Fun Beginning of the School Year Activities -- Team Mascots

My daughter goes back to school in a week and I know that whether school is in person, online or a mix for your kiddos it’s likely to look and feel different this year. But there are still a lot of fun beginning of the school year activities kids can do to get to know each other and build classroom spirit, no matter what the classroom looks like.

Teach Student Savvy has a great collection of beginning of the year activities, but one that caught my eye was the group name and mascot activity, which she has as a freebie on Teachers Pay Teachers.

This activity works for a range of ages and has groups of kids (could be the table or small learning group if your class is using the pod/cohort model) come up with a “team” name and mascot based on things the group members have in common or like. In a small classroom the whole group can work on the project together.

You could do this activity with a virtual class as well by dividing up into smaller groups.

Check out her post for a lot more great ideas for celebrating the start of the weirdest school year ever.

[Photo: Teach Student Savvy.]

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Shark Week generally happens in July, but any time is a good time to learn more about sharks.

First, start with some fun whale facts like these from Kids Craft Room. Here I learned about the dwarf lantern shark, which is the smallest shark and only grows to about 6-8 inches (about 15-20 cm) long. It also emits light. How cool is that?

Natural Beach Living has some great printable shark information guides, where kids can learn about different kinds of sharks, match the facts to the pictures, or print out doubles and do a shark memory game.

Living Life an Learning has some great shark activity pages including the parts of a shark, types of sharks, a crossword puzzle and more. Also check out their parts of a shark and word scramble download, and a life cycle worksheet.

Learn about how sharks float with this great activity from JDaniel4’s Mom.

Need more facts about sharks? This fact pact from The WOLFe PACK on Teacher Pay Teachers includes fact sheets, a printable flip book, informational text, vocabulary, comprehension questions and more.

Living Montessori Now has a great collection of shark themed activities with a Montessori inspired twist. You’ll find a shark roll and cover, shark phonics and lots more shark activities Deb has collected from all over the Internet.

Remember the “Sharknado” movie? A Few Shortcuts turned the combination of sharks and tornadoes into a fun science activity. You’ll need a bottle connector for this project but otherwise should have everything you need on hand. Use their template to make your sharks out of aluminum foil. So fun!

You can also do some shark themed coloring with these coloring pages from Encouraging Moms at Home. Or make a cool 3D shark with this template from korkotak. And there are tons of different shark crafts collected in this post from Kids Activities Blog.

Fun Beginning of the School Year Activities — Team Mascots

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