Help your students get to know one another and build relationships with "me bags." Give each student a brown paper bag. Tell them to take it home and fill it with items that represent their distinct personalities and backgrounds. Create your own bag to show as an example. This may include pictures of your family, souvenirs from a recent trip or a favorite snack. Give each student time to share the items in their bags with the entire class. This activity may be done in one day or stretched out over the year with a different student sharing their bag each week.
Knowing everyone's name is an important piece of feeling like a classroom community. Young children can play a simple name game with a playground ball. Tell the students to form a circle and pass the ball to their classmates. Before passing the ball they must say the name of the classmate. An option for older children is to create a spelling list of student names. Or create a little classroom competition, giving stickers or other treats to students who can remember the names of every classmate. Build a strong team from the start and play name games on the first days of school.
Scavenger hunts are a great teambuilding activity at any level. They require the students to work together in teams for a common goal. Scavenger hunts are also easy to combine with academic concepts. Preschoolers can hunt for colors or shapes, while high schoolers can search for acute and obtuse angles. Or ask students to find people that fit certain criteria, such as someone who was born out of the country or has an interesting pet. Not only will students be working together, they will be learning more about one another.
Another way to strengthen the sense of teamwork and community is to create a common challenge for your students. An egg drop challenges students to create a contraption that will protect an egg when dropped from great heights, such as the roof of the school. Divide the students into teams and tell them to work together to build a structure for an egg. Provide them with a variety of materials like cardboard, Styrofoam, tape, glue and tools.