First Day Activities

The first day of school usually proves to be an exhausting day for teachers and a relatively boring day for students. Lots of guidelines, and policies, and syllabi, and not enough activity and FUN. Most of them are excited to be back in school, with all of there friends, and in a safe environment. We should capitalize on that concept!

My first day activities always include 2 key ingredients: the "Syllabus Scavenger Hunt" and an activity that gets them engaged and speaking.

The Syllabus Scavenger Hunt takes the typical policy review to a fun level. I make a list of the key information I want the students to review with me the first day of class. I create a PowerPoint presentation with each key point phrased as a question and appearing on mouse clicks. Some of the questions have follow-up questions (How many performances do we have this year? When are they?).

For each correct answer, I give the student a small piece of candy; I usually buy one of those humongous bags of candy, such as Dum-dums, Jolly Ranchers, or a mix of types of candy. I call on a different student for each answer if the question has multiple answers. There are enough questions in the activity that every student is able to earn one piece, if not two or three pieces of candy.

Yes, it is a bit like bribing them to participate, but yes, it works! They look through the syllabus to find the answers as quick as they can.

Most recently, the activity that got them engaged and speaking was an online resource: Incredibox.

In between the Scavenger Hunt and this activity, I shared with the students what I had been doing over the summer (knee surgery, my garden, my Musikgarten classes, etc.) and I wanted them to share something about their summer. Usually just asking them to share out-loud earns me eye-rolls and groaning. But I added a twist.

I demonstrated the coolness that is Incredibox, then made the stipulation that if they wanted the opportunity to interact with the program, they would have to share, out-loud, something about their summer. Hook, line, and sinker. They were so enthralled with the program that they were BEGGING to share! It really gave me the chance to get to know them, while they just wanted to "play the game."

If you are not familiar with Incredibox, go play with it now for a few minutes. I'll wait here...

...

Fun, right? It exposes students to the concepts of looping and phrases and effects, while seeming like a game. My 6-year-old loves to play it at home!

After the student shared a detail from their summer, they could interact in whatever method they wanted to with the program: add a character, delete/add a character, mute a character, or mute everyone except that character. And my classroom students picked up on the bonus fills very quickly; some would watch the screen carefully and then volunteer to speak when the bonus was activated :)

This activity does require a computer with internet access and a method to display the screen for the entire class to view, as well as a decent set of speakers.

What activities work for you first day? If you do try Incredibox, stop by and comment with how your students interacted with it. Have a great start to the school year!

Icebreakers

I love using Icebreaker activities for the first few class periods to help the students get back in to the school groove and for us all to get to know each other better. The challenge for doing this with band classes is not using the exact same activity each year since I have the students for multiple years. Sometimes they really like the activities and constantly ask throughout the year, "Can we play that game again?" However I do like to keep things fresh and exciting for myself as well as them.

So this year I mixed and matched activities I have done in the past to create 2 activities that aren't necessarily new: they just have a new spin.

NOTECARDS
I purchased 4 types of patterned card stock at the dollar store to use as note cards. I could very well have used plain note cards, however the patterns are used as part of the next activity. I chopped the card stock into note card size and then mixed them all together to get an equal amount of each pattern for each class.

As the students arrived at the door, I handed them a note card and invited them to select a seat in the classroom. This is one of the few times that band students get to choose their seat instead of sitting in sections... they love it! Once everyone arrives, I verify that they all have a card and then give them 5 seconds if they want to trade patterns ("Pink is for girls!" "I want the stars!"). The next instruction is to have a writing utensil in their hand.

On one side of the card, they write: instrument played, favorite food, and favorite color. Yes, they can do multiple answers if they play many instruments, love all sorts of food (one student wrote: "anything edible"), and have a set of favorite colors. On the other side of the card they are to write one interesting detail that makes them unique. I give them a list of suggestions to get the mental wheels turning: sports, vacations, awards, activities, and "special" talents (aka Stupid Human Tricks, like wiggling ears). THEY DO NOT PUT THEIR NAME ON THE CARD.

I collect the cards and then randomly distribute them to everyone. While I am distributing, the instruction is to silently read the card they are handed and begin using "deductive reasoning" skills to narrow down who the card possibly describes. When I say GO they have 60 seconds to locate the owner of the card and return to their seat still holding the same card.

The final step is to go down the row and have each student share one detail from the card ("Evan's favorite food is Sushi") and then hand the card back to the owner. Even when I've known the student for multiple years, I still learn something new about them from this type of activity.


BALL PATTERNS
Using the same note cards, the student form teams of 4 based on the patterns of the note cards (cannot have 2 pink polka-dot cards on the same team). We clear the chairs to the perimeter of the room and the teams sit or stand in a circle. Each team receives a tennis ball. The goal of the game: create a pattern of movements using the tennis ball that progressively gets more challenging.

EXAMPLE: Student A gently tosses the ball up and catches it. A passes to B. Student B does A's motion and adds to pass around the back. B passes to C. Student C does A's and B's motions and adds switch hands. C passes to D. Student D does the entire pattern (toss, around, switch) and adds under the leg. D passes to A... and the game continues until someone completely gets lost in the pattern.

I leave them to work in the small groups for a few minutes, wandering around to check out the creativity and see how "long" they can get the pattern (such as 9 different motions). I add a little competition by calling out updates: "This group is up to 13!"

When they seem to have a pretty good grasp on the game, then I call "FREEZE" and ask the teams to combine with one other team to form groups of 8. We repeat the same process, now having to work with more people. Again, I leave them to work for a few minutes, calling out updates as I wander.

If time allows, we form one circle with all members and try to get a pattern all the way around the circle. Usually, it only makes it to about the 10th or 12th person before it's totally confusing or someone refuses to play. I don't make a big deal about it; I ask the students to grab a chair and sit approximately where they were before we cleared the chairs.

Now we discuss the game. What was easy about the game? What was most challenging? And the best question of all: Why did we play this game? I LOVE the connections they make between the game and playing an instrument in band: progressively gets more challenging, following directions, memorizing patterns, working together, helping each other, small versus big groups, doing the same motion over and over is easy but boring, and how the actions of one person can affect the whole group (remember the kid who refused to play?)

I took pictures of this activity, however I still need to verify the "permission status" of the students in the photos before I can post any. I will update when I have some I can use :)