3 Activities for the First Day of Math
Summer is always a fun time of the year. Teachers get a little break and so do the students. But as always summer comes to an end and another school year gets to start. Some students will be excited to be back in school but others may not be excited. The first day of school can be an exciting time if the teacher makes it that way. Showing your students that you are there to have fun while learning can help them feel more excited about being in school. Math is a hard subject for many so it may need some fun activities to get them excited. Below is some first day of school math activities that will keep your class engaged.
Get to Know You
You may think, start the first day of math with a quiz? The students of course won’t appreciate that but it is a different kind of quiz. This is a quiz that allows the students to get to know you as their teacher. There are questions on one side of the page and a list of answers on the other side of the page. Each question will have a number of answers to it. For example, how many dogs do I have? Give the students time to answer the questions from the answer list and then go through the answers with your class. You could do a fun little prize such as a candy for the one that got the most correct.
Get to Know Your Students
This is very similar to the activity above but it would be for the students to answer questions about themselves with numbers. Questions for this would be, how many siblings do you have? What day of the month is your birthday? How many pets do you have? Simple questions like these are a great way to get your students thinking about numbers but there is no pressure to perform well or have to think too hard to get their answers. If you wanted to allow the students to share their answers with the class or you may just want to have them for you to learn more about your students.
Roll and Tell
This is a great one for all students to get to know each other. Get a large dice and have students roll it one at a time. The numbers on the dice will have a question associated with them. So if a student were to roll a 4, the question could be if you had a super power, what would you want it to be? If they roll a 2, the question could be if you could choose any animal for a pet, what would you choose, and why? Questions like these get your students to think a little bit but are also fun for them to answer. This allows you to get to know your students and also the students to get to know their peers.
Math Can Be Fun
Getting back into the groove of school again can be difficult for students and teachers. With some effort on both sides, it can make the transition back to school less difficult. For the first day of math use activities that allow the students to get to know you, allow you to get to know your students, and one that allows students to get to know each other. Getting your students involved is a great way to start the school year.
