Jump into a new year of learning with 50 Activities for the First Day of School. We caught up with author, Walton Burns, who shared these thoughts about the book:
“Day one of class is always the busiest day. Some of the things we do on the first day include decorating the classroom, handing out the book, checking he class list, and going over the rules. At the same time, you need to introduce themselves and the class, start learning names, build some rapport, and establish a respectful and hard-working environment. You might even have to do needs evaluation, and start assessing their language level.”
“So I started keeping track of activities that were fun, engaging, and helped me take care of some of that first day business. I wrote down icebreakers that worked particularly well at making students feel like part of the class. I kept track of ways I’d adapted some well-known getting-to-know-you activities and name games. I developed and refined engaging ways to go over the rules and effective methods of needs evaluation.”
Here are ten reasons why 50 Activities is awesome:
- 50 Activities for the First Day of School gives you a repertoire of activities to choose from—50 in all, believe it or not. So, you can match your getting-to-know-you activity or first day practice task to the level, mood, and objectives of your class.
- I’ve been compiling and curating these activities over my 16-year career as an EFL / ESL teacher and award-winning materials writer. The book only contains activities that I have used multiple times and found to work very well,
- Most of the activities come with ideas for adapting or varying the activities, or even extending them into a longer lesson. And I’m sure you’ll find even more ways to adapt them.
- Buying this book supports my small independent publishing company, Alphabet Publishing. I’m a teacher-turned-author-and-publisher, trying to support ELT teachers who want to share their teaching ideas but don’t have the name recognition to get their books published by the big guys.
- This book isn’t all icebreakers. There are lots of creative ways to start assessing your students’ needs, goals, and the level of their language now.
- There are also many activities that get students working with the language immediately, such as Sentence Auction Assessment or Label the Classroom.
- Name chain activities might seem silly or repetitive. You might have a great memory for names. But don’t forget that you want your students to learn each other’s names, too. Name chain activities are great for that.
- You can find some great student-centered and interactive ways to introduce class rules. Or better yet, have students set their own rules with the Rules Negotiation Activity.
- There are also activities that start the class off with a focus on good study habits and make your expectations clear. I really like the Sharing Tips activity where students share some of their best study tips with each other.
- Even though the book is called 50 Activities for the First Day of School, classroom community building isn’t just for day one. Use these activities throughout the school year to help keep rapport.
