Back-to-School Activities for Building Classroom Community

In the first days of school, you may want to select activities that help build community in your class as students ease back into academic life. I will share several such activities that my students have enjoyed in the past. 

A very simple activity is to give students Venn diagrams to complete about themselves. This can be done with student pairs, as with deskmates, or with groups of three using a three-circle Venn diagram. It helps to brainstorm with the class some categories of information that could be written in the Venn diagrams, such as hobbies, talents, sports, music, family members, pets, and favorites: foods, colors, animals, places, seasons, weather. As students fill out the Venn diagram, they get to know each other better and find some things they have in common. A blogpost I wrote earlier has more details about using Venn diagrams in the classroom:

Classroom Icebreaker / Getting to Know You Activity: Venn Diagrams

A popular game I have used is Two Truths and a Lie. Each member of the class, including the teacher, writes their name along with two true facts and one lie about themself. The teacher reads each paper, and everyone guesses which is the lie before the student reveals the correct answer. Students love this game because they see how much they already know about each other while being surprised by things they never knew about their friends! It also provides new students with an opportunity to introduce themselves to their classmates. One year I used this game to reveal to my class that I was pregnant!

To beautify your classroom with student art at the beginning of the school year, have them create collages about themselves using images and words from magazines. Making collages encourages students to learn more about their classmates' interests and style. As they work, they talk about the images and words they are using and help one another find pictures in the magazines. This activity takes a little preparation, but asking parents and other staff members for magazine donations makes it fairly easy. Here is a link to an earlier blogpost about making collages:

Beginning of the School Year Activity: Decorate Room with Student Collages

A game similar to Two Truths and a Lie is Snowball Fight. In this game, everyone writes three true things about themself but omits their name. After crumpling up the paper, the class has a "snowball fight" for about ten seconds (or longer). Everyone then picks up a piece of paper and opens it. You may have students walk around the room and find the person who wrote their paper. Another variation is to ask students to take turns reading their papers aloud as the entire class attempts to guess who wrote it. To help students keep control of their bodies during the snowball fight, you can make a rule that students need to be touching their chair or desk as they throw their snowballs. It's helpful to know your students a bit before trying this game to be sure that students can handle the snowball fight.

One last activity I will mention can be used to preview vocabulary for a coming unit while decorating the classroom with student art. This involves giving groups of students vocabulary words to illustrate. Within the group, individual students can choose which word to draw so long as the group includes all of the words. Here is a link to a blogpost I wrote about this activity:

Illustrating Science Vocabulary: 

Plant Cell Organelles

I hope these activities give you some ideas for beginning the school year, and I hope that you have a great first week of school!

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Ideas for End-of-School-Year Activities

 

The end of the school year is an exciting time but also the most challenging time to hold students' attention. Who could blame students for wishing their summer vacation would only come sooner? Teachers are looking forward to it, too! 

Luckily, the end of the school year is also a time when teachers and students feel less pressed to delve into new material and can instead engage in activities that focus on the classroom community. I'll offer a few suggestions here for activities that have worked well with my students in the past.

Playing games is a fun way to review academic material. In a previous blogpost, I described a couple of games you can use for teaching vocabulary. Below is a link:

Low-Prep Games for Teaching Vocabulary

Bringing an easy art activity into the classroom is another idea. If you have a collection of magazines or can get donations, you can have students make collages about themselves. I described this in a previous blogpost as a beginning-of-the-year activity, but I found it works nicely as and end-of-the-year project as well. Here's a link:

Decorate Room with Student Collages

Service learning activities could take some preparation but can also be done simply by teaming up with a teacher of students in lower grades. For ideas of service learning activities, follow this link:

Students Give Back with Service Learning

One simple yet universally enjoyable activity is going outdoors for a walk. If you have a park or other suitable area close to your school, you could include a picnic or snack break. A walk could have the sole purpose of providing time for teachers and students to connect, but it could also be used to highlight material taught earlier in the school year. For more information on using nature walks as an educational tool, follow the link below:

Get Out of the Classroom and onto the Trail!

Whatever you choose to do, aim to provide yourself and your students with enjoyable experiences. There is always so much going on at the end of the school year, but having quality time together as a class is a nice way to close out the school year.

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Get Out of the Classroom and onto the Trail!

 

As the weather gets nicer, and students begin to feel a bit trapped being indoors, it can be nice to take a break for a day and go outside on a nature walk. 

When I taught at the Museum School in San Diego, we were fortunate to have a trail within walking distance. We also took field trips to local nature preserves. It required some extra effort but was always well worth it!

A nature walk can provide a brief pause from standards-based academics. The natural learning and unexpected discoveries that take place have value in themselves, as does the connection students can form with the natural world. This connection can plant seeds of a lifelong curiosity about ecosystems.

