Activities to Start the Year

Who are you? You may be asking this when looking at all the new faces in your classroom at the beginning of the school year. You may also be asking: How can we, as a classroom community, encourage each other to answer this question authentically, peeling away the many layers that comprise who we are...

Who are you? You may be asking yourself this when looking at all of the new faces in your classroom at the beginning of the school year. You may also be asking: How can we, as a classroom community, encourage each other to answer this question authentically, peeling away the many layers that...

This start-of-the-school year reflection invites students to connect to their natural surroundings. With a focus on gratitude, students explore how nature positively impacts them.

Students anonymously share their anxieties about the new school year, consider how to support each other, store their findings in a "time capsule" that they revisit later in the year – and pass on their wisdom and encouragement to the next class.

In this back-to-school activity, high school students partner with students from a class in a neighboring school to share and document strategies and coping mechanisms.

Students discuss the concept of Ubuntu, or interconnectedness, then consider the news this summer and its impact on us and on others around the world.

A collection of community building activities, SEL Tips, games, and lessons on self-care to get your year off to a good start.  

Nineteen classroom activities and guidelines to help you and your students get your virtual school year off to a good start.

This school year opens at a time of fear and trauma for immigrant children across the United States. Here are eight ways educators can protect students from harm and ease their distress.

Segue from the summer into the new school year by having students consider the summer's news, its impact on their communities, and what kind of impact they'd like to have in their communities.