Helping your pupils settle into their new class is essential in the first week of term. A new environment can be often unnerving for your children, so making it a fun and memorable time should help them settle quicker.
This guide shares some ideas for school settling in activities to try with your new class.
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The first week of term is filled with lots of emotions and feelings. Much like transitional activities at the end of the school term, settling in activities are designed to help your children reconnect with their peers, get to know you and help them be comfortable within their new surroundings. Creating games and activities that get everyone involved help them feel more relaxed and will encourage them to settle quicker into their new classroom.
As a teacher you want your children to enjoy coming to school and getting to know them through play is a great way to ease them into a new term.
If you are looking for activities to help your students settle in their new class here is some inspiration.
Circle time games are great for the first few days in your new class as they help children to get to know each other as well as providing a break from the usual routines. Examples games could include:
1) Sit in a circle and select a 'guesser'.
2) The guesser then moves and covers their eyes.
3) One child becomes the 'bug'. Get them to sit in the centre of the circle, under a blanket.
4) The children then sing 'bug in a rug, bug in a rug, come & see the bug in a rug'.
5) The guesser then needs to look at the group to try to remember who is missing.
1) Sit in a circle and select a 'guesser'.
2) The guesser then moves and covers their eyes.
3) Another child in the circle says ‘silly sausages!’ in a silly voice.
4) The guesser standing up has to guess who the silly sausage is.
1) All children sit in a circle with their eyes closed.
2) A child is chosen by the teacher to walk around the group very quietly and put a teddy bear behind another child's back and sit back down.
3) With their eyes still closed, the other children say if they think the teddy is behind them.
4) All children then open their eyes and check to see if they are right.
5) The person who has the teddy behind them, now takes a turn to place the teddy behind someone else's back.
There are many benefits of including circle time into your lesson planning, including:
Getting to know you games are a great way to get the children to work together and build confidence. These could include games like:
As they take it in turns to relay their findings back to the class it will help them get to know each other whilst having fun and will encourage listening.
Our third school settling in activity involves you, the teacher. Getting you involved will help them relax and understand you a little better. One great way to do this is playing the ‘Ask The Teacher’ game.
As you will not know what they are going to ask this could be an interesting game but one where you can have real fun with the answers.
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