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It’s the first day of school.
You welcome students at the door and show them to their seats. You pass out books and materials, introduce yourself. You read the syllabus and get your kids motivated with an icebreaker. Right?
Nope. Not me.
OR, you can get kids moving around, talking, building community, and (BONUS) putting their heads in science, right from the start. Based on student feedback, here are some favorite alternatives to the generic first days of school.
INSTEAD: Use a content-related activity to help students find their seats, let them move around, begin talking to one another. Ask them to put themselves in their seats, in alphabetical order by last name, first name, or middle name. You can pass around a blank seating chart and let them fill in their names. Ask students to introduce themselves to one another. Ask someone to explain the process they used to organize themselves.
To guide students to their place in rows or small groups, you can use cards. In physical science or chemistry, I use cards with element symbols written on them and ask students to use the periodic table on the wall to join the other elements in their family. In biology or environmental science, I hand out cards with the common names of various organisms written on them. I use groups of 4-5 cards, because that’s how many students I want in a group. One group of 4-5 cards might have the name of a plant written on each card. Other groups might be microorganisms, mammals, marine life, reptiles, amphibians, freshwater fish, or insects. These activities also give you a chance to find out who likes to lead, who isn’t afraid to say what they think, who likes to organize, and who is quiet. Students will also have a simple introduction to your course content.
This is a great time to explain that students will be working collaboratively to learn with one another this year.
Are you bored yet? I am.
INSTEAD: Your administration may have a directive that you discuss the syllabus. If so, you might be compliant by simply handing out the syllabus after the seating/grouping adventure. Each group of pair of students might be assigned one important item from the syllabus to explain and share that important point. An activity for the next few days might be a jigsaw or a syllabus scavenger hunt .
Over the years, I’ve found that it’s a waste of your time. Middle and high school kids have 5-8 classes each day, all with procedures to remember. They forget anyway, and you’ll have to explain. Every. Time. Use the time to get to know your students and build a relationship. Later, when you show them how to rotate partners or groups, how to find supplies, or how to submit their learning, they’ll remember (and if they have forgotten, just show them again.)
INSTEAD: Introduce the procedures needed for that day’s learning. Do you want them to pick up materials as they enter the room? Complete a task on their Chromebooks of iPads? Show them how to do that on a need-to-know basis. Do you want students to work in discussion groups each day, for 5 minutes? Show them how to do that, using relevant content.
Want an editable syllabus and scavenger hunt bingo game to work from? The syllabus included for you to make your own has 2 versions: detailed text, and visually graphic. The included bingo card is also completely editable.
If you don’t want to make your own first day seat cards, you can find both the physical science and life science cards here: First Day Seats. The life science cards are basic, so even elementary students can use them successfully.
And here’s my whole first week.
More resources can be found here.