Too many classroom icebreakers require students to take big social risks with people they barely know. Or they don't really help students get to know each other. Or they are just plain cheesy.
A few years ago, I teamed up with my friend Noelle from Maneuvering the Middle to put together our favorite teaching strategies and class management ideas as
Find out why teachers should be using icebreaker activities for small groups all year long and not just at the beginning of the school year.
Learn about the importance of SEL and 11 essential ways that teachers can incorporate social-emotional learning activities into the classroom today.
Need more social emotional activities? As adults, we know that our intentions can sometimes have different impacts. Support life skills, social emotional learning, and belonging by teaching your students this vital skill with student-friendly language and teen-centered scenarios. Ideal for advisory and morning meetings! Topics include healthy relationships, academic integrity, the importance of gratitude, good sportsmanship, and inclusion. Support critical thinking, SEL, self and community awareness, community, conflict resolution, and team building. Good for homeschooling as well! Click preview to see more :) If you like this concept, but teach younger kids, consider the elementary or middle school versions. Also check out our coping skills lesson, character ed bundle, and social emotional check-in questions! Ready to use (plug & play friendly), but also fully editable in Google Drive. If you like this, please consider rating it :)
Too many classroom icebreakers require students to take big social risks with people they barely know. Or they don't really help students get to know each other. Or they are just plain cheesy.
It’s my first day of school! I love this time of year, all fresh starts and possiblities! Team builder games are one of my favorite things to do in the classroom during the first few weeks …
Find out why teachers should be using icebreaker activities for small groups all year long and not just at the beginning of the school year.
Did you know that STEM activities are a great way to build classroom community and teamwork at the beginning of the year? Unfortunately, STEM challenges can tend to be used as a classroom competition where students and groups are competing against each other. While classroom comp
Check out these top techniques for employing character building activities for students of all school ages!
Building relationships with your grade 4 5 6 students should be your number one priority for a productive and engaging back to school class.
100% Customizable M&M Icebreaker Template! Clean and simple template that can be customized to your own colors, candy, or questions. Change the elements to suit your needs. Great icebreaker for the classroom or business retreat! Hand out as many M&Ms as you would like or each person can have their own bag. Great activity for kids and adults alike. Save as .pdf to print as shown. Download the completed file as a .jpg file and paste into a word processing program to change the size as needed. This is an instantly downloadable Canva Template which is 100% customizable in the FREE version of Canva. This means that you will be able to easily personalize this template to suit your needs. YOUR PURCHASE INCLUDES: 1 PDF with Canva Link (to edit) 1 Printable PDF *PLEASE NOTE * → This product is for personal use, and NOT for commercial use. → This does not include a physical product. You will be able to customize, print, and cut your template. If you have any questions regarding this product, please feel free to reach out before you make your purchase. →Colors may vary slightly from what is shown due to the printing process and device settings. This is a digital product and nothing physical will be shipped to you. Due to the nature of this product, all sales are final and refunds or exchanges are not possible. DIRECTIONS TO ACCESS YOUR PURCHASE: → After your order is complete, you will see a link to download your files. This link can also be found at www.etsy.com/your/purchases → Download the PDF which includes link and instructions → Sign up for a FREE Canva account or log in to your account → Click the underlined LINK in the PDF document and click "Use Template" → Once in Canva, you will be able to edit the colors, fonts, images, and personalize
Pinterest Are you looking to add some excitement to the first day of school? Look no further than the Back to School Escape Room for 1st or 2nd grade! This fun and engaging activity will help your students break the ice, build teamwork, problem-solve, and promote critical thinking skills. The objective of the game is […]
Are you looking for a getting to know you activity for your high school students? If so, check this post out!
Paper Bag Dramatics: A fun activity for Team Building and Developing Community. Here's an idea that can be used just about anywhere at any time. It encourages groups to solve problems, think creatively, and work as a team.
