Get to know your students, build classroom community, and provide learning opportunities with this printable book of back-to-school icebreaker activities for elementary students.
The start of the new school year is the perfect opportunity for your class to get to know each other a little better. Icebreaker activities are a fun way for students to introduce and familiarise themselves with their new classmates, with small group or whole class games and activities. Icebreakers and getting to know you activities are a great way to build a classroom community and help students feel safe and comfortable in your classroom.
The activities in this printable packet offer something a little different from your usual classroom icebreakers as they also build reading and writing skills, provide learning opportunities and incorporate other subject areas.
How To Use These Icebreaker Printables
Whether it’s the first day of school or the first week of school, these activities can easily be integrated into your reading or language arts lessons with book report activities, all about me scrapbooking, journalism-style feature story writing, a poetry-based getting to know you activity, and more.
Each activity has teacher notes with clear objects, a materials list, and step-by-step instructions. There are also printable handouts for students, to support them with the activities including templates and worksheets.
Icebreaker Activities In This Packet
Classmate Book Report
Students pair up with a classmate to share an exciting event from their summer. They convert that story into a book report using the worksheet to guide them.
Create a Scrapbook
Students create a scrapbook to share with the rest of the class. They start by answering icebreaker questions about their favorite things, including their favorite food, favorite sport, or favorite animal, then it’s time to get creative with photos, drawings, and construction paper to make a scrapbook to display.
The Feature Story
In this activity, students get to test out their skills as a journalist, interviewing their new classmates to create a newspaper-style article. Includes an interview notes template to help students build their interview and write their story.
Make a Giving Tree
Starting with a reading of The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, students will go on to think about meaningful gifts and create their own ‘giving tree’ that can be displayed on the classroom wall or bulletin board.
Getting To Know Each Other Through Poetry
A great activity for introducing new types of poetry, students get to know each other by creating their own Bio Poems. Using the worksheets, they write their poems to share the things they love, how they feel, what their fears are, and much more. If time allows, students can decorate their cards to display in the classroom to share with the entire class.
Personal Mandalas
A great icebreaker if you’re looking for a more creative activity. Students construct and illustrate personal mandala templates to share their goals, their hopes for the future, and more. The activity can be made more challenging for learners by having them create their own categories.
Postcards from Famous People
Students write postcards about their summer break using the pen names of famous people to hide their true identities. They then create their postcards on index cards which are distributed to the whole class. Students then have to guess who the real author is. Complete this fun icebreaker activity over any period of time to allow students to get to know each other more in between.
Class Constitution
A great opportunity for team building, students will learn about the purpose of the U.S. Constitution before writing their own Class Constitution. Have students work in small groups initially to brainstorm suggested rules, before coming together as an entire class to agree on the final constitution which should be signed by the teacher and each student.
