Get to know your students better through these classic ice-breaking activities.
Create a fun and safe learning environment by getting to know your students better. The most important thing a teacher can do is to establish positive relationships with students.
The National Education Association in its July 2006 Executive Summary maintains that,"Positive relationships between families, communities, and schools are of central importance to students' success."
An integral part of establishing these positive relationships is getting to know your students.
Fun Games
A fun game that helps you get to know your students is Two Truths and a Lie. Students tell three things about themselves. Two of the things are true, the third is a lie. The game is to guess which of the three things is the lie. Demonstrate this game to your students and then either give students time to come up with their three facts, or assign it as homework. You can also use this game to see how well students work in small groups, or as a tool to get them used to talking in front of the whole class. The University of Berkley suggests that their Graduate Student Instructors use this icebreaker. Education World offers over 150 suggestions for icebreakers including Two Truths and a Lie.
Another activity that can get students talking is to tell them to bring in an object that they think represents the subject they are studying.
For older students this is nostalgic of show and tell. Make sure you set obvious parameters, no weapons, no references to drugs, gangs, profanity, and it has to be something that can be carried to school.
A student in a government class might bring money. A student in English might bring a dictionary. A math student might bring a receipt. A student in a biology class might bring a leaf.
On the assigned day go around the class room and have each student share their object and explain why they brought it. The object is not to judge what students bring, but to get them thinking about the subject.
Gauging Small Group Work
There are a lot of other quick fun activities that you can use to get students thinking about your subject and to gauge how they work in small groups. One generic concept is to tell students to devise a list of ten things they would want with them if they were stranded on an island. Or, give students a list of inventions and have them identify which one they could live without.
Make this activity specific to your subject. History teachers can ask students what ten things they would take with them if they were transported into the past. English teachers can have students devise a list of the most important books. Students could identify the most important mathematical formula in history. They could brainstorm the most important scientific advances. Again, these activities can be turned into homework and students can get to know their textbooks by completing the assignment.
Taking a little bit of extra time to develop subject specific and creative ideas, students will invest themselves in your classroom on the first day, and during the rest of the school year.