Try these engaging activities to build classroom community during the first week of school, including STEM, books, icebreakers, and games that help with social skills and developing friendships.
Subject Science, Character Education, Engineering Grade Levels PreK, Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th Resource Type Activities, Fun Stuff, GATE File Type Compressed Zip File Be sure that you have an application to open this file type before downloading and/or purchasing. 14 MB|48 pages
Theme: School Life It is an engaging activity designed for elementary and middle school students, perfect for advisory time or classroom sessions. It provides students with an enjoyable way to explore and understand their own personalities. Alongside this pre-made personality test, there are templates available for students to create their own customized personality tests for fun. Group Discussions: After completing the test, students can discuss their results with their peers, fostering open conversations about personalities and differences. Customization: To encourage creativity and deeper engagement, students can also use the provided templates to create their own personality tests. This allows them to tailor questions to their interests, share them with classmates, and learn more about each other in a fun way. Overall it is an effective tool for building self-awareness, promoting discussions, and strengthening classroom communities. It's an excellent addition to advisory time or any session aimed at encouraging personal growth and positive interactions among students. Other products you might like: No Prep - Organizing a class debate planner rubric and speaking prompts Low prep 5 Paragraph Essay - Graphic Organizer Back to school editable self-checking activities template google slides Effective Feedback Set - Build Routines - Build a Positive Classroom Community Zelda No prep game Werewolf with a Twist - Classroom Community Team Building Customizable Parent Handbook Flipbook for Meet the Teacher Artificial Intelligence Skills in mind - AI Social Emotional Learning ATLs Beginning of the Year Canva My Vision Board - Middle School High School Have a great year! All the best! My store is new so your support / feedback means a lot. When you give feedback, you get free TPT credit. Enjoy!
Looking for meaningful and fun Fall counseling activities? Your students will love these fall themed activities in classroom guidance or small groups!
Hey everyone! It's Anna from Hanging with Mrs. Hulsey! The school year is officially in full swing-- and my students are definitely feeling more comfortable with me and each other! One thing I've decided we need to focus on more is our classroom community! Here are some quick ideas to help you promote a positive climate in your classroom! Use Team Builders Team building activities are easy to implement! They don't take a lot of time, students find them to be engaging, and they are often FREE! Here is a quick list of some of my favorite student team building activities: Human Knot (Students stand in circle, reach for hands of people across the way, and then they must untangle themselves without letting go. This can also be done as a spiderweb using a ball of yarn) Tallest Tower (Divide students into groups and give them supplies like straws, tape, blocks, etc. The team that can make the tallest tower wins!) Minefield (Set up a "minefield" that students must navigate a blindfolded partner through) Hula Hoop Pass (Can be played whole class or in teams. Students hold hands and must pass through a hula hoop as quickly as possible) Switch Sides If... (Use a chalk line, rope, or tape line. Have students stand on one side of the line. Read off items like "switch sides if you like to bake", etc.) The internet provides an infinite source of team building activities! I've included a few links below: http://www.ventureteambuilding.co.uk/team-building-activities/ http://www.momjunction.com/articles/team-building-activities-will-keep-kids-busy-summer_0074763/#gref http://mommieshobbies.blogspot.com/2014/01/switch-sides-if.html?m=1 Hold Morning Meetings Time is precious in my classroom because we departmentalize. It feels like we are always on the go. However, I feel that even something as small as a weekly morning meeting would help my students develop a more positive feeling toward one another. You can read more about morning meetings for older elementary students here! I also love this product from TPT! Write Daily White Board Messages I think this is a such a simple way to start the day off with a positive vibe! The night before (or morning of) write a simple prompt on the white board/chalkboard and have students respond on the board. This will foster another sense of ownership and community. You can find white board messages by searching google or Pinterest! Here are some