10 Back to School Ice Breakers Your Students Will Love

Ice Breakers.  The bane of a teacher's existence during the first week of school.  You have a bazillion things to cross of your list to get ready, you meet with your team, and you discuss which ice breakers you want to incorporate during the first week.  What did we do last year?  Do you remember?  Those are frequent questions tossed around in this first meeting of teachers who still are transitioning from summer to school mode.

Try these 10 Back to School Ice Breakers that your students will love!  These activities cover different areas of thought, so students do not feel like they are repeating the same information with each ice breaker.  Students have fun, they get to know each other, you get to know them, AND you save time to cross other things off your list.  It's a win-win for everyone!

Two Truths and a Lie is one of my favorite back to school activities!  It's always so fun, even as a teacher, to try to guess which statement is the lie. You can really find out some interesting tidbits about your students with this one.  You can also use this activity with clickers to have students vote on which statement they believe was the lie.

Would You Rather... can be conducted by having students get up and move to different sides of the room based on what they would rather do in each scenario.  This allows students to really visualize how many would pick one choice over the other.  The best part of this activity is the classroom discussion that will be generated.

My No Good, Very Bad Day is a spin on the classic Skittles Ice Breaker.  The student shares one of the worst experiences he/she has had based on the color of the Skittle.  Students can share in small groups rather than in front of the entire class to make even the quietest student more comfortable.

This Fear Factor Ice Breaker is a 4-Corner Activity.  Students are presented with different phobias in the form of the "Are you afraid of.." question.  Students then vote on how afraid (or not afraid) they are of the various things by moving to the different corners of the room.

The Marshmallow Challenge is a fantastic team builder that is great for any subject area or age group even though this is a STEM activity.  This activity does require some prep ahead of time, but it is so worth it!  Read more about this activity on this blog post.

Super Sleuths can be differentiated based on the grade level.  Students write down three personal characteristic clues that their peers could use to identify them.  Younger students can write down more obvious clues (color of shirt) while older students can be more detailed (freckle on my left cheek).  Shuffle the cards and allow students to be detectives to determine who matches the clues!

What Would You Do is another take on the classic Skittles Ice Breaker.  This time, students are asked to share what they would do in different situations - say, for example, if they were president.  This is a more introspective ice breaker that really encourages students to think!

Have You Ever?  is an interactive game where students are presented with a range of questions - from common experiences to create bonds among students to uncommon to allow students to stand out and create discussion.  Students move to one side of the room or the other based on if they have or have never experienced the proposed scenario.

Find Someone Who... allows students to mingle with each other around the room to find people who fit each experience.  It's always fun to see who can gather the most signatures on their sheet or completes the entire sheet the fastest.

My Favorite Things is an ice breaker that uses M&Ms.  Students pick out three differently colored M&Ms that they will eventually find out corresponds to a favorite thing prompt.  Students can share aloud in small groups or as a whole class.

Looking for more Back to School Ideas?  Take a look at this board.

Classroom Expectations Cookie Lab

Most teachers have high expectations for their students.  But, how can you convey these expectations in a fun and memorable way?  I have a secret recipe for teaching classroom expectations that makes a lasting impression on students.

This Back-to-School Classroom Expectations Cookie Lab activity allows the teacher to discuss three important aspects:
1.) Effort
2.) Condition of the Work
3.) Quality of the Work

You will need two sandwich cookies per student, one piece of paper towel per student, and a lot of theatrics on your part!  The more dramatic you can be, then the better chance you have of students remembering your expectations throughout the school year.

You will want students to think this is a very serious lab.  They will need to follow instructions very carefully.  The first part has the student picking up the cookie - one hand on the top and the other hand on the bottom part - and then twisting it apart.  Ask students to lick the filling off of the cookie and then put the two sandwich pieces back together.  What's missing?  The filling.  Discuss with students how missing answers on assignments and quizzes is like missing the stuffing in your cookie.  You would expect the cookie to have stuffing as much as the teacher would expect you to make your best effort to answer every question.

The second part has students taking one of the sandwich pieces from the first cookie and really giving it a good lick.  Encourage students to really lick the cookie and get lots of saliva on it.  Of course, this receives lots of "yucks" and "eews" from the class...but it is a great set up for the next step.

