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How do we embed family and community engagement into our teaching practice?

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What are we doing to strengthen family/school relationships?
Do our family engagement events create opportunities for families to network with each other?

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Strong family-teacher partnerships are key to student success. Families make sure homework gets done and kids are ready for school each morning. They are critical to children developing a love of learning. And perhaps most important, families have unique insight into their children: how they thrive, where they struggle, and what they know.

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Calling students' parents or guardians with good news encourages more good behavior and creates strong teacher-student bonds.

When I first started teaching and was overwhelmed by the demands and complexity of the job, my survival strategy was simply to take all the advice that came my way and implement it. So when my wise mentor suggested that after the first day of school I call all of my second graders' parents, I did.

In spite of my exhaustion, I called each family and introduced myself. I asked a few questions about their child. I said that their kid had had a good first day. I said I looked forward to working together.

Positive Phone Calls: Time-Consuming but Worthwhile

Throughout that year, and the years that followed, I continued this practice. I had a feeling that these positive phone calls home were important. After the first few days of a new school year, as soon as I'd identified the kids who might be challenging, I made it a goal to call their homes with positive news every week.

I would share this goal with my students, greeting them at the door with something like: "I'm so excited to see you this morning, Oscar! I'm going to be watching you really closely today to find some good news to share with your mom this evening. I can't wait to call her and tell her what a good day you had!"

When I taught middle school, this strategy made the difference between an unmanageable group of kids and an easy group. You'd be surprised, perhaps, how desperately an eighth-grade boy wants his mom (or dad or grandma or pastor) to get a positive call home.

On the first day of school I'd give students a survey that included this item: "Who would you like me to call when I have good news to share about how you're doing in my class? You're welcome to list up to five people, and please let them know I might call-even tonight or tomorrow!"

First I'd call parents of the kids who I knew would be challenging, those I suspected rarely got positive calls. When an adult answered the phone, I'd say, all in one long breath, "Hi-is this Mrs. _____? I'm calling from _____ middle school with great news about your child, _____. Can I share this news?"

If I didn't immediately blurt out the part about "great news," sometimes they'd hang up on me. or I'd hear a long anxious silence.

Some of these kids were difficult, extremely difficult. However, I was always able to find something sincerely positive about what they had done. As the days passed, I kept calling: "I just wanted to share that today when _____ came into my class, he said 'good morning' to me and opened his notebook right away. I knew we'd have a good day!" Sometimes I'd stop in the middle of class and, in front of all the students, I'd call a parent. The kids loved that. They started begging for me to call their parent too. It was the first choice of reward for good behavior-"Just call my mama and tell her I did good today."

I was saddened when parents would say, "I don't think anyone has ever called me from school with anything positive about my child." I occasionally heard soft sobbing during these calls.

I first used this phone call thing as a strategy for managing behavior and building partnerships, and it worked. However, after 10 years of teaching, I became a parent myself, and my feelings shifted into some other universe. As a parent, I can't think of anything I want a teacher to do more than to recognize what my boy is doing well, when he's trying, when he's learning, when his behavior is shifting, and share those observations with me.

I know how many hours teachers work. And I also know that a phone call can take three minutes. If every teacher allocated 15 minutes a day to calling parents with good news, the impact could be tremendous. In the long list of priorities for teachers, communicating good news is usually not at the top. But try it, just for a week-try calling the parents of a few kids. It doesn't have to be just the challenging ones-they all need and deserve these calls. See what happens. The ripple effects for the kid, the class, and the teacher might be transformational.

Calling students' parents or guardians with good news encourages more good behavior and creates strong teacher-student bonds.

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The Power of the Positive Phone Call Home

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Calling students' parents or guardians with good news encourages more good behavior and creates strong teacher-student bonds. When I first started teaching and was overwhelmed by the demands and complexity of the job, my survival strategy was simply to take all the advice that came my way and implement it.

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What you can do: Keep Families Involved in School

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What you can do: Keep Families Involved in School

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What You Can Do: Keep Families Involved at School

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Strategies for Equitable Family Engagement

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Strategies for Equitable Family Engagement

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Strategies for Equitable Family Engagement.pdf

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Beginning of the Year - Relationship Building Toolkit

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Beginning of the Year - Relationship Building Toolkit

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How can we ensure communication is truly two way?
- Interactive
- Equal
- Feedback-oriented

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How can we connect families to student learning, classroom activities, instructional strategies, school staff, and each other?

