It is important to greet each student as they enter the classroom. Some teachers use passwords in order for students to enter the room. For password ideas use high frequency words and rejoinders. The social studies teacher next to me greets his students at the door with an either or choice each day, soccer or football, cats or dogs, cake or pie?
I assign seats from day one. Assigned seats reduce anxiety for students by taking away any concerns about where to sit or who to sit with. Assigned seats help establish your authority, show that you are prepared and save time. I usually just make a seating chart alphabetically for the first day but sometimes I use my 40 animal cognates as seat finders. I make two copies of the animals. I tape one animal to each seat and then hand out a matching animal at the door as they enter.
An entry task on the first day of school is to write your name on an index card and list 3 facts about yourself. I collect these cards and put a rubber band around the class set and store them in a recipe file on my desk. I use these to randomly call on students, to form groups, to get to know the students, and to create classroom connections.
Each day I pick an interesting fact from someone’s card and read it to the class. For example it might say “I have been to Hawaii.” I say anyone who has been to Hawaii stand up. Everyone who has been to Hawaii stands up and we make connections around the room. I can ask follow up questions like which island, with whom, what did you do? I can say anyone who wants to go to Hawaii stand up. Then have everyone sit down and pick another card. I purposely look for things that I think a lot of people have in common, point out the connections, and look for opportunities for spontaneous interpersonal communication. I do a few each day until I have used a statement from everyone at least once.
I then do the About me presentation from the Creative Language Classroom. This is a great activity to show how I am going to teach and how they are going to learn as well as how much they can already understand with supports. There are templates in French, Spanish, and German that you can use to create your own presentation about you. There are also student information sheets in French, Spanish and German to get some information about the students using the target language.
Name Games – I like to play name games standing in a circle. I model “Me llamo Senora Johnston” “¿Cómo te llamas?” and then pass a ball to a student. That student says their name and tosses the ball to another student that has not been called on yet. They need to remember the order. Once everyone has been introduced, then add in a second ball. You can keep adding in more balls so that several are flying around. This can keep going as long as there is high interest. The key is to end on a high note and keep them wanting more. This activity can be built upon with many new get to know you phrases such as me gusta or soy de. For a variation establish a pattern and then introduce more items calling out the persons name you are throwing to.. se llama…
Hot potatoe is another name game played in a circle. I pass the ball around the circle while chanting “¿Cómo te llamas, cómo te llamas, cómo te llamas- tu?” When I say tu the student with the potatoe has to say Me llamo and their name. I vary the speed of the chant and how many times I repeat it. Later in the year we can play hot potatoe with pictures of vocabulary words or questions. The person caught with the potatoe when the timer goes off has to answer a question or describe a picture.
Another way to make connections is the game I call Te presento a in Spanish and Je te présente in French. Have the students make a name tag and stand in a circle. I start in the middle. I say Je te présente and say a student’s name. The students on either side of the named child race to wave and say “Bonjour” to the other child. The slowest of the two moves to the center of the circle and becomes the next caller. This forces kids to listen for the names of the kids on either side of them. After a few minutes have everyone find a new spot so they are next to different people and listening for other names.
The first week of school we play Heads up 7 Up to learn each other’s names. Select seven students to go up in front of the class. The rest of class sits at their desks and put their heads down and one thumb up.
The seven students walk around the room and each one touches the thumb of ONE person. Then, when the seven are back in front of the room, the students who have been chosen have to guess which student chose them. If they are right, they take that person’s place in the front of the room. If they are wrong, the person in front stays there to play another round. A variation for later would be to have the seven students have pictures of vocabulary words. Then the other students guess which vocabulary word chose them.
What do you do the first few days of school?