First Day Activity

 

I have an activity I love doing the first day of class before I pass out the textbooks, composition book, expectations, and the syllabus. It is one that doesn't require a ton of preparation, and only really needs a pen or pencil and paper.  

It is an activity that doesn't require students to remember actual mathematics after a long summer, nor does have them take notes.  It does help them ease back into school and it is fun.  Furthermore, the activity only takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete.

First thing that is needed is a regular sheet of paper that is divided into 16 squares.  Each box has a letter or set of letters so they are distributed as Box 1 is A & B, Box 2 is C & D, Box 3 is E & F, Box 4 is G & H, Box 5 is I & J, Box 6 is K & L, Box 7 is M, Box 8 is N, Box 9 is O & P, Box 10 Q & R, Box 11 is S, Box 12 is T, Box 13 is U & V, Box 14 is W & X, Box 15 is Y and Box 16 is Z.

Every student will get a copy of the paper.  They are given 10 minutes to try to think of at least one word for every letter of the alphabet. but take time to let them know if you will or will not accept variables as an answer.  In other words, if they can't come up with a word beginning with Z, can they use the variable Z?  I do not allow that.  They have to use regular words.

At the end of the time, have students stand up and leave their answers on their desk.  Give students 5 minutes to walk around the room, checking out everyone else's solutions for suggestions  but they cannot rush back to their papers to fill out words for the letters they haven't done yet.

At the end of 5 minutes, students go back to their desks and they are given another 5 minutes to fill out missing letters.  Once they've done this, you have two choices.  You can collect the papers and continue with your normal routine or you can go around the classroom writing all the answers for each letters.  What you'll find is that students will struggle with finding math words for certain letters such as Z, J, or W.  

I usually list all the words the whole class has come up for each letter.  If no one found a word for a certain letter such as J, I do not give it to them, I make them look it up online.  When they look up a word online, they also have to explain what it is if it's an unusual word.  They might find zero for the letter Z and that doesn't need an explanation but if they use jump for the letter J, they might have to explain that one.

I have done this so many times and each time the students do it, they have been involved and most students liked it a lot.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.