First Day of School Classroom Ice Breaker Activities

The first day of school is an exciting and anxious time for students and teachers alike. Everyone knows that first impressions are the most important, especially from the teachers angle. You need to come across as stern yet caring, strong yet gentle, and strict yet approachable all at once, and if you don't set that tone the first day, it can make your job a lot harder in the coming weeks and months.

Once you've "laid down the law" and gone through rules and procedures (I have some great tips and links in a post titled What the First Day of School Looks Like in My 5th Grade Classroom), you can start letting the kids get acquainted with one another, and with you. Just a few days ago I shared one of my favorite ice breaker activities, called "Me Bags." The ice breaker is the hall mark of the first day. Although many of your students probably already know one another, they probably weren't all in the same class (unless your school is very small or students move along in cohorts from year to year). One guarantee is they won't be familiar with you, even if they know you and you had their siblings in class. They will still be apprehensive and unsure as to how you will act.

I want to keep this post very simple from here out, and list some great "Ice Breaker" resources. I searched online and these are some of the best I found (obviously I won't be doing many of these in the classroom, I like to focus on just a few):

• Best of Ice Breakers at Education World: This page lists some great ice breakers that don't require a lot of set up before hand. If you want more, look at their entire archive.
• A pdf document titled ICEBREAKERS that explains the usage of ice breakers, and gives some great examples (page 2). 
• Kims Korner For Teacher Talk has this page of great ice breaker options. 
• About.com has THIS PAGE that lists a few activities, one that I'll be using called "a cold wind blows."
• A huge resource pdf page with 100 Ice Breaker Ideas.