Which Back to School Activities Elementary can I use for Building Community in my Classroom? Which All About Me Activities are most engaging for my students? Read below to find.
Where do I begin building community in my classroom? Which back to school activities can I use for my elementary students the first week of school?
Why is building community in your classroom important?
When students feel connected to their peers, they become more invested in their learning journey. Building a strong community fosters trust, respect, and support, creating a safe space for everyone to thrive. Choosing engaging, purposeful back to school activities for elementary students can make all the difference in the world!
Let’s explore 7 Powerful Back to School Activities for elementary students. Each one is a guaranteed winner for building classroom community and starting the school year off with a bang!
Back to school Activities – elementary #1 Building the tallest Toothpick Tower
A great back to school activity for building classroom community is to have students work in groups with the intent of building the tallest toothpick tower. All you need are toothpicks and small marshmallows.
- Begin by placing students in groups of 4 or 5. For each group, place toothpicks and marshmallows on a flat surface where all students can work easily.
- Students must build the tallest free standing tower (without holding) using only the 2 materials
- Challenge students by setting a timer and a designated minimum height.
BACK TO SCHOOL ACTIVITIES – ELEMENTARY #2 Colored Dot Activity
- This is one of my students all time favorite activity. This is a terrific first day of school activity that truly helps to build classroom community.
- Have students close their eyes as you place a colored dot on their forehead. It’s important that they don’t see what color dot they receive.
- Tell students that the object of the game is to find all other students who have the same color dot . HOWEVER, THEY MUST DO THIS WITHOUT SPEAKING TO ONE ANOTHER.
- Students must find all other students with the same color dot in order to successfully complete the activity.
- It is amazing to watch all the different strategies that are implemented to complete this challenge!
BACK TO SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ELEMENTARY #3 Two Truths and a Lie
Two Truths and a Lie is a perfect way for students to get to know each other. The best part is that it is highly engaging! It’s amazing to see the facts that are uncovered!
In this game, everybody takes a turn saying three statements out loud. Two of them must be facts about themselves, or truths, and the third should be a believable lie. The goal of the game is for everybody to pick out which of the statements is the lie.
Have students use either the printable worksheet or the digital copy to jot down their responses. This will allow time to think critically about their choices.
Spend time having students take turns sharing about themselves.
GRAB THIS FREEBIE AT THE END OF THIS POST.
BACK TO SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ELEMENTARY #4 All About Me Activities – stepping into. . .
These Back to School All About Me Activities for Elementary Students are perfect for Back to School Activities and are a great way to build classroom community, as students share their completed sneakers with classmates. “Stepping Into. . .” are available for grades 2-3, and are offered digitally and PDF for printing. They available in my store Teaching with a Vision
There are 8 sneaker templates and 2 editable sneakers for your choice of activities. Bulletin Board displays are included and make an eye-catching back to school display for the first week of school, open house or parent/teacher conferences.
In addition to the cover template the additional sneakers are:
- My Favorites
- Stats About Me
- Celebrating My Uniqueness
- A Goal for This Year
- My First Day of School
- All About My Culture
- I Wish My Teacher Knew
Grab these valuable resources here:
- Stepping Into 2nd Grade All About Me Activity Click here.
- Stepping Into 3rd Grade All About Me Activity Click here.
- Stepping Into 4th Grade All About Me Activity Click here.
- Stepping Into 5th Grade All About Me Activity Click here.
BACK TO SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ELEMENTARY #5 Back to School Writing Activity
My Strongest Character Trait is a great back to school activity that also helps to build classroom community as students reveal their strongest character trait and then present their opinion writing to their classmates.
It will also serve as a perfect writing benchmark assessment for the beginning of the year. As a formative assessment, you can help determine future writing instruction and differentiate your groups based on writing needs.
What’s included:
- 12 Discussion Cards (6 Blank to edit)
- Six anchor charts that define each trait and include a synonym along with characteristics for that trait
- Two Blank/Editable Character Trait Anchor Charts
- A Graphic Organizer that includes possible sentence stems and transition words
- An Additional Word Bank and SentenceStem Resource (one page)
- Sample rough draft and published writing piece, with a completed graphic organizer
- Stationery (PDF and online version)
- An Online Version of the Entire Unit in Google Slides
You can view this resource in my store Teaching with a Vision by clicking here.
BACK TO SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ELEMENTARY #6 All about my culture in the world
There is no better way to build classroom community than by embracing the diverse cultures that exist in your classroom. In this resource, students not only research their own culture, but also have the opportunity to compare their culture with their classmates.
There are 8 activities all together along with Vocabulary Anchor Charts, and a Building Community Quiz available in PDF format as well as Google Forms.
The 8 activities are as follows:
- Where in The World Are We From? (Graphing Activity)
- Comparing Cultures
- Exploring Cultures in Our World
- Creating an Instagram Page (All About Our Classroom Community)
- Find Someone Who. . . (Building Community)
- Celebrating our Uniqueness, Banner
- Two Truths and a Fib
- Our Class Pledge
View this valuable resource here or click on each image above.
BACK TO SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ELEMENTARY #7 The day you begin back to school read aloud
This is by far my very favorite back to school read aloud. The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson is a phenomenal story that embraces cultural diversity and encourages children to be brave enough to share their unique story.
The writing prompt in this resource is a terrific growth mindset activity that will certainly build classroom community by answering the focus question: How am I fabulously like no other?
It includes task cards, vocabulary, graphic organizers and other unique multicultural activities that will strengthen classroom building community in the classroom!
You can view this resource in my store Teaching with a Vision by clicking here.
Check out all of my Back to School Resources by Clicking here
Grab the bundle of 4 Essential Back to school activities for building classroom community
Discover how you can save by grabbing the last 4 resources in a bundle!!
- 3rd Grade Back to School Activities BUNDLE Bulletin Board All About Me Explore it here.
- 4th Grade Back to School Activities BUNDLE Bulletin Board All About Me Explore it here.
- 5th Grade Back to School Activities BUNDLE Bulletin Board All About Me Explore it here.
If your interested Vocabulary Activities as back to school is approaching, please check out this Blog Post: 7 BEST SELLING VOCABULARY SPELLING AND WORD WORK ACTIVITIES THAT ARE WORTH GRABBING TODAY! Click here.
