Letter collage
Give each student a large printout of the first letter of his/her name. Block lettering will work best for this activity. For example: Also have glue sticks, scissors, and old magazines available to students to use. Using images, words, patterns, etc. from the old magazines, the students will decorate the inside space of letter on the handout to reflect who they are. Ask for volunteers to share their collage with the class. Be sure to hang them in a visible area of the classroom!
Newspaper headline
Give each student a piece of blank paper and markers. Challenge them to create a newspaper headline about themselves and write it in large, easy-‐to-‐read print on the paper. Their themselves – headlines should reveal something about personal quality, physical description, summertime accomplishment, etc. For example: Area girl wins MVP at summertime soccer camp! When everyone has completed their headlines, ask for volunteers to share their headline then tell the group a little bit about story that could accompany the headline.
“This is me!” exhibit
This is a great activity for the second or third day of school. Ask the students to each bring five items that are special to them in to school. The items should reflect something about their interests and/or personality. For example, a student could bring in a soccer cleat (shows he/she plays soccer), beach ball (shows he/she likes the beach), pizza box (shows that pizza is his/her favorite food), etc. Have each student spread their five items out on their desk, creating an exhibit of their personal items. The students will then take turns walking around the room looking at and discussing each other’s exhibits.
Let’s have some fun! Crab tag
Divide the class into two teams. Have the groups self-‐select one person to be “it” for their team (this person will be the one tagging people on the other team). The “it” students will try to tag the members of the opposite team. When a student gets tagged, they must get into the crab walk position. In order to be freed, tagged students need to crab walk to another tagged team member, tag each other with a foot, then they can rejoin the game. Be sure to change the “it” person on each team to give other students a chance to do the tagging.