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Learning Outside of the School Classroom

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Learning Outside of the School Classroom

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Family Engagement by Educational Level.pdf

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How can we support families in having open conversations with children about academic expectations, course selection, career exploration, and post high-school planning?

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Impact of Family Engagement Strategies on Student Learning

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Impact of Family Engagement Strategies on Student Learning

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Family Engagement by Educational Level.pdf

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Partnering with Families of Middle and High School Students

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Partnering with Families of Middle and High School Students

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Middle School - Infographic for Families

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Middle School - Infographic for Families

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Partnering with Families for the Middle School Transition

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Partnering with Families for the Middle School Transition

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Engaging Families at the Secondary Level

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Engaging Families at the Secondary Level

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During the Year - GHS Phone Call Home (talking points)

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During the Year - GHS Phone Call Home (talking points)

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During the Year Family Phone Call - Talking Points.pdf

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High School - Families Play 5 Essential Roles to Support Student Success

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High School - Families Play 5 Essential Roles to Support Student Success

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Flamboyan has been on a journey to understand what family engagement looks like in high school. This six-part series explores what we've learned along the way through five key insights.
Adolescence. It's a time of significant change for students. Their brains are changing - as are their hormones! And, they are preparing to manage their success and future more independently. It's also a time of change for educators and families. As high schoolers mature, they take on coaching roles to help students learn to manage their own activities and advocate for themselves, in the hopes that they can operate autonomously by the time they strike out on their postsecondary paths.

At Flamboyan, we have seen - and research shows - that families play five essential roles in support of their children's education: communicating high expectations, monitoring their child's performance, supporting learning at home, guiding their child's education, and advocating for their child. Our work is grounded in helping educators support families to play these roles effectively.

Over the last decade, we have seen time after time that providing these supports to kids in elementary and middle schools is a predictor of academic success. After listening and learning to high school students and their families, we found that this still holds true in the upper grades. At the secondary level, three of these roles - communicating high expectations, monitoring progress, and guiding their education- stand out as especially impactful. Read on to learn how families described supporting their high school student's success.

Communicating High Expectations
Families communicated high expectations to students by talking with them about their future plans, interests, and goals. Connecting their education to future goals and plans communicated the importance of school and academic performance to living fulfilling lives.

Families also communicated high expectations by setting high standards for grades, attendance, and in-school behavior. Families held students accountable to these expectations, leveraged what uniquely motivated, discussed resiliency with their child when their child felt apathetic, and celebrated student's progress.

One DC high school student reflected on her mother's demonstration of this role: " She's everything, really, because if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be where I am today. She helps motivate me. I know that she told me, for 12th grade, to always stick by my counselor and my administrators, because they're going to be the ones that help me graduate on time. I learned that from her."

Monitoring Their Child's Performance
Families universally agreed that monitoring their child's progress was critical to supporting their success; however, there was the most variation from family to family in what this role looked like. Some families check in with students regularly about their homework and assignments, some families monitor their child's grades using the online gradebook, some families discuss prioritization to help students complete school work, and some families support skills like time management.

One parent of a DC high school students shared how they play this role, saying, "Even if it's just a check-in with the student about 'how is the homework going?' Or, 'Have you done this? This is a big assignment coming up.' Or, 'Your college applications are due.' Just check in with the kids so that they know that they're supported. But just the reminder. They're still teenagers."
Guiding Their Child's Education
Families said they guide their child's education by leading conversations about their future goals and planning for how to attain those goals. In sticking to a post-secondary plan, students, families, and educators monitor course selection and completion and support students to engage in extracurricular experiences that align to their interests and aspirations and build their skills and high school resume.

Families, especially those attending DC charter schools, emphasized supporting their children to select high schools by researching school options, talking to friends and other families, paying attention to schools' reputations, attending fairs, or meeting with school staff. Later in high school, families support students to navigate the college-going process with support from counselors.

