Getting to Know You Activity

Here's a fun activity that helps you and your students to get to know each other at the beginning of the year. I've used it for years with my second graders and they absolutely love it.

Title:  "What's in the Bag?"


Materials:
One brown lunch sack for each student
5 items that tell something about you

What to do:
Provide each student with a paper sack to take home (donations from parents are always helpful). Tell them to fill the sack with 5 objects that something about themselves. For example, crayons might say, "I like to draw pictures and do art projects," and a golf ball says, "I am a good golfer."  I model for them by sharing my own sack, which includes 5 objects that tell about me  . . I have them guess what those objects "say" about me before I actually tell them.  This really creates a lot of good dialogue and they love getting to know me as their teacher and a person.

When they bring them to school the next day, we spend time sharing our sacks' contents with our new friends. The best thing that happens is that my students find others in our class with similar interests . . thus making lifelong friends. What a great icebreaker for meeting new people!

Click HERE to get the pdf instructions sheet that I send home with the kiddos.