Check Out Our Experts!

First day of school activities: Visit We Are Teachers to check out my blog post!
(includes: I'm an Expert at, Paper Chain Gang, and a back to school science experiment!)

Paper Chain Gang

Kids are given 5 strips of paper. They write something they are really good at on each of their strips. They link their strips together to create a small paper chain. Then, they measure it!

As a class, they help link all the chains together. Use blank strips of paper in between each child's chain. Have kids estimate the length of the giant chain. Then, as a class measure it! Did anyone come close to guessing the actual length of the chain?!

Discussion:
Look at the variety of talents in the room! (Compare the length of their chain to the giant class chain.) If we all work together, we can accomplish anything!

Initial Transformation

Explore different geometric transformations with kids' first initial. They decorate a square background and transform the first letter of their name (reflection, translation, or rotation)!

Tongue Rolling

photo via alamy

Take part in a Zoom Experiment! Collecting data and comparing with a graph: Who can roll their tongue? Does gender make a difference? See who can roll their tongue, tally the results as a class. For tallying, create a 4 column table (shown left).

Next, use your results to create a class graph, comparing boys and girls. Then, compare your results with kids across the U.S. on Zoom! 

What determines if a person can roll their tongue?! Click here to find out!

Measuring ME!

Are You a Loop, Arch, or Whorl?

No two fingerprints look the same. However, they do share certain characteristics. Take students' fingerprints (index finger only) and compare! Visit ZOOM to see how to get fingerprints with a pencil and tape. Next, have students compare their results with their peers (make a graph). Then, compare their results with other kids around the country on ZOOM! Which pattern is the most and least common (loop, arch, or whorl)? For older kids, you can explore the complete nine different fingerprint patterns. Check out Hubpages and Ridges and Furrows.

My Name in the Stars!

I love the Loco Teacher's name constellation project, so I was inspired to create my own! Students practice graphing by mapping out the letters in their name to create a constellation (click here for a freebie). Afterwards, if you have a lite-brite, have students light up the room with their name! Then, have them connect their stars, use their imagination, and create a picture. What does their constellation look like?! For another kid-personalized constellation idea, check out Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational's body constellations!

How Old Are You?!

Explore place value using the real world application of age! Students will get a kick out of seeing their age in months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds! 

Visit Math Cats to figure out exactly how old you are!

Example

Born July 22, 2004
Current day and time: December 18, 2012 / 3:28pm

8 years old

100 months old

438 weeks old

3,071 days old

73,719 hours old

4,423,154 minutes old

and you're aging by the second!

I'm an Expert at...

Get students acquainted the first week of school, by having them go around the room and find someone who is an "expert" at one of the categories below (for each of the categories). Drag or save to your desktop to print.

Name Synonyms

photo via anna langova: public domain

What does your name mean? Can you find synonyms for your name's meaning?

Fashionable Fractions

As a class, make fractions out of kids' attire! First, make a graph as a class. Have students raise their hand if they are sporting an article of clothing that is called out. Then, kids make fractions! 

Free download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cdAyMUQw2cs_ed5PahTe1L5o1Ewr_0_o/view?usp=sharing

Top 5

For a fun writing station activity, have kids become critics of movies, music, books, or food. They choose their top five for one category. Then, they draw representations, write a sentence, come up with adjectives, differentiate vowels from consonants, make fractions, take a poll, and find the difference!

Fractions In My Family

Fractions are everywhere! Have kids think about fractions within their intermediate family. Draw your family in the box. Then, figure out the fraction for each of the categories below. Compare gender, height (to your own), hair color / length, and eye color. If there isn't a member in your family for one of the labels within the category, write the number zero or leave blank. 

Free download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DPBsdP_PF1YzLXHjejVXJzA44uRKfKLe/view?usp=sharing

Name Math

Practice recognizing vowels and consonants, while working on math skills! 

kidbook

Have kids create a kidbook timeline, like facebook, all about them! They add a cover photo and profile pic. Then, they write a couple status sentences. Afterwards, they fill out the "about" section. Kids draw three of their favorite books, movies, and musicians / bands (write the names underneath their images). They fill out "basic info" and draw or add a small pic of the members of their family. Finally, for the "wall photos" page, they paste pics of themselves doing something fun with friends and family!

Easy or Hard to Do?

This is a wonderful activity from Playful Learning that helps kids understand that some things will come easy to them, while other things require more practice. 

Is it Easy or Is it Hard Book - photo via past print

Tree of Life Timeline

photo via Playful Learning

Over at Playful Learning, they created personal timelines resembling a cross section of a tree trunk. Click the link to read about what the kids included in each ring.

ME! Graphing

Kids Count 1234 created a variety of graphs about the kids in their class! Visit the link to check out more great math activities!

Are You a Square or a Rectangle?

image via Zoom

PBS Kids ZOOM conducted an experiment to see if gender or age effects body shape. Measure your height (the distance from your head to your toes) and your arm span (the distance from the longest finger on your left hand to the longest finger on your right hand). If your height and arm span are about the same, then you're a square. If they're different, you're a rectangle. 

Make it an experiment! Graph how many kids are squares vs. rectangles. Does gender make a difference, or age? 

Forget Waldo, Where's_____?!

Where's the Teacher?! Super Awesome bulletin board idea from Bulletin Boards to Remember!