First Day Jitters!

 I want to share some icebreakers with you. Starting something new and different is not easy so, I thought I'd try to come up with some icebreakers that can be altered for different age groups to get kids comfortable with each other and calm those butterflies. 

Sharing Activities

   Have everyone sit in a group and share stories, things they like, something they do with their family, etc. If you wanted to do a summer themed activity, you could bring in a beach ball and have the children pass it around. Whoever has the ball will share something that happened over the summer. Holding something while talking in a group can be less nerve wracking because the ball will be a slight distraction from everyone else. Once they get the ball, whether it be tossed randomly or going in a circle, the child doesn't have the fear of being picked on. Everyone is going to get a turn and eventually the ball will come to them.

  Another idea is using a ball of yarn or string and creating a web. For this the string should be tossed randomly to create a web. Everyone will form a circle; the teacher will start by sharing and hold the end of the string before tossing it to another person. Then the student shares something, holds another part of the string and tosses the yarn to someone else. It continues until everyone has had a chance to share. Once everyone has finished sharing you can try to untangle the web while everyone is still holding onto to the string. This will help them get used to working together as a group. 

Name Games

  Name games are good for the first day to help kids learn the names of their classmates and to help the teacher learn the names of the students. There are many different ways you can do this. One way is to get the class ready for an "outing", (a picnic,a party, a day at the beach, a day at the park, etc.) and then they would have to say their name and what they will bring. As the game goes along the next student has to say the names and items of the students before him/her. This is a good way to test their memory and having to repeat everyone's name over and over will help them remember their classmates' names.

  Another way to play the name game is to have the students pair their name with an adjective that starts with the same letter like Funny Francine or Crazy Carlos. Then the children have to repeat the names and adjectives as described in the previous name game. .

Guess Who?

  Kids can draw self portraits or write down clues about themselves and then the class has to guess who it belongs to. Kids can write down details about how they look, what they are wearing to school that day, or something that they like. The teacher reads the clues and the class has to figure out who it belongs to. 

Human Bingo

  Create bingo boards and in the spaces include statements such as, "someone whose name starts with the same letter as mine", "someone who is wearing red" and "someone who writes with their right hand." Then have the children go around the room and try to find others that match the statements on the board and then put the person's name in the space that matches. You can have the students play until everyone gets bingo or until a few kids get bingo. 

Copy Cat Game 

  Kids have to pick an action and then the class copies it. Let's say the theme is animals. The teacher will start off and say what animal she is and what the animal is doing. For example, "I am a lion and I like to roar. ROAR!" Then everyone will "ROAR!" like the teacher. If you do not have a theme, you can pick things you can do with your body, activities you do outside, or noises you can make.

We Are Similar Activity

 This activity can be played in a lot of different ways. The basic concept is to have the children see which students are like them and make them feel more comfortable. The teacher will say something like "My favorite color is blue" and all of the students whose favorite color is blue will perform a certain action. For the action you can put a line on the floor that kids stand on, you can pick random things for them to do, like jump or just have them stand up. 

 

Scavenger Hunt

  You can break the students in smaller groups so that they can work with each other on this scavenger hunt. I am a big fan of scavenger hunts! It's a great way to get them working as a team. Having a scavenger hunt in the classroom also helps them get used to the classroom and helps them get an idea of where things are. You can put the list of items you want them to find, "a sharpener" or you can make little riddles like, "you use me when your pencil is dull." 

  All of these activities can be changed around to work in or out of the classroom. They can work for children or adults. The possibilities are endless! Hope you enjoy these ideas! And I would love to hear some of your ideas!