One DC high school parent explained, "I do want [my children] to go to college. I do want them to experience what I did not experience. I do want them to have some type of degree so that they can look after their children. I would do whatever I need to do. I want to take some sort of course to get prepared, like sit down with somebody."

Support Learning at Home & Advocating for Their Child
While the three aforementioned roles were particularly impactful in high school, we saw an interesting shift in family roles around supporting learning at home and advocating for their child. With the transition to high school, families said they began to share the responsibility of these two roles with their child.

Families described how they support students at home by working with them to develop plans for success. For example, families help students plan to manage their time, prioritize schoolwork and extracurriculars, create an environment where they can enrich their learning at home, and seek out resources or experiences to support their progress.

A shift to supporting a student's ability to advocate for themselves was prevalent in our interviews. Families of high school students describe encouraging students to seek help and building their confidence to advocate for themselves at school. Families move from intervening on behalf of the student to coaching students to manage difficult situations.

As one DC high school parent explained, "I always tell [my son], 'Don't ever be embarrassed to raise your hand to ask a question. If you don't want to talk to them right then and there, wait 'til the end of class. Say, 'Can I talk to you during lunchtime?' Teachers do take their lunch break to sit down with a couple of students and help them out with their schoolwork.'"
Over the course of a student's secondary school career, families coach students to play these five essential roles more and more independently. Ideally, by the time a student graduates and pursues their postsecondary path, they can confidently fulfill these roles for themselves. Read more next week about our third insight, where we'll dig into how ownership for these roles between teachers, students and families evolves during high school.
Jacqueline Pratt-Tuke is the Senior Director of Secondary Partnerships in our Washington, DC office. Learn more about her at http://flamboyanfoundation.org/team_members/jacqueline-pratt-tuke .

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HS Series: Families Continue to Play 5 Essential Roles to Support Student Success

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Flamboyan has been on a journey to understand what family engagement looks like in high school. This six-part series explores what we've learned along the way through five key insights. Adolescence. It's a time of significant change for students. Their brains are changing - as are their hormones!

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Career Conversation Starters for Families

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Career Conversation Starters for Families

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Effective Family Engagement Could Look Like This

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Family Engagement: Strengthening Family Involvement to Improve Outcomes for Children

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Linking Family Engagement to Learning: Karen Mapp's '8 for 8'

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Family Engagement Matters - What the research says

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Family Engagement Matters - What the research says

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Based on existing research and best practices, the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships (Version 2) is designed to support the development of family engagement strategies, policies, and programs. It is not a blueprint for engagement initiatives, which must be designed to fit the particular contexts in which they are carried out. Instead, the Framework should be seen as a compass, laying out the goals and conditions necessary to chart a path toward effective family engagement efforts that are linked to student achievement and school improvement.
Suggested citation:
Mapp, K. L. & Bergman, E. (2019). Dual capacity-building framework for family-school partnerships (Version 2). Retrieved from: www.dualcapacity.org

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Based on existing research and best practices, the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships (Version 2) is designed to support the development of family engagement strategies, policies, and programs. It is not a blueprint for engagement initiatives, which must be designed to fit the particular contexts in which they are carried out.

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Communicating with Families about Academics

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Communicating with Families about Academics

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5 Roles Families Play to Accelerate Student Learning

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5 Roles Families Play to Accelerate Student Learning

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Pandemic Parents Are More Engaged. How Can Schools Keep It Going_.pdf

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Effective Family Engagement - communication

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Effective Family Engagement - communication

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Effective Family Engagement - Communication.pdf

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Supporting Education Through Community Engagement: Sienna Wildfield at TEDxShelburneFalls

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How families will transform our broken school system | Veronica Crespin-Palmer | TEDxMileHigh

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Building relationships between parents and teachers: Megan Olivia Hall at TEDxBurnsvilleED

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Welcoming activities - middle and high school

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Welcoming activities - middle and high school

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While get-to-know-you activities are typically earmarked for the first weeks of school, they shouldn't end there, say educators and researchers.

Whether it's that they love to play baseball, have three brothers, or enjoy writing or photography, celebrating your students' unique experiences and identities can bolster connections that keep them engaged and performing better in school. Students who have a deeper sense of self- and purpose -are also better able to define their goals and stay focused on pursuing them, concluded a 2014 study from David Yeager, Angela Duckworth, and colleagues.

