#hsSunFun: First Day Activities

Starting the first day(s) of school with something comfortable is always a challenge for me. I hate to just stand at the front and talk as much as I'm sure they hate to just sit and listen. Each year I rethink what I want to do to try and make things better.

Upon arrival this year I'd like to give each student a playing card. I have my desks arranged in groups of 4 (right now, anyway) and that would be an easy way to get them to sit. Most of these kids know each other pretty well so it's nice to mix it up a bit.  I figure I could have an "8", "9", "10", etc. group.

I go through all the names next (because I like to know how to pronounce names and find out nicknames) then start in on these slides:



[I don't have my birthday calendar up this year; I think I'll just post monthly birthdays on their respective boards.]

The QR code is there because last year I made stickers for each of the kids with a QR code for the class blog along with my email address and blog address.  I think I'll do that again this year but include my class twitter id, too.

Here's the quiz I give them:

The majority of these kids don't know me so it's a total guessing game, but they really try and logically figure things out. I always accuse the ones who do the best of stalking me. :)  I made a powerpoint to show the answers.

Fouss by number from Kristen Fouss

The only thing I don't like about this is that it puts too much attention on me. Not my thing.

After taking the "quiz" I ask the kids to write down some numbers that describe their lives. Then I collect and write comments back to them.

I'm not happy with the question I gave... it's pretty dry though it gets them thinking. I want to look for another one that will get them talking to each other.

The only thing I changed for my Algebra 1 class was the final question.  I gave them this one:
"Seven girls were walking down the street.  Each had seven backpacks, and each backpack held seven adult cats.  Each adult cat was pregnant with seven kittens.  How many legs were there?"

Made for some fun conversation!