Then, ask the students to turn to a neighbor and trade their cookie pieces.  Students might be a little hesitant to do so, but you can encourage them to only touch the sides of the cookie.  Once everyone has traded then ask the students to eat the cookie piece they just received from their neighbor.  They will look at you like you are absolutely nuts!  Pause long enough to garner some objections from the students...and then say "Just kidding!"

Most students will breathe a sigh of relief that they don't have to eat their neighbor's saliva-covered cookie.  And then you will probably have one student who is busily chewing his/her neighbor's cookie.  There is always one.  And, that student becomes what legends are made of around school!  Honestly, I have students who know that little Jimmy chewed the cookie three years ago.  I suppose they remember this story from when their older siblings shared what happened during this back to school activity.  But, we wanted a memorable back to school activity - right?  So there you go!

Talk about how disgusting eating a neighbor's cookie would be.  Then segue into how this is true for the work that is turned into the teacher.  Discuss how the work should be in good condition.  No stains, boogers, dog bite marks, etc.  You could really play this one up for the kids...and they get a kick out of it!

The last part has the students taking the second cookie and wrapping it up into the paper towel.  You want to make sure it's not wrapped too tight or else you will have a cookie crumb explosion everywhere when you give the next instruction.  Ask the students to make a fist and pound down on the wrapped cookie.  I usually give the kids around 30s or so - coaxing some to put some muscle into it or warning others to take it easy.  Once you think they have crushed the cookie enough, then say "Stop!"  Have the students carefully unwrap the paper towel.  What do they see?  Students should say how their cookie is crumbled.

Relate the crumbled cookie to the quality of their work.  They would expect a package of cookies to contain high quality cookies without being crumbled.  The teacher expects high quality work.  Discuss what you think constitutes high quality work in your classroom.

Close this activity by stressing how you know each student in the room can be their best and that you expect it!

Love this activity but short on time?  Click here to download a scripted lesson plan and a corresponding PowerPoint in my TpT Store.

Looking for more Back to School Ideas?  Take a look at this board.

Marshmallow Challenge

I look forward to sharing the Marshmallow Challenge with students every year.  The kids are already intrigued when you talk about anything with marshmallows, but they have no idea how much fun is in store for them during this class period!  Oh and science, too.  Fun and science is definitely a winning combination in my book.

This activity is an introduction to a STEM Challenge because students are designing prototypes of their marshmallow structure, but they are not formally following each step in the STEM Design Process.  The way this activity is structured allows student to naturally work without too much interference, which creates a fantastic talking point to bring up at the end of the activity.  Who stopped and tested, troubleshooted and adjusted?  Who built the structure as planned and only tested with a few seconds left?  What were the results for these different methods?  This will provide a lot of conversation as to why the STEM Design Process is important to follow in future STEM Challenges.

Another focus of this activity is to build collaboration and time-management skills.  The beauty of the Marshmallow Challenge is the way it allows people to work together and rally around each other.  For those reasons, this great activity can be used for any subject and any age.

So, how does it work?  Teams are challenged to design a free-standing marshmallow structure in 18 minutes with limited supplies that were provided by the teacher.  As the facilitator, you can acquire a lot of information about the people doing this activity as you walk around and observe.  Personality

traits will definitely appear - some will take charge while others hang back, some will build and build without testing along the way because they think they have a surefire plan for success, others will try something and test it then make changes along the way.  A teacher can definitely learn a ton about  the kids just in eighteen minutes!

Once the time is up, I like to have the kids throw their hands up in the air so we all know that no one is cheating and putting on any finishing touches.  Then, I walk around to measure any structures that are still standing with a meter stick.  The kids will wait with bated breath until I approach their table with the meter stick...hoping that the fragile marshmallow structure will last long enough "to count."  It's always fun to drum up friendly competition and offer a nice treat for the class champion - or even the grade level champion.  Students are always running into the classroom the next day to see what the grade level results were and how they compared.

In addition to the fun and games aspect of this activity, students are also critically thinking and collaborating.  All super important skills to activate and develop - especially after a long holiday or summer break!

Love this activity but short on time? Download either the SMART Notebook file or PowerPoint file that includes a visual aid for materials, activity guidelines, a timer slide, a data collection slide for class results, and extension questions as well as a detailed lesson plan and two-page student handout for planning and reflection.