Getting to Know Each Other

The first week of school is always full of excitement. I can't wait to get to know my students and begin to discover their personalities. The first week we spend a great deal of time getting to know each other. Not only are they learning about their classmates, but also about me. Here are a few activities we did this week.

Three Things Snowball

I'll be honest, I do not know the technical name for this game, but the gist of it is that each student gets a piece of paper. On it, they write three facts they want their classmates to know about them. They crumple the paper up into a ball and toss it somewhere in the room (they love that part). Once everyone has tossed their paper, they go and pick up a different one-read it and try to guess who they are reading about. 

About Me Bag
I saw this me bag idea procrastinating on Pintrest one evening and decided to give it a whirl and added in a writing extension. After the students went around in a circle and shared their trinkets, I had them set them up on their desk and we took this time for a photo op. After printing each child's photo, they were to write a simple narrative introducing themselves to the other teachers and students, while explaining the meaning or importance of these special items. Here is a photo of the finished projects, with their Top 10 Things You Need To Know About Me.

Teacher Trivia Quiz
This was another idea I decided to extend on. The first day, the students had a teacher 10  question quiz on their desk. It was funny watching their facial expressions when they were filling theirs out. I think the grand winner got 8/10 correct. Not too shabby for the first day!

Teacher Match-Up Trivia Game
My extension was a trivia match up game. I got the idea from a teammate of mine and once again, thought I'd give it a whirl. I made a list of questions on some index cards and the answers on others. The object was for the students to mingle around the room and find the match to their card.  Here is how it turned out.

M&M Activity

Since the first week of school is always a new experience, I decided to end the week with a morning meeting activity challenge. Awhile ago I pinned a morning meeting pin from Sunny Days in Second Grade, that contained some really fun activities. The object was using only a straw, make a smiley face out of m&m's. During this contest, I was surprised when I saw the pure concentration my students had. It was a great activity to practice expectation #5: Congratulate a classmate when they do a good job or win a game. Motivate and encourage classmates by cheering them on and complimenting each other. They fulfilled expectation #5 with this activity. I heard multiple "Good Jobs!" and even some chanting for some students to keep going.  They demonstrated pure determination with this activity.