Are you in need of some awesome back to school activity ideas for your students to start the year off in a fun way? It’s so important to get students to introduce themselves to you and to each other, especially if you don’t know them yet, or better, if they are new to the school. Getting them to introduce themselves and find out who their classmates are in a fun way is so special and good for the bonds they’ll form all year. I’ve found a bunch of games and activities over the years, and I’ll tell you all about them!
Back to school activity ideas for the first week(s) of school
Each year I get new groups no matter what. Some groups are completely new to the school since they just graduated from elementary school. Other groups I taught last year, but they are in completely new compositions this year, because we like to change things up. This means in those groups there will be some kids I know, and other I’ve never met before. I usually teach about 150 kids each year. So it’s important I get to know them, and they me, and they each other as well. I love to help them do this in a fun way while also introducing my subject: English.
Are you in the same situation? Do you get new groups each year, and a lot of them? Or do you only teach one group and are you looking for some fun back to school activity ideas to start the year? Then you’ve come to the right place! I hope you’ll be able to take away at least one thing that you’d like to try!
Back to school games for kids
Games are the most fun way to do introductions, and I’ve got a whole lot of them ready to go for when I go back!
Four corners
I love four corners because it allows kids to move around the room, and this really gets them engaged. Assign one corner of the room to A, B, C and D. Then you must put up questions on the board with 4 answer option: A, B, C and D, which will correspond to the corners. Whatever each individual student thinks is the correct answer, that is the corner that they must stand in. Once they have chosen, point out to the class what the findings are, and ask a few students to elaborate on their choices. This way, they’ll see how others feel about the subject.
You can easily create this game yourself, but if you don’t want to, here is mine.
Find someone who
For Find Someone Who, students need a card with prompts on them, like ‘has a dog’, ‘is wearing a sweater’, ‘cycles to school’, ‘loves pizza’, etcetera. They must take the card, walk around the room, and find a classmate that has the thing or does the thing in the prompt. For each prompt, they must choose a different classmate. Whoever is finished matching a classmate to each prompt is the winner. This game allows students to also learn more about their peers. At the end, get them to tell the class about what they found out about everyone.
You can easily create this game yourself, but if you don’t want to, here is mine.
Everyone who
To play Everyone Who, the class must sit in a large circle. There are two ways to play and the second one puts students on the spot a little, so you must gauge if that’s a good fit for these particular students. The easiest way is to have everyone sit, then you give them a prompt, like ‘Everyone who has a cat’. All the students that do have a cat must then find a new seat. Once they are seated again you can ask a few students that moved about their cat. The second way is to have one student in the center that has no seat. They must come up with a prompt that will get the others moving so that this student can find a new seat, which then leaves a new student without a seat. Another great game with movement and learning about one another.
Back to school fun activities
There are also activities that less like games, but are a lot of fun too for you and your students. I use the first one in my homeroom during our first meeting, and I will repeat it about two more times throughout those first few months. It’s great for my language class too, because it gets my students talking. The second activity is to practice writing skills, and for me to gauge my students’ writing skills.
Two circles
For Two Circles, you must form two rings of students, one inner ring and one outer ring. Each student in the outer ring must find a partner in the inner ring and they must face each other. Therefore, the number of students in both rings must be equal. You will then pose a question which the partners must discuss with one another. Or you can have one of the students think of a question. After a minute or so, you will give the signal for the outer ring students to move one place to the right. This means students will have a new partner, and you will repeat the process with a new question. This activity will also help greatly with students to form bonds and getting to know each other.
Back to school activity ideas for high school:
(Un)True stories
When it comes to back to school games high school is a little different. My older students do sometimes like the things I do with my 12-year-olds – you’d be surprised how much they still love games – but they also like a challenge. (Un)True Stories is great for that!
It works like this: Give each student an empty lined flashcard. Tell them they must write either a true story or a story that’s made up. They must write it down on the flashcard. When everyone is done, each student must read their story to the rest of the group, and the group must guess whether the story is true or false. Each student that is correct in their assessment gets 1 point. The storyteller gets 3 points if more than 50% of students believe the story is true when it wasn’t, and the other way around. My students absolutely love this! We usually end up spending so much time on it, but I really enjoy it a lot too!
So there you have it, 5 great back to school activity ideas to explore with your students. I hope you’ll try one or more of them because you’ll end up having so much fun, I’m telling you!
For more posts on practicing speaking skills, check out this page.
