We all remember that Back-to-School anxiety on the first day of school: trouble sleeping before the first day of school; double-checking (maybe triple- or even quadruple-checking) your book bag for all the materials you need; headaches and stomachaches. After a few days of school, these anxieties will fade away (at least, for some student). As a teacher, you have to respond to these anxieties and help your students try to re-adapt to the new school year. So what can you do to help students ease back into school? There are activities that you can do with your students! So let’s take a look:

Learn each other’s name.

Yes! This is a must-do for teachers and students. Play a name game with your students so they have a chance to know each other. After all, a game is always a good icebreaker! If you need tips on how to remember your students’ names, check out our last post here! Or you can set up a buddy system so students can contact each other outside of school.

Do a fun survey.

Another way that you can help students drive out their Back-to-School anxiety is to have a quick fun survey. Students can work in a small group and college responses. This fun activity can get students out of their seat and start to talk to each other. It can facilitate conversations and allow students find out how similar they are to other students. Some questions that you might ask are:

1. What is your favorite snack?
2. My hidden talent is:
3. What is your favorite school subject?
4. How do you spend your free time?
5. What is your favorite food?

Play a word game.

What better way to get students comfortable with new school year other than a word game. Create a word search or a crossword puzzle for your students to solve! They can even work in a group. Discovery Education offers a Puzzlemaker and allows you to create different kinds of puzzles.

Welcome back and wishing you have a great year!

Until next time,

Eva D.

The Voki Team

Bio: Eva is the Community Manager for Voki and is part of the Marketing Team at Oddcast. She enjoys playing the piano and knitting on her free time. (She’s also a Rubik’s cube master!) She loves to hear your feedback and comments for Voki!