quick ideas to get you started: 1 Thing Wednesday-- name one thing we've done this year that you'd like to do again! I Think I Can Thursday-- what is one goal you want to achieve this year? Flashback Friday-- what is one new thing you have learned this week? Write a compliment for a classmate by their name (no repeats!) Name 3 traits of a great friend What is your favorite book you've read this year? Thankful Thursday-- what is 1 thing you are thankful for? Make it Monday-- what is 1 thing you've always wanted to create?' Top 2 Tuesday-- write your top 2 favorite things about the school year so far Compliment Circles This activity would pair well with morning meetings! You and the students sit in a circle with everyone's legs out straight. Begin the compliment circle by giving a compliment to someone. Once someone has been complimented they cross their legs. Compliments continue until everyone has received 1. I think this is a great way to encourage students to see each other in different ways! Create a Kindness Board I created this one for the visual it would provide to my students. Plus, I wanted them to point out kindness when they see it in others! This one is easy to implement: 1. Print out the letters and hang on a wall or bulletin board. 2. Print the "caught being kind" strips on various colors of paper (I used Astrobright paper). 3. Cut the strips apart and keep on hand for when students catch others being kind. 4. When students experience a kindness or act of friendship, they come and ask you for a "caught being kind" strip. They write down their experience. 5. Start a paper chain and add a new link every time someone catches others being kind! You can find this HERE in my TPT store! Here is another type of board with a similar theme (kindness): You can find these fall themed board HERE in my store! I hope you found these ideas to be useful to implement in your classroom! If you have any questions-- feel free to leave them in the comment section!
As an administrator, you know that teaching and working in a school is more difficult now than ever. Staff morale plays a huge role in a healthy, thriving school. What's an administrator to do? Focus on those staff meetings! Engaging and lively staff meetings are one of the best ways to focus on boosting staff morale. If you're an administrator looking for ways to make your meetings more fun, I've got tons of great resources for you. Today we're talking all about how to help your teachers and staff actually look forward to faculty meetings, rather than dread them. Let's dive into some fresh ideas to boost staff morale and help your entire staff feel appreciated! Everyone from the office staff to classroom teachers, and counselors to custodial staff will all benefit from the activities and ideas. First Up, Get to Know Your Team Every school is different. As an administrator, creating a positive and engaged working environment is a big part of the job. It's important to tune into what makes our team unique, and how you can best support them. To do that, you must get to know them. What's your teacher demographic? Mostly newbies, veteran teachers, or a mix of both? What are their pain points in the classroom? This likely varies by grade. Don't assume - ask them. This will show that you are interested in helping. How are teachers and other staff members being treated by parents? Do they feel supported? Why or why not? What are their personality types? Do they know YOU? The key is to make sure you're well-educated on your faculty, gain their trust, and ensure they feel supported! Not sure how to do that? No problem, these 6 activities will help you learn more about your staff and help them feel supported all year long. 1. Staff Meeting Icebreakers The beginning of the year is hectic for everyone in the school system. This time of year marks when new teachers might be entering your school and this is an important time to make sure they feel welcomed and supported in their teaching journey. This can be a "make or break" moment. After all, if a new teacher or staff member doesn't feel welcomed into their new community it can be hard to persevere through the struggles of that first year! With all of this in mind, we also know that staff meetings are packed with TONS of things to cover. You're short on time, and while you want to ensure everyone is acquainted, you've also got a fair bit of ground to cover too! This is where simple Staff Meeting Icebreakers will save the day. These fun get-to-know-you sheets aim to have staff get another person's signature on each square. The squares list things like: Pinterest-worthy classroom taught 20+ years literacy guru long commute to work The idea behind these fun icebreaker sheets is that your staff will be presented with an opportunity to learn a bit more about their peers during meetings. They will discover