Tangled Web Team-Building Activity

photo credit: Louise Morgan

I love doing this activity the first week and throughout the year. It's fun to see how much better the students get at making the web and undoing it. They really have to work together as a team for it to be successful. 

Materials - 1 ball of yarn

Directions - To start, the group sits in a circle. From here you will give one of the members in your group a ball of string. This person will then say their name and one thing about themselves. E.g. “I have a brother” or “I like playing football”. Then any member of your group who has that thing in common puts their hand up. The person with the yarn chooses a person and rolls the ball of yarn to him/her. When the person receives the ball of yarn, they must hold on to the yarn before rolling it to the next person. The cycle then repeats. Continue until each person has had a turn and the class has created a huge web.  Talk about all of the different ways in which your group is interconnected. This will hopefully create a sense of unity between your members, as it visually depicts a number of commonalities that your group shares. 

Tip - Keep it moving. Some students will get tired of holding their string and will pull on it or mess with it. This is a great activity for demonstrating self control and how important it is work together.

Extension - After we have made our web a few times during the first few weeks, then we go backwards and try to undo the web by rolling the yarn in reverse order. It is very challenging but when they do it successfully, it is very rewarding. 

Books for the First Weeks of School

As the new school year approaches, I am reviewing my plans from previous years and working on ways to improve my lessons. The Daily 5 has completely changed the way I teach and has allowed me more time to read to my students and teach through mini lessons.  Mini lessons are short periods of time where you focus on reading or writing skills and strategies. Mini lessons at the beginning of the year can also cover classroom procedures, rules, and behavior. Here are a few of my favorites for the first few weeks of school:

First Day Jitters 

This is a good book to help break the ice and let the students know that they are not the only ones who get nervous on the first day of school.

Chrysanthemum

I usually read this on the second day and do activities using the students' names.

What if Everybody Did That?

I already used this question a lot in my classroom and was thrilled to see that there was a book with the same title! I like this book because it shows the action and the consequence. It covers some good areas for discussion such as yelling out in class and littering.

No David!

Another book that shows the action and the consequence. My students and I make anchor charts with the classroom rules. These books helps generate ideas for setting our classroom guidelines.

My Mouth is a Volcano

Another good one to help generate discussion about waiting your turn to speak and being a good listener.

The Recess Queen

A fun book with lots of rhyming and a good message about playground behavior and bullying.

A Bad Case of the Stripes

A great book for getting the students to understand that it is o.k. to be different.

The Brand New Kid

A nice story about a new kid who looks and sounds different from the other students.  

Whoever You Are

I use this book to help introduce our involvement in The Global Classroom Project. Students see that there are kids all over the world just like them!

I hope this gives you some good ideas for the the start of school. What books do you read to your students during the first weeks?