Yesterday I was trolling Pinterest and looking for some ideas. ( My new favorite techie site for teaching ideas. I even created a new board! ...I may need a 12 step program for this, but that is another story for another time!)
Basically, small groups of students (4-6) line up. Lines can be shortest to tallest, oldest to youngest etc. Using Duct tape you box them in. Their task is is to reverse the line without stepping outside of the box. You can make it more challenging by taking away verbal communication.
Gingersnaptreatsforteachers.blogspot.com has some great first day of school ideas for younger kiddies.
A few years ago, I created a freebie for my teacherspayteachers page. It is a list of simple and engaging icebreaker activities with easy to follow directions.
One thing that I always need great ideas for is learning names. I have played the name game in the past where I have the kids introduce themselves with an adjective before their name. "I am Musical Matthew," and the next student would say "This is Musical Matthew and I am Happy Hannah," and so on and so on. At the end I try to say all of their names in order. Not always an easy task! I have also had students make name tag glyphs to put on their desks, but as I said I am always looking for some good ideas to learn names. | It can be found here. |