First Week of School Activities | Facing History & Ourselves

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Toolkit Back to School: Building Community for Connection and Learning
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Students sit around a table working on a big paper activity while receiving feedback from an educator.
Collection

Activities for the First Days of School

These first-week-of-school activities create welcoming learning environments that prioritize care, relationships, and community.

Resources

9

Subject

  • English & Language Arts
  • History
  • Social Studies

Grade

6–12

Language

English — US

Published

Updated

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About These Back-to-School Activities

The first week of school is an important time for building community and focusing on students’ social-emotional learning. Students will be more likely to engage, take risks, and support each other if they feel a sense of trust and belonging among the group members and with their teacher.

The first-week-of-school activities in this collection address three important goals for the beginning of the school year:

  1. Reorienting students to school
  2. Getting to know each other and building relationships
  3. Creating classroom community

Teaching Notes

The activities are designed for teachers to use in conjunction with Opening and Closing Routines. Teachers can choose from multiple activity options and coordinate with colleagues who may teach the same students to avoid repetition of activities or readings. Each activity includes an extension activity to help students apply key concepts to their own lives in meaningful and creative ways. Teachers should also review our Journaling and Contracting teaching strategies before teaching these introductory activities.

If you choose to implement a get-to-know-you activity not included in Facing History’s Back-to-School Toolkit, we recommend that you choose from activities that are fun, don’t require students to be vulnerable in front of their classmates, and don’t require any special knowledge or skill, while at the same time providing opportunities for students to meet each other in pairs and small groups. Name games can be anxiety producing for many students, especially games that put them on the spot to think of something clever, require them to remember and recall new information, or involve a coordination challenge such as catching a ball. When meeting a new group of peers, what many adolescents desire most is to fit in and not stand out by saying or doing the “wrong” thing. By selecting appropriate activities for the start of the school year, your students will be more likely to engage in authentic and meaningful conversations, while at the same time retaining what they are learning about their peers.

Welcome Back to School Activities

The activities in this section are designed to welcome students back into the classroom by having them participate in a get-to-know-you activity, reflect on the prior year, and set goals for the current year. “Building Connections with Concentric Circles” is a low-stakes community-building activity to help students connect with their peers. “Looking Back, Looking Ahead” gives students an opportunity to reflect on the past year and offer advice to their teacher for the kind of learning community and learning experiences they hope to have this year. “Create a Goal and Discover Your ‘Why’” gives students an opportunity to create a personal goal and reflect on their motivations by probing “why” their goal is important. These activities will give students a sense of agency in the class and help to establish a positive learning environment. If you are considering implementing a get-to-know you activity that’s not included here, see Teaching Note 2 for guidance.

Exploring Identity and Relationship-Building Activities

The activities in this section are designed for students to explore the relationships between identity and names and to continue learning about their peers. Explorations of identity often start with names, the first piece of information we may share about ourselves. Pair “What’s in a Name?” (which considers the power of names) with “Pronouncing Names” or “Our Names and Our Place in the World” so that students can explore the tensions that may arise when navigating multiple identities. “Frame a Special Item” helps students understand the relationship between identity and storytelling and the power that comes with telling your story in your unique voice.

Classroom Community-Building Activities

In order to understand ourselves, we must also understand the communities to which we belong. The activities in this section lay the groundwork for the important step of creating a classroom contract. Choose between “Making Meaning of Community” and “Community Is...Community Isn’t” to introduce the concept of community. Then “Envisioning Our Classroom Spaces” helps students imagine a classroom where all members feel seen, valued, and heard in preparation for creating a class contract in the final activity.

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Activities for the First Days of School

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