box where students can anonymously drop questions or concerns they have about the upcoming year just make a shoe box with a slit in the lid. That's all you really need. And put that somewhere in the classroom. Then you can address any like slips of paper that get put in there. And those can alleviate a lot of anxiety, clear up any misconceptions. You know, get rid of those false rumors floating around in the school hallways. Make sure you point out your question box to your student when completing a tour of your room.

Yeah, I've had done that a few different years. And it's interesting to see what kind of questions show up in there. Some of them are something you never think about. But then others are things that just bear repeating. Because even though you've shared certain, some information with them, or they knew it supposedly knew coming in, they needed a repeated answer. They needed to hear it again because it didn't stick with them. Yeah, you can do a welcome letter. Have you ever thought about writing a personalized welcome letter to each student? It might be time consuming. But imagine the impact of starting a school year knowing as a student that you are recognized and valued as an individual.

That is an incredibly powerful idea. Things are so hectic at the start of the year. But if you can pull that off and make each letter unique and special that would truly make a lasting impact.

Absolutely. Well each of these ideas aims to make the first days of school less daunting and more inviting. Think back to your own middle school days, what would have made a difference for you? How can we as educators turn anxiety into anticipation? Let's keep these questions in mind as we prepare to welcome our students back to school and add some new tools to our teaching toolbox. if you enjoyed this episode please share it on social media and remember to tag us teaching Toolbox Podcast until next time keep inspiring and stay curious

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