As teachers, we know the importance of of team building games and activities, especially in the first week of school!
Team building is the foundation for creating a safe learning environment where effective peer learning happens and where students communicate and interact in positive and respectful ways.
Here are 4 successful community building ideas, strategies and resources that you can easily implement into your elementary classroom.
This Back to School Activities – All About Me – Getting to Know You BUNDLE is an absolute life saver for the first few weeks of school! Build a happy classroom community with these team building and growth mindset activities!
1. All About Me Puzzle: Students work in pair and write and cut their own A4 puzzle set. Then their partner reads about their friend and puts the puzzle together – vice versa:
- All About Me Puzzle (9 pieces)
- About Me Puzzle (2 pieces)
- About My Family (2 pieces)
- About My Friends (2 pieces)
- About My Pets (2 pieces)
- About My Teacher (2 pieces)
- My School (2 pieces)
- How I Get To School (2 pieces)
- My Favorite Movie (2 pieces)
- My Favorite Book (2 pieces)
- My Favorite Ice cream (2 pieces)
- My Hobby (2 pieces)
2. Empowering Back to School Bulletin Board and First Week of School Activities consists of:
- 17 individual letters and 1 exclamation mark in A4 size that spell Reach For The Stars!
- EDITABLE brightly colored stars with embedded name templates for students
- 1 black and white star template for students to personalize and decorate
- Bright colored number pennants for the 2021-22 school year
These 10 inspirational posters are literally the back-bone of building a positive growth mindset in your classroom:
- Believe In Yourself
- Be A Goal Setter
- Strive For Accuracy
- You Can Do It
- Do Your Personal Best
- Make Learning Fun
- Have a ‘Can-Do’ Attitude
- Reflect On Your Learning
- Stretch Your Thinking
- Reach For The Stars
For students to truly understand the meaning of the above-mentioned posters, the following booklet with writing templates has been created (ideal for first week activities!) Each writing template has a writing prompt to help students:
- ‘My Reach For The Stars’ Book
- I Believe In Myself
- I Can Set Goals
- I Can Strive For Accuracy
- My Personal Best Means…
- I Can Make Learning Fun By…
- I Can Reflect On My Learning By…
- I Can Stretch My Thinking By…
- A ‘Can-Do’ Attitude Is…
- Reach For The Stars Means…
- A blank writing template
- Extra lined writing template for extension students or upper grades
3. Back to School Writing Activities for the First Week of School. The finished writing samples look great on a Getting To Know Your Bulletin Board:
- Get To Know Me (girl image)
- Get To Know Me (boy image)
- My First Week Of School
- About My Family
- My Favorite Movie
- Vacation Snaps
- Summer Time Fun
- My Favorite Book
- Fun Facts About Me (girl image)
- Fun Facts About Me (boy image)
- What I Like About School
4. Math Talk Bulletin Board with Posters & Strategies to empower the little mathematicians in your class:
- ‘Let’s Talk Math’ heading
- SOLVE acronym
- Addition Symbol
- 8 addition vocabulary cards
- Subtraction Symbol
- 8 subtraction vocabulary cards
- Multiplication Symbol
- 8 multiplication vocabulary cards
- Division Symbol
- 4 division vocabulary cards
- 26 Math Growth Mindset Cards to empower students to think mathematically
- 5 SOLVE strategy cards1. Search for Smaller Parts2. Organize Your Thinking & Strategies3. List: Make a List4. Visualize: Draw a Picture5. Estimate: Take a Guess
Suitable for:
- First Grade
- Second Grade
- Third Grade
- ESL Newcomers
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