It’s the start of a new school year and I’m sure that you’re preparing your lesson plans for the first day of class. It’s always a challenging time of year with lots of new students, new colleagues and, particularly this year, a lot of uncertainty and new methods to get used to. I always like to have a really good idea of what I’m going to be doing in my first classes, especially the ones with new children who I haven’t taught before. We all need to get to know each other and start work as soon as possible, whatever age or level they are.
It’s also important that the kids in your class start having fun and enjoying English from Day 1. This is your chance to convince them and their parents that they are going to love learning English with you. So here are my 10 favorite ideas for games and activities for you to prepare your best first day of class ever whether it’s in person or online and begin the new school year as you mean to go on.
First day of class Hello songs
A song or two is a great way to start your class, especially with smaller children. It’s a good way to get the kids up and moving and forget that they might be in a strange place without their parents. Singing is also a good way to start introducing some English vocabulary in a non-threatening way especially if you have a video to go with the song and lots of actions and TPR to do as you sing. You can find my Top 10 Hello songs here but these are some of my favorites to use for back to school when you are meeting a new class:
What’s Your Name? by Super Simple Songs – an easy song for even the smallest children to learn and sing along with. You can adapt it to the names of the kids in your class and let them call out their names as you go around the class.
What’s Your Name? by Dream English Kids – my other favorite getting to know you song for the first day of class with young children.
What’s your name? – clap and chant
If you don’t want to sing a song straight away, this is another good way of finding out and learning the names of the children in your class and getting them to start asking questions. It’s a very simple clap and chant to do sitting on the floor in a circle. You can adjust the rhythm however you want but I just do it like this: What’s your name? what’s your name? what’s your name? clap clap clap. As you say what’s your name, clap and tap your knees in time. Go around the circle doing the chant and getting the kids to reply: my name is …. When you’ve done it altogether as a class, you could put the children in pairs and ask them to do it together, asking the question and then answering. Then change partners.
Learning names – memory chain game
Once you’ve found out who is who, you all need to start trying to remember everyone’s name. This is a fun way to do that and is useful for both you and the kids to get to know each other. It’s also an excellent way to start using verbs, especially the verb To be. Put everyone in a circle and start by introducing yourself: “My name is ….” Then turn to the person next to you and ask them their name. Once they have replied, repeat your name again but this time add their name too: “My name is … and his/her name is …” Go around the circle doing the same thing but each time adding one more name to make a chain. The last person in the circle will have a lot of names to remember but everyone can help them and in that way, everyone is learning the names.
Asking questions about each other – Who am I?
Once you’ve broken the ice and everyone is getting over the first day of class shyness, it’s time to do some work in small groups or with a partner and then play a fun game. So put your students in pairs and get them to ask some easy questions about each other. Adjust these questions according to age and level of English. For little children it could be to ask names and ages. For older kids, they can ask about hair color, hobbies and whatever they want really. When everyone has had a go and you’ve changed partners a couple of times, get the class back together and play a Who Am I game.
Write everyone’s name on the board or get everyone to stand up. Choose a student but don’t tell anyone else who it is. Then let the kids ask questions and answer yes or no.As you answer the questions, eliminate the students until you get down to the last one who should be the student you were thinking of. For example: “Are you a boy?” If yes, all the girls sit down or are crossed out on the board, if no, all the boys sit down or are crossed out on the board.
Remembering information about each other – Lucky Dip
This is a similar game but instead of asking questions, the kids are going to be describing and giving information about their classmates. Put everyone’s name in a hat of a bag and let a student pull out a name. Now they have to describe that person as thoroughly as possible and everyone else has to guess who it is.
Team games – Cannons, hearts and bombs
Team games are a great way to get everyone working together and get to know one another. Cannons, hearts and bombs is one of my favorite games to play with primary/elementary aged kids but you can also simplify it and play with younger classes too or make it more difficult for older kids. To see how to play it, have a look at my New Year Resolutions lesson plan or my Visit London lesson plan.
Classroom rules
It’s a good idea to make sure everyone knows the classroom rules right from the start of the new year. A nice way to teach these is to get everyone involved and make a big poster to hang up in your class with everything you can and can’t do. A collaborative poster is one of my favorite ways to bring art into the classroom and combine this with some English language learning. So play a game first to teach the rules and then get out the coloring markers and get everyone writing and decorating and working together.
Classroom Equipment
Your classroom equipment is absolutely crucial for your teaching during the year and everyone has their favorites and their survival kit. Make sure everyone in the class knows what they can use, what they can and can’t touch and, if you have lots of toys, when they can play with them. Introduce any puppets or teddies that you might use with smaller children. I find that sometimes, little kids are scared of puppets. If you plan on using them, this is the time to make sure everyone is happy and not worried by them.
Plans for the year
This is a really good thing to do with older kids and teenagers. Maybe they will be sitting exams this year or have a particular goal that they want to work towards. So it’s good to start talking about this right at the beginning of the year. What do they want to achieve? Is there anything they are worried about? What do they think they need to improve? And what do their parents want them to achieve? Obviously you will talk about this with the school and the parents too but it’s nice to have an idea and discuss it in an informal way with your students too. Maybe you could make a chart to be filled in during the year with different goals to achieve. You could even have rewards as they get to each higher stage.
A fun goodbye
Make sure to end your class on a fun note so that the kids are keen to come back for more. If you want to finish with a song, you could use one of my favorite goodbye songs. Otherwise you could finish with a fun game or a race. You could also finish with a story to get everyone calm and ready to go home. Whatever you do, don’t forget to tell the kids how much fun you’ve had and how much you’ve enjoyed meeting them and answer any questions they or their parents might have.
That was my favorite ways to use the first day of class. Do you have any other great tips or ideas for teachers? If you’ve found this useful and want to see more, you can find lots more teaching ideas, lesson plans and song lists for all age groups and all English levels here on the site. To keep up to date with new posts and stay in touch, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page or sign up for email updates by filling in the form below.
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