Some students were lucky to catch a glimpse of a gray fox!

Nature walks can also be used to highlight concepts being explored in class. Erosion, natural selection, invasive species, human impact, and biotic vs. abiotic factors are examples of topics that can be reinforced while on the trail. 

At times I used a walk as a stand-alone activity. Other times I used it as a step in guiding the class to generate a question for a field study. In both cases, I prepared students by teaching them about the plants they might see on the trail, and during the walk I asked that they complete a simple observations sheet to encourage them to closely study their surroundings.

One of the most valuable aspects of getting students outdoors and on the trail is to allow them a little unstructured time in nature. This provides us all with an opportunity to get to know one another a little better.

 

If you are interested in another opportunity for outdoor learning, follow this link to my blogpost about a citizen science project on pollinators:

Get Outdoors with Citizen Science! The Great Sunflower Project

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Students Give Back with Service Learning

Service learning experiences can get students out of the classroom and involved in parts of their community they don't typically interact with. Students gain new knowledge and a feeling of purpose as they learn how they can have a positive impact on their world.  

Involving students in service learning can be as simple as arranging times for older students to work with younger students as reading buddies or to do art projects together.

When I taught service learning as a class, my middle school students met with their K-2 reading buddies once a week for about 20 minutes per grade. This worked with our school schedule though longer blocks of times are nice, too. Sometimes the middle schoolers met up with their buddies during recess. The middle school students had a blast playing with the younger kids! The K-2 students always looked forward to seeing their older buddies.

Another nice way to help students serve while interacting with people of different ages is to visit assisted living facilities. We were lucky to have several of these homes within walking distance of the school. One year the class interviewed an elder couple and learned that they had met and married fairly recently. Students collected their life stories and used them to create a play that they performed. The couple had some great stories to tell, so this made for a very entertaining play! 

On other occasions, students spent time at the assisted living facility playing board games with residents. One day, a student decided to bring along his new virtual reality headset for the elders to try.

As you can imagine, both the elders and students benefitted from this time spent together.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when visiting the assisted living facility was not possible, middle school students involved our entire K-8 school in creating cards for residents of assisted living facilities and nursing homes in our area. Students made cards for hundreds of elders in their community.

Also within the school's neighborhood is a community garden, and students helped out there by doing some weeding.

While working in the community garden, students had opportunities to try different herbs. Lemon sorrel was the most popular, and some ventured to try nasturtium flowers.

By trying different kinds of service learning, students had the opportunity to discover activities that they could enjoy while giving back to their community.

If you would like to read about how students gain voice and empowerment through their involvement in student council, follow this link to an earlier post on this topic:

Student Government

If you are interested in an opportunity to help collect data on pollinator populations, follow this link:

Get Outdoors with Citizen Science! The Great Sunflower Project

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Classroom Icebreaker / Getting to Know You Activity: Venn Diagrams

Venn diagrams can be used as an icebreaker to help students get acquainted at the beginning of the school year. I have also used Venn diagrams as a team-building activity when beginning a group project. Venn diagrams are a simple, low-prep yet effective way to help your students get to know one another.

The format is very simple. You can use a two-circle Venn diagram for pairs or a three-circle Venn diagram for groups of three. When beginning a group project with teams larger than three students, you can break students into smaller groups and pairs. Whether I plan to have students work with a partner or in a small group, I always prepare a few copies of the alternative form of the Venn diagram in case the number of students present that day is not divisible by two/three.

After I tried having students draw the Venn diagrams themselves, I found that giving them copies of pre-made Venn diagrams works best because it is tricky to draw intersecting circles with spaces large enough to write. I have either drawn the circles myself to photocopy or found Venn diagrams online.

To begin the activity, ask each student to write his/her/their name just outside of one of the circles. Partners and groups of three talk about themselves- their interests, families, backgrounds, likes, and dislikes. In the space where the circles intersect, they write the things they have in common. Students note ways in which they are unique in the area where the circles don’t intersect.

Keep in mind that some students will begin conversing without much prompting, while others will need a little support. It can help to write suggested topics (favorite foods, hobbies, talents, number of siblings, pets, etc.) on the board and circle around to prompt students as they work.

When students finish, you may want to have them share with the class what they have learned about one another. I often ask pairs and groups to share one way in which they are alike, and one thing that made each student unique.

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Beginning of the School Year Activity: Decorate Room with Student Collages

At the beginning of the school year, two common priorities for teachers are classroom decor and getting to know their students. One beginning of the school year activity I have used does both of these things. 

The simple activity of having students make collages that express their personalities was shared with me by Ann Davis, who at the time was a parent of one of my students and working towards a Masters in Expressive Arts Therapy. My students and I were fortunate to benefit from her enriching activities, which helped students reflect, build self-esteem, and connect with one another. The collage activity she taught me is one I started using at the beginning of the school year. It invites students to express their individuality, and in doing so, provides an opportunity for members of the classroom community get to know one another better. 