commonalities, get to laugh and converse about some of the funny topics, and make newbies feel welcome! There are 4 different options, so you can use a variety of these sheets for a large group of staff, or repeat this activity once a quarter. This quick and easy icebreaker is always a hit, and easy to implement. Plus, it's a wonderful way for YOU to learn more about your staff too! 2. Staff Morale BINGO Next up, who doesn't love BINGO? This simple game is a fun option that can be used all year long to keep your staff meetings feeling a bit more lively. The object of these Staff Morale BINGO cards is to mark as many boxes off with an X (or a digital sticker on a PDF) during the meeting. Since these can be printed or sent out digitally via email, they're great for Zoom meetings too! The boxes are filled with fun topics like: I enjoyed my favorite beverage during the meeting. I received a compliment from our principal. I sat with my teaching BFF. I brought a shareable treat to the meeting. These simple boxes are easy to follow along with during the meeting and add a touch of fun to what might feel like an ordinary (and sometimes monotonous) monthly task. The boards also feature seasonal decor on the game boards as well because we all know how much teachers love a good theme, right? After the meeting, staff members can turn in their game boards and be rewarded with some kind of prize. That piece is up to you, it doesn't need to be fancy! Just a small token of appreciation is often all it takes to boost staff morale and encourage your teachers. 3. Four Corners Staff Meeting Game Next up, let's talk about Four Corners - Staff Morale Edition. Four Corners is such a great way to infuse a little bit of fun in your monthly staff meetings without taking up a lot of time. There are 20 different questions included along with 4 corner signs to hang in the room. This game helps get your staff up and moving, mingling, and getting to know each other a bit better. To play, read or hold up a question and answer choice. Next, staff will mix and mingle while moving to the corresponding corner to answer the question correctly. The format of this game makes it easy to customize based on the amount of time you have to spare. If you have limited time, choose just a couple of question cards. If you have more time, use more. This is a great starter activity for your staff meeting to get everyone started off on the right foot and set the tone for a fun meeting! It's also great as a mid-way movement break. Students aren't the only ones that need brain breaks! 4. Staff Morale Photo Hunt This next activity is really fun, and a bit unexpected from what you tend to see at your typical staff meeting. To play this Staff Morale Photo Hunt game, participants will search their phones for specific scavenger hunt items from a list. There are 3 categories for this game - school life, my work family, and work-life balance. Some of the fun things to hunt for include: an organization hack (teacher life) a student beaming with pride (my work family) a self-care photo (work-life balance) plus MANY more There are a total of 45 questions across 3 categories and recording sheets for teachers to write down their answers. This is another game that can be modified to meet the time allotment that you have. Simply decide prior how many questions you'll ask, and how much time you'll allow teachers to search. After the game is finished, have staff members turn them in and award a prize to the winners. The prize can be inexpensive (or free) too - "Jeans Day" is always a hit! 5. Gratitude Roses for Staff Morale Focusing on gratitude and appreciation for others is so helpful in boosting staff morale. The idea for these Gratitude Roses came from some of my previous administrators who had a real knack for keeping the staff feeling appreciated and motivated. My past two principals began each staff meeting armed with a vase full of fresh-cut roses. During our meeting, anyone in the building could thank a colleague for something that they did well or in recognition for something kind. For example, if another staff member walked your kids in from recess, handled emergency sub plans, covered your class, or helped unjam the copy machine, you could thank them with a rose. The idea is the same here, except these roses come in the form of notes! Simply pass these out, or make them available for your staff to grab at the beginning of the meeting. They fill out the page with a note of gratitude and pass it along to the deserving staff member. These can be used all year long during staff meetings, or placed in a central location to grab at any time. Encouraging kindness and gratitude is always a great practice for boosting staff morale! 