Ask around and you’ll quickly learn that most teens think the first few days of school

are
a complete waste of time. “All we do are the same dumb games we did in elementary
school!” Or, “It’s just seven periods of my teachers reading me the syllabus!”

So, how can we make those first few days meaningful? Here are real middle school
icebreakers that are perfect for high school too! They allow you to build classroom
community while getting to know your students in fun and meaningful ways.

1. Honesty builds community

Secondary students are like sharks. Well, not exactly—they can’t smell prey from
thousands of feet away, but they can smell stale lesson plans with shocking speed and
accuracy. Instead of doing something you’ve done before, start the year by being honest.
Tell them that the first few days are about getting to know each other. That this year is
obviously very different. That you know they didn’t get to say goodbye to their teachers
last year.

As part of your middle school icebreakers, tell them you want to get to know them, and
they need to know you so you all can have a positive year. Here are a few things you can
be honest about with them:

 What behaviors/attitudes really get under your skin.

 What you expect from them as they enter your classroom each day.
 Your hopes and your fears for the school year.
 What personal goal(s) you have for the school year.
 What you are most looking forward to this year.

2. Try a few getting-to-know-you challenges

While you may not want to risk a trust-fall activity just yet, physical and mental
challenges are often really great ways to learn about your students’ personalities. Who is
going to be a leader in class or who might need encouragement to speak up? Look at who
treats teammates with respect and take note of who gets frustrated along the way.

These are all truly useful pieces of information you will learn when you watch your
students work through a challenge. Need some ideas for these middle school icebreakers?
 Tarp Flip Challenge: Spread a few tarps on the floor. Get groups of
students to stand on them. The challenge? They have to flip the tarp
completely over without stepping off of it. (You’ll need some volunteers to
watch to keep the groups honest.)
 Build a Boat: Divide your class into groups or allow them to choose their
own for a good look at who’s friends with whom! Give each group one bag of
drinking straws and one small roll of duct tape. Inform students that they
have 25 minutes to construct a boat using only the straws and the tape. Have
a tub or classroom sink filled up with water and ready to go to test the boats
and declare winners.
 Balloon Launch: Break students into groups of between four and six
students and give each group a few balloons in the same color. Each team
should have a different color. Have students blow the balloons up as much as
they want and hold them without tying them closed. Have students stand in
the front of the room and let the balloons go. The team with the balloon that
flies the farthest wins.
 Two Truths and a Lie: Have each student come up with two truths and
one lie about themselves. They can state them or write them on the board and
then the other students vote what is the lie!
 Scavenger Hunt: Group the students together and then provide each
group with a list of items they need to find in the classroom. They will have
to work together to see who can find and show their items the fastest.
 Would You Rather: Have the students show a thumbs up or thumbs
down to choose their “would you rather.” Need ideas, check out this list.
3. Try student-to-student interviews
Putting one student in charge of interviewing another student can be an amazingly
powerful tool. As a class, brainstorm a list of unique but revealing questions and then ask
each student to pick three or four they’d be comfortable talking about with someone else.

Give students time to interview each other and then write a short piece about the peer
they interviewed. Display the papers to give students ownership in the class. Possible
revealing (but not intimidating) questions might be:

 What is one of the biggest problems facing the world today? How do you
think we should deal with it?
 Whom do you respect most and why?
 If you could be someone else in the world, whom would it be and why?
 What makes you happiest?
 What’s tough about being a teenager?

4. Give your students a say and then sit back and really
listen
This one is often difficult for teachers. We want our classrooms to run smoothly, and we
want them to run the way we plan them to run, so handing control over to a pack of
middle or high school students can feel like an invitation to chaos.

But when we give our students some (managed!) choice over the way their classroom
works, it often increases their feeling of agency and control in the room. Since they made
the decisions, they’re more invested in making sure those decisions are abided by. Here
are just a few things you could try leaving up to the students:

 Seating arrangements: With the understanding that seats can be changed

by you, if necessary.
 How or when music is allowed: By having this conversation with them,
you can voice concerns about work being done while still respecting their
desire to listen to music at appropriate times.
 Beginning-of-class procedures: Ask them how they feel students should
enter the room and get to work.
 Procedures for restroom use, water fountain use, etc.: Even though
they’ll probably come up with something that you’d choose yourself anyway,
it’s amazing how much more seriously they’ll take it when it’s their idea.
 What should be done with cell phones: You can begin by saying that
having them out on desks at all times is a definite no, but you might be
surprised by how strict they can be on each other on their own.
Middle and high school students want the additional responsibilities and privileges of
being older, more experienced students. When we show them that we recognize that
during those important first few days of class, we begin to foster a classroom culture of
respect and caring. Taking the time to do activities that are engaging and meaningful will
help ensure we have a great school year!