Back to School Activity Idea
Students Create Me Bags and Practice Public Speaking in This Project
Students around the world get nervous before going back to school. It is exciting and fun, but can also be stressful. This is a back to school activity that students can make as simple or as creative as they like.
It is a bag filled with things about themselves that they share in small groups, called a Me Bag. It helps students find things in common with one another, make new friends, and it can be their first public speaking assignment of the year.
Teacher Modeling of a "Me Bag"
The teacher should create a "Me Bag" and share it with the class on the first day of school. After sharing this back to school idea, the students know what is expected of them, and they get excited about ideas for their own "Me Bags".
Instructions for the Back to School Project
Hand out brown lunch bags and tell the students to decorate them. It can be colored with pencils, painted, have a collage, or have a simple pen and ink drawing. Inside the bag are items that make a statement about the person. These can be things like goggles for swimmers, jewelry for girls who like that, pictures of family and friends, special keepsakes or toys, or anything the students can fit into the bags that represents who they are.
Sharing the Back to School Activity
Once the "Me Bags" are returned to class, the students can share them with each other. It’s a good icebreaker to have them share with a partner at first. The teacher should model good listening behavior before the students begin.
After sharing with a partner, have the students get into groups and share the "Me Bags" with a small group. Each person gets a turn to speak, and all the others listen respectfully.
Last, if some of the students feel ready, have them share their "Me Bags" with the entire class. Usually, once one or two students have shared, others are willing to take part in the public speaking part of this project as well.
Benefits of the "Me Bag" as a Back to School Lesson
Sharing publicly during the first week of school sets the standard of expectations for public speaking in the class during the rest of the year. Having props, the items in the bag, makes the speaking easier for the students.
Listening to the students, the teacher can assess many things. Some of the items could be speaking skill, level of language proficiency for English language learners, and interests of the students that can be used to introduce future lessons.
All in all, this can be a fun and easy beginning of the year project. It involves students at every level, gets them ready for speaking, listening, and sharing, and helps them make new friends. Best of all, students of all ages enjoy this project.
Read How to Get Students Into Groups for ideas to help organize this back to school activity.
Welcome Back to School
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