6. Appreciation Spinners for Staff Meetings One of my favorite ways to ensure that staff feels appreciated is through small tokens of kindness. As a special way to thank your staff for their dedication and hard work, try these Staff Morale Prize Spinners at your next meeting. These spinners use fun, seasonal themes, so you can choose a different one for each monthly meeting. Teachers will spin and receive the prize they landed on. Many of the prices are free or very inexpensive which makes this feasible to facilitate. Some of the fun prizes included on the spinners are: jeans/comfy clothes day prime parking having pencils sharpened weekly having a bulletin board changed out having duty covered a candy stash a pack of favorite pens When I created this resource, I surveyed teachers to see what they would value most as a prize and many of them said to get more of their time back. You'll notice that many of the prizes on these spinners do just that! These are great to use as a final activity to close out your staff meeting. Keeping Staff Morale Up All Year Long Overall, the key to maintaining healthy staff morale is to form meaningful relationships with your team! Taking the time to implement icebreakers, games, and activities focused on building trust, be intentional about showing appreciation, and making room for socializing makes a world of difference. You want to make sure your staff feels heard, valued, and supported. After all, working in education is NOT for the faint of heart in this day and age! My best advice for making sure your staff morale stays high is to keep those meetings fun, and lively month after month. We all have a lot going on, but putting some time into this helps ensure a happy team of teachers. If you want to boost morale all year long, be sure to check out the Staff Morale Activity Bundle. Included, you'll find all 6 of the fun activities and games mentioned in this post so you can keep the fun rolling in at your staff meetings all year long! With the bundle, you'll be able to... get meetings started off on the right foot every time turn boring meetings into engaging opportunities for community building encourage teamwork and random acts of kindness among your staff recognize staff for a job well done help staff members get to know each other (and you) better gain teacher trust show your appreciation There's really no downside to organizing lively and engaging staff meetings, so make sure to check out the Staff Morale Bundle if you need some no-brainer ways to boost morale among your crew! Save This Post Don't forget to pin this post on Pinterest to keep these staff meeting ideas handy!
A perfect activity for encouraging temwork in the STEM lab or a regular classroom. All you need is string and a little imagination!
Find out why teachers should be using icebreaker activities for small groups all year long and not just at the beginning of the school year.
Teach kids empathy and compassion through mindful, fun lessons, discussions, and activities that build social awareness and community.
Want to help your kids learn about gratitude? Play the gratitude game with them. It's a fun game that the whole family will enjoy!
Morning Meeting Activities will help students fall in love with school! Help students become life longer learners by implementing morning meeting!
Do you and I run in the same circles? Doubt it. Although we do share at least one circle: teaching. Right? And if you and I ha...
This time capsule lesson plan, is a simple and quick activity for back to school. A fun lesson plan and easy activity for all grade levels!
Happy Friday! I hope everyone else is staying dry because in central Florida we're getting soaked! Imagine dismissal during a monsoon...not...
Want to show school spirit in the most creative way? Students can help create this tiger mural for your school! This is perfect if your mascot is a tiger, if you are studying tigers, or if you just want a creative art project for your students. You might hang this in the office, library, or hallway for everyone to see! Helpful instructions in the guide will help you create the collaborative mural. 42 pieces print on regular paper to make the mural. Each section is coded with a pattern. A key at the top of each sheet tells students which color to use according to each pattern. Once the pieces are colored in, cut them out and assemble into the large mural! The final mural will be about 4 feet by 4 feet. Supplies Required: Students can use markers, crayons, pastels, etc. to fill in their pieces with color. Only orange, black, white, and green are used. Everything prints on regular 8.5 x 11 paper. You will also need scissors, glue, and a large piece of bulletin board paper to attach all the pieces. I recommend gluing all the pieces to a large piece of bulletin board paper and then attaching the entire mural to a wall or bulletin board. Click the preview to see more details. Looking for more collaborative posters? Browse them all here!