We collected an array of class exercises from interviews with teachers, online resources, and our archives that will help students develop greater self-awareness and purpose. These insights can also give you a better sense of who they are, so you can be responsive to their interests-even if you're separated by screens or masks.

Reflecting on Experiences: 'Laws of Life' Essays

In the early 2000s, educators in an urban, high-poverty district in New Jersey gave their middle and high school students an interesting essay assignment: Write about the values and principles that guide your life.

The seemingly small activity, called "Laws of Life," is based on the work of philanthropist John Templeton, and it turned into a much bigger project that helped students develop a stronger sense of self, purpose, and possibility for the future, according to Maurice Elias, a psychology professor at Rutgers University. The project has since been replicated all over the world.

To run the assignment in your class, Elias recommends asking students to reflect on their past-in and out of school-and the experiences and people that made them who they are. From there, have students discern key characteristics that have influenced their lives and then craft an essay-or create a video or other multimedia content-focused on the "laws" or principles that drive them.

Question prompts like "Who do you admire? List three of their admirable traits" and "Describe an incident or event from which you learned a lesson 'the hard way'" can help guide students. Periodically throughout the year, have students refer back to their essays to reflect on what they wrote and ask themselves, "What's changed?" and "What's stayed the same?"

Exploring Identity-and Perceptions About It: Identity Charts

To get to know her students and ensure that they felt seen in her classroom, middle school teacher Shana White created a lesson to help them explore their identities. First, White set a foundation for discussion by defining identity and explaining how identities can sometimes be visible, like age, or invisible, like a person's life experiences.

Then, with the permission of six of her friends, White shared photos of their faces and had students guess their "identity characteristics." Afterward, she revealed the true details and led a class discussion about making assumptions about others based on how they look or act. To finish the project, students drew their own "identity portraits" or a picture of their face with half the face showing visible characteristics and the other half showing invisible characteristics.
Courtesy of Shana White
The education organization Facing History and Ourselves recommends a similar exercise called the "Who am I?" activity for middle school students. To start, select some key historical figures or fictional characters-think inclusively and avoid stereotypes, selecting a wide range of people from different backgrounds-and ask students to discuss "factors such as religion, gender, and geography" that influenced their identities.

Next, have students read the chapter "My Name" from the book The House on Mango Street, where the main character, Esperanza, talks about her name, revealing details about her culture. Ask students to create an identity chart for Esperanza, answering questions such as "What is her family like?" and "What does her name reveal about her personality?" Guided by the reading, students can then create identity charts for themselves and share them with the class.

Learning Important Details: Student Inventories

Student inventories can help teachers quickly discern details and facts about students that shape who they are, and can be used to plan further class activities and lessons. Ask students to list their favorite musicians, songs, sports, activities, games, or food, for example, or probe deeper with questions about their culture, memories, and family.

Another option is having students write 20 sentences that complete the prompt, "I am someone who..." or asking a short list of thought-provoking questions in one-to-one Hopes and Dreams conferences. Target questions that tap into who students are now and who they hope to be, such as "What are some things that bug you about the world?" "What inspires you?" and "What dreams do you have after high school?"

Look for patterns in student responses, and use what you learn to make classroom lessons and activities connected to students' interests, advises Rebecca Alber, an education professor in California, who says, "Students need to see connections between learning and their lived experiences."

Understanding Interests: Passion Blogging

In Allison Berryhill's high school English class, literary analysis exercises left her students "frozen," and free-writing assignments produced hard-to-read rants. Influenced by the book Beyond Literary Analysis, Berryhill started offering a new exercise called "passion blogging" last year, in which students write about topics that interest them.
Courtesy of Allison Berryhill
Students start by drawing "heart maps," or large hearts filled with illustrations and words that represent their passions. Then, they select one or two topics to explore further and look for related articles, images, and videos. Berryhill also gives accompanying class lessons on attribution of sources, texts, quotes, and imagery, and shares mentor texts to guide students' writing.

