Description
Are you struggling to find engaging student ice breakers for the first week of school without a ton of prep or stress? This bundle is for you! These first week of school activities will allow you to build your classroom community all while saving time. PLUS, you can use these games throughout the year. They are also PERFECT for Fun Fridays and Morning Meetings.
This bundle of games is ideal for upper grades, but many of the activities can be adapted for grades 1-2. Welcome your new classroom family back to school and help them get to know each other. Whether it is the first day of school or a Fun Friday later on, your students will be smiling ear to ear!
This bundle comes with BOTH Nearpod games and worksheet games. EVERYTHING in this bundle has a digital version.
Check out my blog for teaching ideas and freebies! OR Tune into my new podcast: Teachers Learn Too! (available on Spotify and Google Podcasts)
Every month, you will receive the newsletters for the upcoming month, as well as teaching tips and strategies. Join by visiting my blog and signing up at the bottom of my home page.
An introduction to Nearpod…
Nearpod is an engaging and interactive way to deliver instruction and support your math centers. You can create a free Nearpod account, and the instructions for doing so are included in this bundle. It only takes 2 minutes to sign up.
Students can either join the lesson by using a desktop/Chromebook and going to the Nearpod website OR students can use the app on a tablet/ipad.
Nearpod can be used in two ways. These lessons can be assigned to your whole class simultaneously, allowing you to control your students’ screens even when in a different location. They can also be assigned to individual students to complete on their own. I LOVE to assign Nearpod lessons as independent work during centers. It gives students the opportunity to practice when working independently. The best part is that you will have access to reports that show you all of their answers. This makes for very useful data!
ABOUT THIS BUNDLE
This bundle includes 7 resources.
Nearpod Ice Breakers
This product contains a Google Slides lesson (40 slides), an informative PDF to help you get started, and a link to a Nearpod lesson. Here is what’s included:
- 2 check-in slides where students draw how they’re feeling
- 9 slides describing various ways to greet each other in the mornings (6 greetings with descriptions)
- 9 slides describing various discussion topics (6 topics with sentence starters)
- 18 slides describing 6 games that can be played on Nearpod during live virtual meetings, including matching, drawing, and Time to Climb
- detailed descriptions of all games and activities for morning meeting
- a pacing guide describing how to implement virtual morning meeting during the first two weeks of school
- teaching tips and set-up instructions
Ice Breakers – Grades 1-6
This 31-page product includes BOTH a PDF and a PowerPoint file. Each file contains the following:
- Teacher Instructions for Each Game
- Student Instructions for Each Game
- 5 Worksheets for Student Guess Who
- Blank Version for Student Guess Who
- Answer Key Template and Student Guessing Sheet for Student Guess Who
- 5 Worksheets for Individual Play of Artist Helper
- 5 Worksheets for Group Play of Artist Helper
Ice Breakers – Grades K-2 (also fun for upper grades)
This resource includes 2 ice breaker games: Search and Color & This or That (a Four Corners Game).
- Teacher Tips: lesson plans and answer keys (where applicable)
- 5 versions of Search and Color (back to school and seasonal versions)
- 5 editable versions of the same Search and Color worksheets
- Table of Contents for the This or That game
- 4 versions of This or That game
- 1 scaffolded worksheet of version (for nonreaders)
- Number Signs to hang on the wall for every version (with answers to guide nonreaders)
- 1 set of teacher questions to ask during the game for each version
- Black and white versions of all This or That versions
Ice Breakers – Grades 3-6
This PDF file has two ice breaker games designed for upper grade students. Here is what is included:
- Game Instructions and Teacher Tips
- 5 unique Worksheets for 3…2…1
- 20 unique BINGO sheets
Team Building Activities & Bonus Back to School Resources
This product includes both PowerPoint (includes editable slides) and PDF files for your convenience. Both files include the following:
- table of contents
- EDITABLE first week of school schedule with teacher tips
- teacher tips and directions for all activities
- digital (Google Slides) and printable points tracker
- digital (Nearpod) and printable voting sheets
- 3 team design challenges: The Ultimate Supplies, The Ultimate Classroom, and The Ultimate School (includes planning sheets, voting sheets, and notes pages)
- worksheets for a classroom walk-through (Notice/Wonder/Infer and Reflection sheet)
- All About Me (blank worksheet is also included if you wish to create your own)
- My Goals (blank worksheet is also included if you wish to create your own)
- I Wish My Teacher Knew
- Book Interest Form and Reading Preferences Form
- directions for a Stained Glass Art Project
Meme Game
This product is a PDF file that includes a link to the Nearpod games. Make sure to create a FREE Nearpod account first. Then, click on the link to save the lesson to your Nearpod lesson library. There is also a link to edit and use the digital spinner. Both the digital spinners and all of the Nearpod games are editable. This resource includes the following themed Meme Game slides:
- August – Back to School (5 slides)
- September – Autumn (5 slides)
- October – Halloween (5 slides)
- November – Thanksgiving (5 slides)
- December – Christmas (5 slides)
- January – Winter (5 slides)
- February – Valentine’s Day (5 slides)
- March – St. Patrick’s Day (5 slides)
- April – Easter (5 slides)
- May – Spring (5 slides)
- June – Summer (5 slides)
- July – 4th of July (5 slides)
Fun Friday Nearpod Games
This product is a PDF file with a link to the Nearpod games. This resource includes the following five Nearpod games (10 slides per game):
- The Meme Game – Students choose a picture to complete each meme. During live lessons, the teacher can approve student responses before the class sees them. Students can then “like” their peers’ finished memes.
- Design It – Students become various artists and designers (i.e. video game designers, fashion designers, interior decorators, etc.) and draw blueprints/designs to meet the “customer” requests.
- Majority Rules – Students guess which option the majority of their classmates will like (i.e. food, activities, etc.).
- What If… – This is a hilarious game your students will LOVE! The teacher spins the included digital spinner to select one student. The student, if comfortable, is the subject of a “What if” question. There are some funny questions and answer choices!
- How Well Do You Know… – The teacher spins the included digital spinner to select a student. The class then answers a question about that student to see if they can guess which option that student will choose (i.e. favorite food, gifts, activities, etc.).
Nearpod has been used with permission.
Both the digital spinners and all of the Nearpod games are editable.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.