Teacher Classroom Ideas: Be Cool Going Back to School
School is almost back in session and we have some great teacher classroom ideas! Now that summer is wrapping up, kids and teachers everywhere are getting ready for a new school year while reflecting on how short the summer vacation was.
Teachers, it can take a lot of effort to dust off the learning cobwebs and get kids ready for the classroom. Luckily, there are plenty of things to get started that the kids will enjoy. We’ve got a list of a few different items and activities you can explore to make your classroom’s transition back to school as cool as possible.
1. Summer Vacation Adventure Book
This activity is a great way to recap each student’s summer and can be utilized for children who are beginning to write as well as advanced writers who just need some practice getting back into school mode.
Pick a challenge level and length and have your students write a mini book about what they did during summer vacation. It could be a vacation they took, how they spent most of their days or anything that will help others understand the student. If someone says they didn’t do anything during the summer break, have them make up what the perfect summer would look like.
After everyone is done writing, students will be able to share their stories and learn more about their new classmates.
2. Make a Picture Keepsake
On the first day of school, take a picture of each student and print it out to use the next day. On the second day of school, hand out the pictures and have each student recap their first day on the back. Have your students think about what went right, what went wrong, what the best part of the day was, or other reflective prompts that will get them thinking. If you don’t have a camera or the ability to print each picture, have your students draw a self-portrait.
When everyone is done, you can collect the pictures and memories and store them away until the end of the year. By that time, all your students will have totally forgotten about the project and pictures. On the last day of school, you will be able to hand out all the pictures back to your students. From there you will all be able to look back at how much you have all learned and changed since the first day of school. If you went the drawing a self-portrait route, you can have your students draw themselves again to see how their skills have improved or how their artistic styles have changed.
3. Figure Me Out Activity
This is a pretty straightforward math activity that can double as an icebreaker. The higher grade your students are in, the more difficult you can require the math problems to be.
You will hand students a sheet with a variety of questions and your students have to answer those questions but in the form of a math equation.
For example, the question could be “How old are you?”. You could require fifth graders to use at least 3 different forms of subtraction, multiplication, division, or addition for answering the questions and the answer would look something like “12-4+7-5” to show they are ten years old.
4. Ice Breaker Kahoot
If you don’t know what Kahoot is yet, chances are your students will. Kahoot is an easy and free-to-use program that can be used to create quizzes or assessments. Students can play against each other as they try to answer questions both correctly and the quickest.
To get them ready for more educational Kahoot games in the future, you can introduce the program as an icebreaker.
Have all your students write down something about themselves in a quiz-like format. For example, one student could write “My (John) favorite ice cream flavor is A) Vanilla, B), Chocolate, or C), Strawberry. Once you have all your student’s responses, create a Kahoot game and they will be able to learn a bit more about each one of their classmates and have fun playing a game and competing while doing so.
5. Yearbook KardLets from Memory Road
Yearbook KardLets are perfect for students in the classroom and can be used in a variety of ways. Each paper booklet comes with a variety of historic ads, facts and fun trivia about that specific year, going all the way back to 1930. Encourage your students to pick a KardLet to read in their free time or use it yourself for a history lesson.
You could have them write about the facts that interested them most, what their life would be like if they were their current age in that year, calculate how much more money things cost today, or other prompts that will get them thinking about history and the year they are reading about.
Each Yearbook KardLet is uniquely different so you can go in-depth about each year. Just because the years are close together, like if you were to get the 1988 and 1989 KardLet, doesn’t mean the content will be the same. The colorful pictures, infographics, and crazy facts make the learning fun. Kids won’t even realize that they are reading a mini history book.
