These fun and easy ice-breaker activities, intended for use with elementary students, can be used on the first day of school or any time you'd like to help your kids get to know one another better and feel more engaged. We’ve been sure to include activities for both virtual and in-person classrooms so that you can utilize them no matter your teaching setup! Keep reading to discover 32 ways to turn your classroom into a welcoming, positive community!

All about me jigsaw Here are some jigsaw templates for a huge display. A great back to school activity for the start of term

Maths this week - we've been consolidating everything we've learnt about fractions. We're ready (and excited) to make the transition to decimals next week! #MathsThisWeek #PrimaryRocks #MathsWorkingWall #MathsMastery #Year5 #NQT

Thanks to Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade for hosting the Sunday 6! My third graders have been writing persuasive pieces. We've used this anchor chart for writing transitions from one supporting reason to another. The anchor chart is actually a compilation of other anchor charts I found online. I have 12 iPads in my classroom - all obtained through grants. We LOVE using the Epic app for eBooks. This app has more books than I could ever house in my classroom library and... it's free for educators! Check it out by clicking here. We still have 2 weeks of school. We had to do some goal setting to get us through these final weeks. Check out this product in my Teachers Pay Teachers store for helping your students to FINISH STRONG. Our final social studies unit is about Japan. Our city has a sister city in Japan, so we do lots to learn about this interesting country. One of the things the students love is to paint Japanese characters. I put on Japanese music, and it makes for a calm class period. I lead an after-school STEM Club with three other teachers, and our final meeting is this coming week. We are going to explore augmented reality, and each student will get one of these! It's called a Merge Cube, and each side of the cube has multiple games and learning tools that come to life when you use the connected app. I hope to write a blog post soon to share how this went. This weekend I tried out a new recipe on the grill, and it was delish! A couple added bonuses were that it was easy to put together, and had minimal clean-up. You can check out the recipe here for the grilled shrimp foil pack. Thanks to Mrs. Wheeler for hosting the link-up! I'm planning on checking out her Editable EOY Bookmarks!

Handling transitions with toddlers can be tough, unless you have a plan. Here are my favorite tips that have been gathered over the decades!

I wanted to find a new self portrait project for the first week of school this year. I saw some inspiration on pinterest, but there were no directions on how to create it. So I took the best from the pics I saw and tried to recreate it my style. I used my 5 year old to practice this before my 3rd graders start this year. Here's how I did it... Step 1: Take a photo of your student as they stand so you get their Profile shot. Step 2: Airdrop or send the photo to your computer and print it out on a regular black/white printer on plain white paper. Then take a thin tipped black marker or sharpie and trace the outline. Step 3: Fill in the profile with a black marker. I used a black crayola marker, but I'm sure any black marker or crayon will do. You can stop below the neck or go all the way to the bottom of the picture. Step 4: Cut out the black very carefully. Step 5: Glue it onto blank white paper or cardstock . Step 6: Take a black pen or pencil and a ruler and draw straight lines to separate the background into sections. Step 7: Design as you wish. I'm going to have my students choose things all about them. It could be words to describe them, favorite things they enjoy...and filled with pictures and words to show them. I like the idea of the name only being on the back, so when parents come in they can guess which one is their child. So that's it! I plan to back these on black paper and hang in my classroom. Hope they all turn out great. I think this might be my new favorite back to school portrait art project!! If you like it or plan to use it, I'd love to see your pics and comments too!

Classroom Display Inspiration Share your amazing classroom displays on social media and have them magically appear below!Regularly add your photos to this

Decoración de Aulas El aspecto físico de nuestras aulas siempre es importante para nuestros estudiantes. A demás nos sirve de motivación y ambientación. En los grados primarios los temas de super héroes, animales, ambiente, naturaleza, muñequilla suelen ser atractivos para ellos. En grados secundarios la decoración de nuestras aulas con motivos de Facebook, Instagram, emoji, extendiendo. suelen ser de gran interés para ellos. A la hora de organizar nuestro salón podemos tomar en consideración los siguientes elementos: Buena iluminación Colores Murales creados por nuestros estudiantes Decoración de las paredes Exhibición de trabajos de estudiantes Siempre es importante no importa el grado un rincón para lectura Temas de la clase Diseñar un espacio para cada una de las materias que enseñamos Permitir un espacio de creatividad Visita nuestro grupo de facebook Materiales y actividades para Maestros Aquí algunas ideas de la web

Explore Cas Holmes' 242 photos on Flickr!

Maths this week - we've been consolidating everything we've learnt about fractions. We're ready (and excited) to make the transition to decimals next week! #MathsThisWeek #PrimaryRocks #MathsWorkingWall #MathsMastery #Year5 #NQT

“Distribution Qs can sometimes stump my Ss, as they struggle to recall/refer to continents etc. Clearly this is something that needs constant revisiting all the way up to YR11 (as evidenced by YR11 last month👇🏻) Watch this space… I have a plan (& that also includes spellings!)”

3rd Grade Thoughts: A teaching blog by Stephanie Van Horn