To prepare for making collages, I begin collecting magazines and other paper media with a variety of images. Emailing parents and asking students to bring in magazines is very helpful. I put out a box or other container to collect the magazines as they come in. Be sure to preview donated magazines before making them available to students though- one year I got a donation of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue! Once you have have a good collection of magazines, some cardstock paper, glue, and scissors (optional), you are ready to begin making collages.

With all of the materials available to students, I let them peruse the magazines to look for images that reflect their personalities and preferences. They find images of things they like to do, their favorite foods, pop culture of interest to them, places they have been or dream of traveling to, and other favorite things.

Students may rip or cut images, and I suggest to them that ripping the paper creates a nice transition between two images in a collage. Students sometimes choose to add words and phrases that they like. They “sign” their collages by spelling their names using letters found in the magazine text. 

Once the collages are done, give them time to dry before putting them in a pile so that they don’t stick together. I have done this activity right before a prep period so that collages can be left on student desks, or I dedicate a separate space for them to dry. Be aware that some students will finish relatively quickly, while others will want more time. I have early finishers assist peers in finding images they are looking for. (I also frequently make announcements to the class when a student is looking for a particular image so that everyone can help look for it.) For those who need more time, I provide the materials during a study hall or student free time.

Displaying student collages is a nice way to decorate the classroom and make students feel more at home in the space. The collages spark conversations between students about the images and words they chose, encouraging them to learn more about one another. There are many possible ways to display the collages, and after trying several different methods, I settled on hanging them from a wire placed high on the classroom wall and keeping them on display for the entire school year. I was lucky to have help with this from my husband Parthiv and art teacher Andrew, who both graciously assisted with installing the wires along with hooks to support the wires. Once this was done, I hung the collages using clothespins.

It was fun putting my students' collages on display, knowing that they would enjoy seeing their work when they entered the room. Thanks to the simple artwork my students created, my classroom always had a bit of decoration with a personal touch. 

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Student Government

Photo by Jeswin Thomas on Unsplash

One of the things that made me most proud of the school I attended as a child, George C. Soule School in Freeport, Maine, was that we had a powerful student government. Students truly had a say in what happened at our school. One example of this was when as a member of the Student Council, I helped hire the person who would be my math teacher in fifth grade. Student voice was a core value at my childhood school, and it is a value I continue to promote as a teacher. 

Years ago, when I taught fourth grade, I helped students create a class government as a way to teach civics while giving students some say in what happened in their classroom. Students led meetings while I sat quietly at the back of the class, interfering only when necessary. At the end of the unit, I asked students about their opinions of the student government, what they had learned, and what they thought my purpose was in doing the activity. I laughed when I read one response stating that maybe I had formed the government so that I didn't have to do as much work! I took this as a good sign that I had succeeded in allowing the students to take the lead. Their feedback on the experience was overwhelmingly positive. 

In my current position as a middle school teacher, I facilitate a Student Council that plans school events and addresses school policies. This year they hosted a Harvest Festival for all the K - 8 students at our small school and organized a middle school dance. They are now working on a spirit week to be held in the coming weeks. Their current policy initiative is to allow middle school students to take a 15-minute nap at the beginning of study hall on Fridays. We'll see where this goes! They did make some pretty good arguments in favor of this idea...

The structure I use for our current Student Council includes these offices:

* President to lead meetings

* Vice President to help lead meetings and write things on the board, and to serve in the President's absence

* Secretary to take meeting minutes and do a roll call

* Office Ambassador to communicate with the office

* Ambassadors for each tier (K-2, 3-5, 6-8) to communicate with teachers

* Grade representatives to be a voice for each grade (only grades 6-8 currently)

Student Council meetings can get pretty heated, especially in middle school! I have learned that teaching students to follow Robert's Rules of Order has helped with this. Some key points of these rules are to wait until you have the floor to speak, and to address the president rather than other members during a discussion/debate. Here are some videos on Robert's Rules of Order that I have shared with my class:

How to Make a Motion According to Robert's Rules of Order

The Basics of Making Motions 

The first link shows a vintage (80's?) student council in action. The second gives an example of a board meeting. We sometimes follow the rules loosely, but they do help keep discussions civil and allow all members to have a turn to speak.  I tell students that becoming familiar with Robert's Rules of Order can be helpful because they may see this structure used in other organizations as well. Learning Robert's Rules of Order takes time, and students often need reminders from me during their meetings. 

Allowing students to have a voice gives them a feeling of agency in their school life, much of which is typically planned out for them. It has been my experience that serving on a student council makes students feel like an important part of the school community and motivates them to come to school! 

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