Students' blogs have run the gamut in subject matter, from pheasant hunting to hunger strikes to hiking, and give them an opportunity to dive deeply into things they care about. As part of the process, students are also tasked with reading and evaluating several of their classmates' blogs. Overall, the low-stakes activity has served as a springboard to build students' literary analysis skills for harder assignments, says Berryhill, while helping her get to know them better.

Documenting Your Life: Movies, Photos, and Podcasts

Though many teachers and students are feeling virtual brain drain, digital tools can provide new, creative outlets for students to share and define their interests and personalities. Teachers are having students create autobiographical mini-movies or trailers about their lives and produce podcasts or write articles for digital school newspapers on issues they care about.

Influenced by her community's experiences during the pandemic, Wendy McElfish, a high school teacher in California, taught a lesson on Dorothea Lange's famous black-and-white photography from the Great Depression. Then, she had her students take their own photos with phones to document their lives. She guided them with the themes "life outside your door," "through a window," "different life inside," and "porch photos of your family."

"When kids are faced with terrible circumstances, sometimes it helps to take an artistic approach," she said. "A lot of kids aren't good writers, but they have an eye and they have a voice... [and] they can show the world what I see."

Similarly, Lori Wenzinger, a middle school social studies teacher in South Carolina, paired up with a local photographer to create a three-week multimedia project called "Finding Your Joy." After the photographer taught two classes on photo composition and mood, students were tasked with taking photos that "capture joyful moments throughout their day," sharing and reviewing them as a class, and selecting their three favorites to keep in the class Google Drive.

Having Fun: Icebreakers, Games, and Accolades
Courtesy of Cathleen Beachboard
In addition to more comprehensive assignments and lessons, teachers can build in short, entertaining activities that keep students engaged and reveal insights about who they are.

Trevor Boffone, a high school teacher in Texas, asked his students to submit their favorite song to a list at the start of the year. Now, at the beginning of each virtual class, he plays music to kick things off, incorporating students' picks and his own.

Throughout remote learning, Cathleen Beachboard, a middle school teacher in Virginia, says she's including fun activities like show-and-tells and theme days. This fall, she also adopted a practice that her superintendent uses for staff meetings called "Three Cool Things I've Seen." Once a week, Beachboard calls out three things she's observed about students from classes that week that recognize them for their individuality.

"I know a lot of teachers are struggling right now getting students pulled in. I found the more encouragement and authentic praise we give to students, the more they dive in," she said. "These are scary times, but by giving students time to showcase their individuality, they will feel safe and ready to fully engage in learning."

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6 Exercises to Get to Know Your Students Better-and Increase Their Engagement

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Celebrating your middle and high school students' unique identities can bolster connections and improve performance in school.

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When putting together lesson plans for the upcoming school year, it can be tempting to dive into reading and math curriculum from day one. There's always so much to get through, and time seems in short supply. But it's worth making time for social-emotional activities early on. These can make a big difference for your students when they happen during the first weeks of school.

One of the biggest predictors of a positive school experience is whether students have made friends in class.[3] Students with friends in class generally consider their school experiences as positive, whereas students without friends often feel unhappy at school. As a teacher, you can use get-to-know-you activities to help students bond as much as possible.

Bonding during the first week of school can significantly improve your students' academic trajectory far beyond their time in your class. Students whose schools include social-emotional curriculum often see improved social skills, behavior, and even academic performance.[1] And in the long term, social-emotional learning is linked to an increased quality of life, better mental health, and reduced risky behavior for older students.[4,5]

50 First Day of School Activities for Elementary Students

If students can connect with their peers early in the school year, those positive relationships can make a world of difference throughout the year. Use these 50 classroom icebreakers and community-building activities to help your students bond during the first days of school.

1. "Dicebreakers:" All you need to play this first day of school icebreaker is a few sets of dice and plenty of willing students! Students roll the dice to answer a variety of get-to-know-you questions.

2. Autograph Scavenger Hunt: This activity encourages students to connect with as many peers as possible on the first day. Tell students to locate a different person for each box, if possible.

3. Wrinkled Heart Empathy Craft: Empathy is an important skill to teach your students for building a strong classroom environment. Use this activity to explain the importance of compassion to your students and help prevent bullying.

