Team Building Ice Breakers

It can get very difficult to come up with fun and engaging ideas for the first day of school...especially if most of my students have been with me for a couple years (since 1st). Now that they are the "5th graders", I feel even more pressure to not only captivate they minds, while making sure the activities are grade appropriate. One of my fav blogs that I follow is Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies (I Love Frogs!). Lorraine has posted two great activities do with your kiddos for back to school: Puzzle Races and Saving Fred. The puzzle races has students in groups trying to complete the 100 piece puzzle the fastest.  You could always get puzzles with fewer pieces for the lower grades. She uses the same puzzle for each team (good idea-it avoids possible problems).

The Saving Fred also has kiddos in teams. You will need paper clips, see-through cups, gummy worms and rings. The purpose is to get Fred, the worm that can't swim, to put on his life preserve, the ring that's under the cup, without touching any of the items with your hands, hence the paper clips. This sounds like a lot of fun, while at the same time challenging. I can't wait to try both of these activities.

If you need better further clarification, head on over to Lorraine's Blog and read her post. Check out all her other great stuff/ideas.

If anybody tries these out, let me know how it goes. :)