9 to 5
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
3-5 Teachers
Hi Everyone! I just found out that I'm going to be doing a long term medical leave in a 4th grade classroom. I'm going to be starting the first day of school, and was wondering if you could give me some ideas for some icebreakers for the first few days. I have previous experience with 1st and 2nd graders, so the things I've done in the past might be baby-ish.
Thanks so much! 
Re: 3-5 Teachers
hmmmm. I am a guidance counselor. 4th graders are fun! Not too much drama yet, and they are really independent, so they can be really fun to work with.
What about tossing a ball around the room and each time someone catches it they state their name and something about themselves? You could even do it by categories to keep it going longer...like starting with their name and 1 thing they love about school, then the second round could be restating their name and do they have siblings at the school etc etc. It could go on for awhile and the kids love throwing the ball around, and it is repetitive with names, so you can get them pretty into it while youre learning their names. I am bad with names so this helps me a lot when I do Clasroom Guidance lessons.
Also, I know this is probably really old, but I would have them use an index card and have them write their name, address, contact info, parents names, and 3 or 4 questions about themselves to help you out. Then you can keep them on a ring or in a binder to refer to when necessary. You could use bright colored index cards, and let them have at it and decorate the front of it when they finish answering the questions. This can also help you see how well they write, spell, etc and what kid of home they come from, and a little background about themselves.
What about a think jar?? You could bring a cool looking container with you to school with bright sticky notes and give each table or group of desks a bunch of the sticky notes and let them ask you questions on it and then they put it in the container. Then u pull them out and answer the questions (appropriate of course) and that way they learn about u too. Then they get to be open with you and ask you questions while being anonymous, and if they want to say who wrote it they can and you learn names that way too.
Hope this helps a little!
I teach 3rd grade and here is kind of a run down of what I am doing:
1. Student will have an "about me" puzzle to complete. They'll write down/draw pictures of their favorite foods, colors, their family, etc. We will also complete a time capsule page sometime during the first week that they will get back towards the end of school.
2. We will definitely play so sort of name game, last year and when I taught 5th grade we would stand in a circle and you had to think of an action that starts with the first letter of your name (kicking katie and then every person after her would say kicking katie with some sort of kicking action). You go around the circle till everybody has said their name.
3. I also do a starburst activity where each kid gets 2-3 starbursts and each color means a different thing: red - where would you go on a dream vacation, yellow- what is your favorite subject in school, why?, orange- what are you looking forward to this school year, etc. You can make up your own prompts and the students will share with the class.
I'm sure you can google search and find lots of ideas. Good luck! I did a long term sub in 4th grade a couple years ago and LOVED it!!
I student taught in the 5th grade last year and on the first day of school our entry task was 3 questions: What is your favorite book or movie, What was your favorite memory from 4th grade, and What is your dream for 5th grade?
The kids could put up to 4 choices for each question and then put their top choice for each question on a post it. On the whiteboard we had 3 sections designated for each question. The kids put their post it notes on the board without their names and we pulled them randomly throughout the day. When the post it note was read aloud to the class whoever it belonged to would stand up, say their name, and explain their answer to the rest of the class. It was a great ice breaker for the kids and it was a lot of fun (plus it helped me learn their names!).
We also had a second project that the kids worked on during down time throughout the first few days. Whatever their dream was they had to create an artistic representation of it on a 5 in x 5 in pre-cut square. We called the final product a "dream quilt" and after all the quilt pieces were assembled we put it up on the wall for the entire year. They could only write one word, the rest was done with construction paper. It looked really cool when it was finished. I think we put something like "These are our dreams...watch them grow." above it.
i like it
www.winddeal.com
I teach high school, but this activity could be used with a younger group. I give them a list of choices and ask "Are you more...." For example: Are you more peanut butter or jelly? Are you more dogs or cats? Are you more neat or messy? Are you more summer or winter? (I have a longer list, but some are more HS oriented). I put the kids in partners or groups of 3 and then they also have to come up with a pairing of their own. A few that my kids have come up with: cake or brownies? m&ms or skittles?
My kids put the information on a big dry erase board and then have to present a group member to the class. We do a lot of dry erase board presentations in my class so this is meant to get their feet wet. You could do it another way if you wanted to avoid the presentation aspect.