4. Beach Ball Buzz: If you're looking for a getting-to-know-you activity on the first day of class that gets students moving, try this one! Write a question on each side of the beach ball in permanent marker and have fun tossing it around while learning all about your students.

5. Get-to-Know-You Jenga: Even board games can be icebreakers if you make a few tweaks. As students build the Jenga tower, they'll ask and answer fun questions that are all about them.

6. Two Truths and a Lie: This simple icebreaker doesn't require any materials to play. Gather your students together in a group and see if you can guess which fun facts are the truth and which are lies.

7. Know Thy Neighbor Game: How good are your students at guessing facts about their new classmates? Play this creative getting-to-know-you activity to find out!

8. Name Planes: Putting together these "name planes" can be a crafty way for students to get to know each other. After everyone has created their paper airplane, send them soaring through the room and use them to have students introduce each other.

9. Inside-Outside Game: This game (number five on the linked list) encourages students to open up with each other and be vulnerable about what makes them unique as well as what qualities or experiences they share.

10. Meetball: This game (third on the list here) helps students memorize their classmates' names in a fun, stress-free environment. Gather your students in a group and take turns tossing the ball and practicing each other's names.

11. Math About Me: Finding engaging ways to teach students math can make a big difference during the first days of school. Use this activity to let students introduce themselves while learning about numbers.

12. Loaded Questions Game: Having students ask a list of questions back and forth can get repetitive. This game shakes it up by letting students pick questions out of a paper bag.

13. "I Am" Poems: Your students could be poets and not even know it! Make these visual poems together, then hang them up in your classroom.

14. Gummi Bear Share: A snack just might help your studentsGiving your students a snack can help them loosen up on the first day of school. Grab a bag of gummi bears and use the colors to assign students a few icebreaker questions they share with the class.

15. Color My Feelings Art: This art project is a great social- emotional learning activity to do during the first few days of school.

16. Personalized Plates: The upcoming school year will be a journey, which makes this license plate activity all the more fitting. Have your students describe themselves in a short word they can use as their own license plate, then encourage them to decorate the plate in a way that shows their personality. This is one of several activities listed at the link.

17. Trust Walk: This team-building activity is designed to boost your students' listening, communication, and goal-making skills.

18. Collage Mobile Craft: Why not get to know your students through a fun craft? These collage mobiles allow students to explore their creative sides as they introduce themselves.

19. Icebreaker Bingo: Using bingo to learn facts about other students can help make the getting-to-know-you process fun. It is the last activity listed on the link.

20. In the Not Seat: This icebreaker is like a cross between musical chairs and traditional get-to-know-you games. It's also a great way for younger elementary students to get their wiggles out, a welcome side effect if your students have some first-day nerves.

21. Forehead Dots Game: Can your students arrange themselves into different groups without talking? Find out by playing this challenging, fun game in class!

22. A Fan of Validation: Everybody likes to know that they are wanted and belong in class. Use this activity to show students how compliments can lift a person up.

23. Think-Pair-Share: Even early elementary students can learn how to use critical thinking skills with this class discussion activity. Scroll down a bit at the link to see more about this activity.

24. Movie Ball Game: This game is similar to the beach ball activity but with favorite movies and higher stakes. If a student doesn't think of a favorite movie to name by the time someone passes them the ball, they're out for that round.

25. Me Commercial: Need an "all about me" activity for older elementary students? The 10th activity on this list has you pair your students to create commercial-type skits so they can all get to know each other.

26. This or That?: If you need a simple icebreaker activity, try playing "This or That?" with your class. Students get to weigh in on questions like "Batman or Spider-Man?" or "Cats or dogs?"

27. Four Corners with a Twist: This fun get-to-know-you game gets students moving all over the classroom!

28. Meet Your Match Game: One way to build student relationships is by encouraging them to see how alike they all are. By handing each child a puzzle piece and helping them find the classmate with a match, you can show every child that they belong in school.

29. First Day Jitters Activity: It's normal to be nervous on the first day of school. This activity will remind students that they're not alone and that this school year will be one to remember.

30. Stringing Conversations Together Game: Activities that teach social skills can be especially helpful for early elementary students. This game encourages students to practice making conversations with new people.

