1st day of school activities
1-2-3 Come Do An Icebreaker Craft With Me
What’s On Your Mind? Is an easy and interesting way to get to know your students. Use it as a fun icebreaker for the first day or first week of school.
No matter what the age group, I've always found that everyone seems to like sharing a little bit about themselves. This is a creative and entertaining way to do that.
If you have the time, do these in class, or send them home to be done as a home-school connection.
Older students can draw their own self-portrait (head) outline, or use one of mine. I've included two boy options, as well as two for girls to choose from.
I find young children do much better if they have some sort of pattern, as they tend to draw rather small circles that items would not be able to fit into.
If you’d like to have a ready-to share activity for the first day of school, include the directions and a template in your “Welcome to school” summer letter or tuck it in the packets you give out during Open House or Meet & Greet the Teacher Night.
Explain to students to fill their "head" with "stuff" that's always on their mind.
- Filling it with favorite things, hobbies, interests, people; things that they're always thinking about.
- You can fill it with dreams and hopes for the future too.
- These will mostly be positive things, but if something is always on your mind that’s bugging you or that you’re worried about, feel free to include those too.
- You can show these things by drawing them, clipping out & gluing symbols/logos or pictures from magazines, using stickers, clip art, and photographs.
- Writing down thoughts, words, a quote or an idea is also OK.
Completed projects make an awesome back to school bulletin board too. In my directions, I let students know that they will be sharing their minds with their classmates, as an interesting way to get to know each other.
Be sure and make one for yourself to use to introduce the activity and explain what you want students to do. No matter what grade I taught, my students always liked learning a little something about their teacher.
I really enjoyed making my sample; it only took about 15-minutes. I used clip art , a photo of my husband and poodle pup Chloe, and added in a few words, plus my favorite quote.
Making a list of things they want to include in their mind, then looking for pictures to represent those things, provides an excellent pre-writing activity, and helps students organize their thoughts.
This fun getting to know you craftivity, is a special FREEBIE in my TpT shop. Click on the link to pop on over and grab your copy today, and let the thinking begin!
Thanks for stopping by. Time to take a break and unclutter this mind, which is a bit overwhelmed with all the back to school things I want to get done.
Wishing you a stress-free day and a mind filled with peace.
"A negative mind, will never give you a positive life." -Unknown
School just ended and June is quickly flying by. Already teachers are downloading some of my back to school packets, so I decided to start designing some new items.
There were quite a few moments when I needed one-on-one time with my Y5’s, on those busy first days, so I was always on the look out for something they could do independently, so I could assign bus numbers, take a first day photo, check how students were holding a writing utensil etc.
I designed the easy reader My First Day Of ___________________. with that in mind. Students trace and write a few main words and then cut and glue the pictures to their matching numbered boxes.
If you read your completed model to the students a head of time, as an explanation, they should be good to go.
Some children will need one-on-one help writing what their favorite thing of the day was for the last page.
To help expedite this, brainstorm with your students about all of the things you accomplished and have them raise their hands and share what their favorite thing was.
Write their answers on the board, so they have something to copy. You could also jot preschoolers’ answers down on their papers, as they share them.
Students then draw a picture of that activity or thing.
This not only makes a nice keepsake, but also is a great assessment tool to show you student-ability levels in cutting, holding a writing utensil, tracing, writing, listening and following directions etc.
If you can print pictures from your digital camera at school, take their photo doing their favorite thing and include it, to make this even more of a keepsake.
When everyone has completed their booklet, read it together as a whole group, to review concepts of print, and so that students are able to share it with their families when they get home.
The kindergarten sample is pictured, but I've also included a page for preschool, Y5's, 1st grade + a blank page for you to program for whatever else you teach.
Click on the link to view/download My First Day of School booklet
Thanks for visiting. Feel free to PIN anything you think others might enjoy.
“Wisdom is knowing what to do next. Skill is knowing how to do it. Virtue is doing it.” –Thomas Jefferson