I started by reading The Crayon Box that Talked, by Shane DeRolf. This is a great book for any age group. It is a rhyming story about crayons that don't like each other, but quickly realize that when they work together, the picture looks beautiful; more beautiful than if it were just one crayon that created it. Get the Lesson and Materials! Before the Activity: My class did a great job reflecting on good examples of when they would need each other to do something. We discussed how everyone is special and has something to offer. I really pushed the idea that rather than focusing on the negatives about a person, we should embrace the positives. Forget the negatives! Ignore them! We even touched on forgetting the past! Oh my! Activity: I gave each student a puzzle piece. Their job was to use colors that represent them and draw pictures, symbols, and/or words that describe what they have to offer to the class, and what makes them unique. After the Activity: I loved this activity!! It just so happened that we had a student absent, and it worked out better than I could have imagined. After we completed and shared our puzzle pieces, we put the puzzle together. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was upset that Nicole was absent and we couldn't add her piece. They kept saying, "Our puzzle isn't complete! We need Nicole's piece!" *Quick back story of Nicole: She is the sweetest girl, EVER! She has a lot of learning differences, and leaves our classroom at 12pm everyday to get extra help from a local special ed school. One of my goals this year has been to help make her feel a part of our class even though she leaves half-way through each day. Eventually, she will be at our school full-time. Yay! Nicole came back (she pulled a muscle in her neck. Ouch!) I showed her our puzzle and how HORRIBLE it looked without her piece to add. I asked her to please draw her unique and special qualities on it, and share it with the class. This request in itself is crazy because everyone in our class knows that the morning journal time is sacred and should never be interrupted - but our puzzle wasn't complete!! She was more than happy to, and shared it with the class. Afterwards, I went over to the puzzle and placed in our missing piece. The class cheered and were genuinely so happy that she completed our puzzle. It was magical. I got an email later that day from her mom telling me that Nicole had the best day! She explained to her all about the puzzle piece and how great she did in math. (I told her that she answered my question better than I could have!) Nicole's day started off great, and got even better! These are the kinds of things we need to do to make sure each of our students feel accepted and happy - not just Nicole, but all of our students. It just so happened that I had someone absent to make this activity a thousand times more effective, but it would have done what I wanted it to without that amazing coincidence. We don't get back our first few weeks of school. This is the time we have to build up confidence, create acceptance, and practice caring. So much academic learning will be able to happen after I build a foundation for it. And that is what I am doing now. Every day I am looking for ways to make my students rely on each other, or realize their importance. I hope you are able to make things like this happen in your classroom. Every kid deserves it! HAPPY LEARNING!
If you're looking for unique and engaging ways to help the students in your classroom develop their social, communication, and problem-solving skills while simultaneously fostering peer relationships and promoting inclusion, this collection of team building
This is a digital link to a Canva Template. You will be able to edit details of the game to fit the needs of your group. There are 14 different Amazing Race type games and activities that you can customize or change as needed. Each page has a clue you give the youth and a leader guide to help with supplies, and set up. There are 3 activities that have specific LDS content, these can be deleted or changed as your group sees fit. These are the Guess Who (Activity 9), the Chalk the Block picture (Activity 6) and one item in the Silly Scavenger Hunt (Activity 4). Group Size These activities are suited to any group size. The games were designed for multiple teams of 3-5 players each. Age Recommendation Some activities are harder than others, but everything can be tailored to fit any age group. To use the activity template with no edits, we recommend ages 12+ Using Canva You will need to login to Canva to edit this content, but you can sign up for free. You will be able to edit any aspect of this template and then save as a pdf or print out your game. Printing: Once you have the PDF file you will need to print out the document. We recommend using regular paper and to print in color, though color is not needed to solve the puzzles. For best results use a print shop to print the documents. Usage: The Canva Link we send you should not be shared with any other person or parties.
This is a great activity that teaches how to build classroom community and mindfulness in the classroom. It's perfect for a variety of ages.
The first week of school sure is a busy one! I work hard to balance the mandatory paperwork with games, hands-on activities and team-building fun. Even with bigger kids, it’s important to keep them moving throughout the day and providing a variety of activities. 1. Marshmallow Tower For this activity, you’ll need the following materials […]
Here is my version of a getting to know you facebook worksheet. I am planning on using it the first week of school. Get your copy here . or...
Tidbits and treats for teachers