31. A Great Wind Blows: Where will "the wind" blow your students as they answer icebreaker questions? Find out by playing this game with your class!

32. Paper Chain Challenge: This fun team-building activity requires your students to work together in teams to build the longest paper chain.

33. All About Me Selfies: Drawing self-portraits can help your students express themselves with the class. Your students can take (or rather, make) their own selfies to show off their unique personalities.

34. Newspaper Game: This activity will test your classroom's cooperation skills by seeing how far they can hop on newspaper sheets without touching the ground.

35. I Wish My Teacher Knew...: Let your students know you care about them by giving them a space to share their stories. It might surprise you what your students wish you understood about their lives.

36. Tale Toss: This team-building activity (see page 10 on the link) requires the whole classroom to work together and tell a story. How long can your classroom story get before dropping the object?

37. Speed Friending: This social skills activity gives students plenty of opportunities to make new friends in a short time period.

38. Alphabet Relay Race: One of the best ways to teach students important concepts is by making it fun. In this game, students work in teams to put together the alphabet.

39. Emotional Intelligence Reading: If you want to promote social emotional development from the first day of school onward, try reading one of these books as a class.

40. Time Capsule: A time capsule can be a fun way to measure your students' progress over the year. Plus, your students can get to know each other by seeing what they put in the time capsule.

41. Classroom Scavenger Hunt: Familiarize your students with their classroom while they get to know each other with this fun activity.

42. What Does a Social Friend Do?: What does it mean to be a true friend? Brainstorm qualities of a good friend with your students, then create a poster together to hang up on the wall as a daily reminder.

43. "I Like It" Tag: Turn this classic P.E. game into a bonding activity by using it to unite students with similar likes.

44. All About Me Bag: For this activity, students fill up a paper bag with their favorite things and share them with the class. This can be a fun twist on traditional show and tell.

45. The Toilet Paper Game: If you're looking for a quirky get-to-know-you game, try playing this one with your new class!

46. Chit Chat Cards: It can be tough for new elementary students to think up conversation starters. Help your new students connect faster by putting together some "chit chat cards." (After clicking on the list, scroll to activity number three.)

47. Get-to-Know-You Snowball Fight: You don't have to wait until winter to have a snowball fight! Have fun making paper snowballs with your class, then use them for a unique icebreaker (pun intended!) game.

48. Name Game: Getting-to-know-you activities that teach your students their classmates' names can be especially helpful for kindergarten students. This game pairs each name with an adjective to help students remember the names better.

49. Back-to-School Resolutions: Have older elementary students freewrite a few resolutions for the school year, then take turns sharing them with the class.

50. Whole Body Listening Games: Teaching your students how to listen early on can make a big difference later in the year. Use these activities to give your students the tools they need for active listening.

Sources:

1. Durlak, J.A., Weissberg, R.P., Dymnicki, A.B., Taylor, R.D., and Schellinger, K.B. The Impact of Enhancing Students' Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Universal Interventions. Child Development, January/February 2011, 82(1), pp. 405-432.

2. Denham, S.A., and Brown, C. "Plays Nice With Others": Social-Emotional Learning and Academic Success. Early Education and Development, 2010, 21(5), pp. 652-680.

3. Peters, S. "I Didn't Expect That I Would Get Tons of Friends More Each Day": Children's experiences of friendship during the transition to school. Early Years: An International Research Journal, 2003, 23(1), pp. 45-53.

4. Cohen. J. Social, Emotional, Ethical, and Academic Education: Creating a Climate for Learning, Participation in Democracy, and Well-Being. Harvard Educational Review, July 2006, 76(2), pp. 201-237.

5. Payton, J.W., Wardlaw, D.M., Graczyk, P.A., Bloodworth, M.R., Tompsett, C.J., and Weissberg, R.P. Social and Emotional Learning: A Framework for Promoting Mental Health and Reducing Risk Behavior in Children and Youth. Journal of School Health, May 2000, 70(5), pp. 179-185.

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50 Back to School Activities for Elementary Students - Waterford.org

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Use these 50 classroom icebreakers and community-building activities to help your students bond during the first days of school.

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Sample Communication Log

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