Your students will love these 5 FRESH and FUN back-to-school GAMES! Try these back-to-school community-building classroom activities to easily start your year off on the right foot.
Building a strong classroom community from the first day of school sets the tone for the rest of your year. Helping students feel safe, seen, and supported in the classroom community you’re building is a key component in students being willing to engage, take risks in learning, and having fun together!
5 Games and Activities for
Building Community in the Classroom
Activities to Build Classroom Community #1 – Beach Flip
Beach Flip is super simple to set up and helps students think critically while building relationships.
First, in order to play “Beach Flip” gather a handle of beach towels. Each towel should fit about 5 students with room to easily move around without touching (depending on the age of your students less may fit). Spread the towels out around your room and send groups of students to each towel. Together students need to figure out a way to flip their towel over so everyone is standing on the other side WITHOUT any of their feet touching anything other than the towel. You can also ask a few students or teacher friends to bring in extra beach towels too!
Activities to Build Classroom Community #2 – Entourage
If you are looking for an activity that screams building community in the classroom… THIS is your game! It’s incredibly easy and students can’t get enough of it. Entourage is simply a rock, paper, scissors tournament where students cheer each other on. To start, everyone finds a partner and plays one round of rock, paper, scissors. The winner goes on to find another student to play against while their competitor who lost now joins their “entourage.” Then that student will follow the winner around cheering them on as they compete. Let’s say Amber and Antonio are competing and Amber wins, Antonio and his entourage now all join Amber’s entourage. Eventually, there will only be two students left competing and a whole lot of cheering happening in your classroom. It’s a really fun and active game and also very structured.
Activities to Build Classroom Community #3 – Secret Class Handshake
While this one is not a technical game, it has a game-like feel and is perfect to build community in your classroom. Having a secret handshake bonds students over this specific action that’s special to just them. This is a great opportunity for students to share ideas, get creative, and take ownership over a really fun activity your class can do all year. You can also work on problem-solving skills, respectful discussion stems, and collaborating skills with this activity.
Community Building Classroom Activities Made Easy!
Classroom Community Activity #4 – Pass the Clap
In order to play pass the clap arrange the class as a large group (or smaller groups) by sitting in a circle. Each circle will need 2 volunteers sitting next to each other to start. Without talking they need to both clap at the same time. Once they both clap together at the same time, the predetermined student will turn to the next person in the circle (sitting next to them) and continue “passing the clap” with the goal of getting all the way around the circle. To pass the clap, students must clap at the same time without talking. I always start with one clap but you can mix it up by having students clap twice or in a pattern to make the clap more advanced if a group needs that extra challenge. This is a great example of the kind of activities to build classroom community that also practice communication skills.
Classroom Community Activity #5 – Get to Know You Balloon Bop
Last but not least, a fun twist on “don’t let the balloon touch the ground.” For this game, you can blow up one balloon (or a lot of balloons) and write a get-to-know-you question(s) on it using a permanent marker. Play music and while the music plays have students bop the balloon around the room without letting it touch the ground. When the music stops have students catch the balloon(s). At this point, they can either partner up to answer the question on the balloons or you can project questions on the screen/board and have them answer those questions with a partner. It’s an easy to adapt community-building activity, make it yours! 🙂
Also, if you know me, you know that I think social-emotional learning is the best way to:
– support students
– support teachers
– build community and relationships
– improve classroom management
So, down below you can grab a free week of SEL lessons from me. Scroll down and click the link and I’ll send that free week of lessons right to you!
Looking for other ways to incorporate social-emotional learning into your day? Try teaching students these mindful breathing techniques!
FREE Social-Emotional Learning Lessons
If you want to truly teach your students the skills needed for a smooth-running classroom and a community that feels more like a family grab these FREE social-emotional learning lessons that promote building community in the classroom. Of course, I’ve made that easy for you to do, right now, just CLICK THE IMAGES or links below to grab your free week of social-emotional learning lessons [you can start using them TODAY]!
