Classroom Ideas
The first day of school can cause a lot of nerves – for students and teachers alike. Ease some of the nervousness your students might be feeling by introducing yourself in a fun, unique way. When you bring a bit of humor and fun into the classroom, your students can relax and get the year off to a great start. Here are some creative ideas to help you introduce yourself in a new way!
1. Showcase yourself in a newsletter
Use a newsletter template to share information about yourself. You can include important information, such as your contact details, as well as fun things like your favorite food and favorite color. Mail one to each student or pass them out at your meet the teacher night.
2. Make a magnet
Create magnets with your contact information and details for families to hang on their refrigerators at home.
3. Create a brochure
Brochures are compact ways to convey important information. Capitalize on that by making a brochure all about yourself! Include your contact details and anything else, such as facts about your childhood, that you think your students would want to know about you. Use this template, or try using your free Canva teacher account for easy digital designing.
4. Make a scratch-off card
If your students don’t find out who their teacher is until a back-to-school or meet-the-teacher event, you can reveal it in a fun way with scratch-off cards. Hide photos of each teacher under the scratch-off material and hand the correct one to each student as they come in.
5. Send a postcard
Create a postcard with all the things you want your incoming students to know and send it off shortly before school starts. Bonus points if you include a photo of yourself on the card!
6. Encourage some math practice
Decide what information you want your students to know about you and create some math problems for them to solve in order to find the answers. For example, if you want them to know that you have five pets, you could write, “I have 10 – 5 pets at my house.” It’s fun for students and squeezes in a bit of math practice before the first day of school even arrives!
7. Make a QR code
Compile all the information you want your students to know online and create a QR code that links to all those pertinent details.
8. Create a PowerPoint
Make a variety of slides that share important details about yourself, as well as a few fun facts to get students excited to spend the next year with you. Show it on the first day of school or at your meet-the-teacher event.
9. Fill out your “phone screen”
This is a great activity to do with your students on the first day of school. Each person, including you, gets a blank phone design and fills in the empty squares with “apps” that describe important facts about you.
10. Start some class journals
Grab a notebook and start some class journals. You, as the teacher, can create the first entry in each journal. Your students can learn about you and their classmates as they each get a turn to write.
11. Play ball
Head over to the dollar store and buy a couple of beach balls. Use a Sharpie to write a question on each section. Get to know your students while they get to know you by sharing the answer to each question as you throw and catch the ball.
12. Make posters
Give each student a large piece of construction paper and have them create a poster that shares all the important information about themselves. You can make one too, and then everyone can share their poster and learn more about each other.
13. Design an anchor chart
Grab one of your blank anchor charts and create a large display of facts about you. Even better, wait until the first day of school and fill it out with your students.
14. Make a class scrapbook
Create a blank scrapbook page for each person in your class to fill out that includes important details about themselves. Once you’ve made your teacher page, you can assemble each page into one class book so everyone can get to know each other.
15. Create a photo collage
Gather some of your favorite pictures showing things about you and assemble them into a collage to share with your students. Encourage your students to each make one too!
16. Write “I am” statements
Divide a piece of paper into sections and complete the beginning “I am” inside each section. This is another great activity to introduce yourself and get to know your students.
17. Craft a collage
Write your name in the middle of a piece of poster board and then decorate the rest with hand-drawn pictures, magazine images, or pictures you print, each of which tells your students something about you.
18. Introduce your “selfie”
This one is like creating apps to describe yourself, each page is a blank cell phone that you fill out with information to introduce yourself. Include such things as who is in your family, what your favorites are, and what hobbies you enjoy outside of school.
Try one or more of these for an exciting start to the year!
