Those first few days of school are not days for getting a lot done. They’re for getting to know each other, learning classroom rules, and getting back into the groove of being in a classroom all day long.
So why not throw in some games that will have kids working together and having some fun together?
The list of beginning of school activities from A Grace-Filled Classroom aren’t all games necessarily, but it does include one of my favorites, which is the beach ball toss where you write different questions on the ball and then toss it. The question your hand lands on is the one you answer. There’s also a printable “find a friend” (variation on person bingo) in the linked post.
This escape room for the classroom from Teachers Are Terrific (available at Teachers Pay Teachers) is perfect for fourth and fifth grade and will get kids up and moving. As described on the blog:
In this Escape Room, students match words to categories and then unscramble a message for the first lock code. For the second task, students complete a math puzzler to open the locked box. For the last task, they use a secret code to decipher a message that will lead them to the lock numbers.
The STEM challenge comes from kids choosing from available materials to illustrate a class rule in a physical way.
Proud to Be Primary has a great list of getting to know you games (including the beach ball one above), including asking questions with the roll of a dice or the color of candies, making paper dolls for each student and much more. These are great, relatively low-prep ideas you can do with kids when you need to fill time or just want to do a group activity.
Do you have a favorite beginning of school game to do with your kids? Let’s hear about it!
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