There are so many good ideas for students to get to know each other on the first days of school, but if you're like me, by the third or fourth day, those activities have dropped off in favor of practicing routines and getting to the business of school.
I'm reading The Eduprotocol Field Guide right now (you can read my first post about it here.) One of the ideas they stress is that you can teach protocols, or routines, and give students voice, teaching them to work together in meaningful and intentional ways. And they can have fun doing it.
Great First Day Activity
In my previous post, I had a freebie Frayer model Get-to-Know-You activity. Here's one way you could use it on the first days of school:
- Give each student a card of some kind that has only one "mate" (from a deck of cards, a paint chip, or partner cards)
- Explain that they'll be using the Frayer model to interview a classmate (and that you'll use that model for other things during the year.)
- Set them out to find their mate and interview them. After 5-10 minutes, bring them back.
- Share out one of the quadrants, maybe the first one with four things the student likes; let all the students introduce their partner and say those things about them
- After that, have students find a partner whom they shared something in common with.
- As they partner up, listen in and identify the thing things in common with other groups. The idea is to see that students have more in common than not.
- Then, have them find someone who has a similar response to the mother bird. Again, have them link up with other pairs who have similar responses.
- Have them find the best response in their group and share out
At that point, that may be a good place to stop, so collect papers for another time. This activity has gotten students talking to, and learning about each other.
If you like these kinds of activities, I have 8 other ones in this Back to School product on TpT.
With a grateful heart,
No comments
Post a Comment