Six Back to School Activities for Middle School
Always looking for new getting to know you activities for your middle school math classes? Me too!
I’ve got a few getting to know you activities for you and your middle school math students, for the beginning of the school year of even the beginning of a new semester or marking period!
Getting to Know You Activity: The Name Game
I used this game for many years…..many times I’d plan not to, but then I couldn’t stand not knowing kids’ names right away, so we’d play:-)
Students and I get into a big circle, and I ask students to come up with an adjective that describes them and begins with the same sound as the beginning of their first name, like ‘Energetic Ellie.” The first student to my left shares his/her name; the 2nd student repeats the 1st student’s name and then shares his own. The third student repeats the first two names/adjectives, and adds her own. The activity continues in this way around the circle until we get to me, and I get to repeat all the names.
This game helps me to get to know all the students’ names during the first class session. It also helps me learn about the students – it tells me who seems to have a good memory and who has more difficulty. I can see who appears to be confident and who is more hesitant; who’s willing to accept help (I always prompt if they want/need) and who isn’t. And of course, their adjectives usually tell me something about them:-)
Students get to learn a little bit about each other too. They come from quite a few different elementary schools, so many of them don’t know anyone….this helps them learn at least a few names and faces to start off the year.
Getting to Know You Truth or Dare Game
Truth or Dare….students are intrigued when they hear the name! Especially in math class!
“Math Truth or Dare – Getting to Know You” is a set of 30 questions you can use to get to know your students and to help your students get to know each other
- There are 15 “Truth” question cards and 15 “Dare” question cards.
- Most of the questions do not have a “correct” answer because they are about the students, so if more than 15 students choose to answer a “truth” question or a “dare” question, then the questions can be used again.
- Truth questions ask about the students
- Dare questions ask students to complete math computations (some of the computations are based on facts about the student, so these can also be used again, as students’ answers may be different.)
- You can grab this free resource on TPT.
Getting to Know You Activity: Back to School Footloose
This particular Footloose version has two purposes:
1) It’s a short pre-assessment to see what students know coming into the year (geared toward 6th grade), AND
2) It includes getting to know you questions….even if students answer the math question incorrectly, you’re still learning a personal fact about them:-)
- Students solve each of the 24 problems and record their answers in the corresponding boxes on their Footloose grids.
- Then, according to the answer, they respond to a getting to know you question and record that answer in the same box on the grid.
- You can grab this free resource on TPT too.
Getting to Know You Activities: Math About Me and Who Can you Find?
Math About Me
This getting to know you activity is a series of math-related questions for students, to help you understand more about their math ‘status’ – how they feel about math, what they like/dislike, etc.
Who Can You Find?
This one is great for helping students get to know each other. Many of the questions again tie into math.
You can grab the free Math About Me and Who Can You Find here.
Getting to Know You Activity: Meet the Mathematician
This is an easy way for students to share a little about themselves in math world!
- Students can work creatively, and take some time to color the background.
- Students can get into small groups and share their mathematician facts:-)
- These also make a great display!
- You can grab this getting to know you Meet the Mathematician wheel on TPT
At least a few of these getting to know you activities should fit perfectly into your first days of math class, when you head back to school or into that new marking period!
One Comment
These are wonderful getting to know you activities that I will definitely use. I’ll be teaching 6th grade math this year after teaching 10 years of 6th grade ELA. I’m excited for the change and these activities will kick me off to a good start in getting to know my students. Thanks!
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