4 Fun Back-to-School Activities Teachers Can Do to Start the School Year Right

The start of a new school year can be rough for a lot of students. After all, who would want to follow their vacation with studying? Not everyone is happy about the idea.

With that said, if you want to get the attention of your kids after vacation, then you need to properly shift their switch from vacation mode to school mode.

Of course, you shouldn’t switch them to school mode too abruptly. The transition must be gradual so that kids don’t get too distracted and disconnected during class hours. On that note, below are some of the ways teachers can help make the transition from vacay mode to school mode much smoother for the students.

How to re-engage students after a vacation?

Re-engaging your students after vacation will help them focus on their studies better. It can be difficult to claim back the focus of your students. Thus, it’s important that you devote the first few days of your class trying to get your students in the right sort of mindset.

There are many strategies that you can apply that will help you achieve this goal. First, you have to make sure that you get their interest up. The way to do that is through interesting icebreaker games.

Another way to re-engage them is through letting them get to know one another in the class. Introductions are one way but you should make it more interesting than the “tell me about yourself” variety. Check out these re-engaging tips below.

1. Icebreaker Games

Icebreaker games will help your students get used to the environment in the classroom once again. Plus, it’s a way to get to know their fellow students without having to go through the dreaded “tell us about yourself” questions that a lot of teachers ask.

Plus, icebreaker games will get your students excited and will surely get them to participate in your activity.

You can look for icebreaker games online that are kid-friendly but here are some ideas to get you started:

Scavenger Hunt

A scavenger hunt can get everyone going and it’s a way to get them moving, especially during the early hours of class time. Just create a list of items that you want them to find. In particular, you should find items that would be easy to find in the classroom.

A reward is also a nice incentive to get them looking. You should make sure that your reward fits your students’ age. It should be something that they want.

Self-Portrait

Another fun activity would be to make a self-portrait for students. You should add cool twists to this activity like using words instead of drawings to build a self-portrait. You can even try and get them to draw themselves with a blindfold on to make it more interesting. Then, you should reveal these portraits one-by-one.

You can all have a good laugh with it and you should draw your own self-portrait along with the students too.

2. Getting to Know You Activities

Getting to know your students is essential during the first few days of school. Otherwise, you might spend the first months of school not knowing which student you’re addressing. With that said, you should try and make this activity as interesting as possible.

Adding a creative twist to your get-to-know-you activities make it so that your students don’t groan once you announce that they have to introduce themselves again.

Two Truths and a Lie

One interesting way to spice up your get-to-know activity is by holding two truths and a lie. Make students write three statements about themselves, one of which is a lie. Then, get people to guess which one is the lie. Get everyone to vote by raising their hand to find out which one is the lie.

Two truths and a lie is an interesting activity because it lets you get to know your students and students get to know their classmates.

Beach Ball

Tape down questions on a beach ball that helps you get to know your students. Make it interesting. Then, students should throw the ball one-by-one and the question that lands that is closest to their right thumb will be their questions that they have to answer.

It’s still a simple question and answer activity but the creative twist makes it that much more interesting for your students.

3. Time Capsule

A time capsule is exactly what it sounds like. Get students to bring something important or a letter to their future selves after the school year. You can have a class time capsule and an individual time capsule depending on you. It’s a great way to look back on the school year that’s passed.

4. Create a Class Name and Flag

A class feels like an entire culture and nation in itself. Thus, getting a class to create a name for their class and a flag will make them closer to one another.

Rattle off in class and make sure each student gets an input. It makes each student in the classroom feel that much closer with one another.