first day of class activity for students who already know each other?

Question

something fun that will get them motivated...
it´s an ESL advanced class.

they already know me too

Answer 1

I've done this activity and it works really well. You mentioned that they know each other already and that is fine. The activity is: Have each student write anonymously on a note card something about themselves that no one knows. (nothing illegal or immoral) and shuffle the cards up and pass them out to the students making sure they don't get their own. Then, have the students walk around the room and try to figure out who their card belongs to. This is a lot of fun and really breaks the ice. Good luck!!

Answer 2

For advanced ESL, I'd introduce them to contemporary poetry on the first day. Since they all know each other, they'll feel comfortable enough to talk about it. And since poetry uses so many metaphors and similes and other figurative language techniques that may be difficult to grasp if English is a second language, you could all have a pretty good laugh about some of the confusing parts and how class members choose to interpret them. It's a good ice breaker, even for people who know each other.

Answer 3

I tired this activity with second-graders who had been together for five months, but needed to do some teambuilding. Play the game of Telephone. You probably know what that is, but just in case, one person whispers a message into another's ear. That person repeats the message to the next, and so on. It's fun to see whether the message has changed in its trip throughout the classroom, and it also brings home the point that you must work together to get it to come out right. It really seemed to make a difference in my class.

Answer 4

Here's an activity that works with many ages, especially upper elementary and middle school.

On the first day, I have the kids draw a map of their classroom from last year. I tell them to label everything in the room -- class library, rug area, their desk, teacher's desk, math center, writing center - whatever. Then they put stars or happy faces on two places in the room where they felt strong last year, and sad faces on the places where they felt not-so-strong. I model all this for them before they do it.

Next, I have the kids write 3 resolutions for the coming school year. They can be academic, behavioral or personal. But I encourage them to be as specific as possible. For example, instead of writing "I want to do better in reading," I encourage them to write "I want to raise my reading level two grade levels" or "I want to read a book longer than 100 pages by myself" or "I want to complete 20 books this year."

Lastly, I choose a handful of volunteers to share their map and their resolutions with the class. The key thing here is that, after the child shares his/her work, I ask the rest of the class to make suggestions about what specific things the rest of us can do to help this person achieve his/her goal. That way the students feel like they're all working together to help each other.

It's a pretty fun, easy activity, and it sets a good tone for the start of the year.

Answer 5

Even less difficult is "Sing a acceptance" initiate with "sing a acceptance" first 2 be conscious a similar word, third be conscious one word decrease, then factor to your self and sing your call to a similar notes. Then circulate around the circle so each and each new child's call is sung. circulate around a minimum of three times, then circulate to something else. try this each and every morning the 1st week. Do the alphabet music too, via fact the a number of toddlers will comprehend the alphabet, yet via different letter names (ah instead of aye for A). you additionally can do previous McDonald, surprisingly in case you have pictures to circulate with it. For some toddlers, clapping facilitates imprint the training too.