Classroom Activities for Connecting with Students

You must connect with the students you teach before they will be ready to accept the content you present. Here are some specific classroom activities you can do with students to connect with them:

Be Authentic. Students will quickly be able to tell if you are really interested in what is important to them or not.

Have a Share Time. Have a classroom "Share Time." This is most appropriate and effective up to 6th grade. As part of class meeting time my 5th grade students take turns sharing something they did over the weekend, or something that they are interested in. This is a good way to learn what is going on in their lives. For older students you may have some classroom "break time" when students can talk informally and visit with each other. The teacher can casually join in the conversations.

Scavenger Hunt. There are several structured classroom activities you can do early in the school year to get to know your students. Have a classroom scavenger hunt where students find out different pieces of information about each other. Questions are framed: "Find someone whose favorite food is pizza." "Find the person who has the most brothers and sisters." After sharing some of the items with the whole class, you collect the papers and then have a wealth of information about your students. You can find some premade forms with scavenger hunts on them but I find it is best to customize for each particular class and age group.

Venn Diagram Share. This classroom activity serves many purposes besides learning information about your students. Students work in pairs and fill out a standard Venn diagram with each other. Differences are put in the outside circles and similarities are in the overlap section. This is an activity that can be done in conjunction with a literacy lesson about compare and contrast text structures. The extension at the bottom of the diagram sheet should have a space for students to draw a conclusion about the information. "Based on our information we conclude that we are more alike than different."

Game Time. Have a variety of short, simple games that the group can play together. This will vary by age and there are many books and resources that describe simple games. Take the time to teach the rules and guidelines to the games as you introduce them. This way it only takes a short time to have the group play and it will help insure they play safely and appropriately. Games allow you to see how your students interact with others, play fairly or not, deal with frustration, and what some of their talents are. Some favorite classroom activities in my 5th and 6th grade classes are: Silent Speed Ball, Wink, and Limbo. We also play versions of "Jeopardy" and "Deal or Deal" that are related to curriculum as a way of reviewing for tests.

Just as you plan for curriculum, you need a plan for ways in which you will continually connect with your students. When many former students come back to say hello and visit, you know you are making connections with students!

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