The beginning of the school year or the semester is so strange because the students are quiet and you know that won’t last!
Back-to-school get-to-know-you activities can be a great way to create a positive and inviting atmosphere in your classroom. These activities can help you gain a better understanding of your students and their personalities, which can be especially useful when creating a seating chart. Some activities that you can use include having students share something they enjoy doing outside of school, talking about their favorite subject or hobby, or even playing a game that encourages conversation and getting to know each other.
However you decide to spend the time, these activities can be a fun and beneficial way to get to know your students and build a strong classroom community.
Here are a few of our favorites that have worked well in our middle school and high school classes.
1- Recipe of Me– If you teach culinary arts or family consumer science or even if you just think this is fun, a recipe of me activity can be a great way for students to write about themselves. We have an inexpensive version that can be printed or assigned in Google!
2- Do you love coffee? This “A Latte About Me” activity is a cute way to get to know your students that can appeal to the Starbucks lover and be a great way to decorate your family consumer science classroom or any classroom for that matter!
3- Get to know me games- when you have something planned but need to fill 10 minutes or so in class at the beginning of the school year, this game is great!
Two truths and a lie have students write down 2 true statements about themselves and a lie about themselves as a “trick”. I usually model and do one myself for instance:
My mom was born in Ireland, I have 4 sisters, and I used to have a pet gecko. Can you guess? I never had a pet gecko, haha.
Students make their own and classmates take turns guessing.
Lineup– this one requires no materials whatsoever. Students work together to line up based on their birthdays with January 1st being the first. This is a great activity to get students working together without needing any materials! It’s also a great way to get them to think creatively and practice problem-solving. To make it more challenging, you could try a no-talking version, or have them line up by height instead of birthdays. Have fun!
- Would you Rather– can be a great way to get kids thinking critically and expressing their own opinions. To get started, simply pose two options to the class and have them decide which one they would rather have. For example, you could ask: “Would you rather have pizza for lunch every day or tacos for lunch every day?” It’s a great way to get the class engaged and debating different options. Have fun!
- Digital Escape Rooms– Students can work together on our digital escape rooms to get to know each other and important content such as reading a recipe!
Looking for more ideas to get to know your students and break the ice? Here are some getting-to-know-you activities for middle school and high school students from the We Are Teachers Website.
Happy new semester and let’s hope they stay quiet and participate all at the same time!
