5 Icebreakers for a New School Year
Children with dyslexia often enter the intervention setting with very mixed feelings. Whether in a small group or one-on-one, it is crucial to build a trusting relationship to make the best possible progress. Beginning intervention or transitioning to a new teacher can provoke a lot of anxiety. It can feel very vulnerable to expose their areas of weakness. They may have very high hopes for success, but also be afraid of failure. Often, students with dyslexia have dealt with multiple incidents of having their hopes raised and then experiencing disappointment. This is why icebreakers for a new school year are so important!
- Icebreakers are a great way for you and your student to get to know one another better and learn more about each other.
- Icebreakers can also build the expectation for a more collaborative collegial relationship than the typical student-teacher dynamic.
- Icebreakers allow you to observe the student’s language, thinking time, and sense of humor.
- Icebreakers can help students build confidence and perhaps elicit laughter and humor.
All of this can eliminate the nerves that may make settling into learning more difficult.
Here are my Five Favorite Icebreakers for a New School Year!
1. Give a short student inventory that isn’t too wordy.
Perhaps use one that uses images or emojis for answer choices. Such an interview can help you understand how the student feels about reading and writing, whether they can identify areas of strength and weakness, and some of their interests and passions. Sometimes students are surprisingly insightful about their needs.
I use the inventory pictured above with my students! You can get your FREE copy, here!
2. Play a short game that will reveal how they approach an activity or strategize.
One of my favorite games to use as an icebreaker is Spot It. You can learn a lot from this quick game. Are students able to locate objects quickly? Are they able to name them or do they struggle with word retrieval? It is also a game in which it is easy to pace your responses to give students an advantage if you wish. Often the students with ADHD are among the best at this game of quick noticing. Because the game requires no reading, it often helps students be at ease.
3. Question Cards.
Play a quick round of “Would you Rather?”, or draw cards from a deck of conversation starters. Sets of general curiosity questions for kids are often sold as rings or decks meant for mealtime chats or to keep on hand for down times such as waiting rooms. You can also use what you know about the student’s interests to generate your question cards.
4. Start with a joke.
Reading a few jokes from a kid’s joke book can be a gentle way to start or end a lesson. Laughter can be a beautiful way to start a great working relationship. It can also offer some insight into how well students can understand puns or plays on words.
5. Listen: Take just a few minutes at the beginning of the lesson to let them chat about anything on their mind.
Students often have exciting news to share, stories from their weekend, or sometimes share some big and complex feelings. Kids very rarely get a chance to just share what is on their minds. A few moments up front often results not only in better sustained focus later, but also helps to develop trust and rapport. Use an emoji poster to ask how they’re feeling or a toy like Big Feelings Pineapple.
One of my favorite stories from a child at the beginning of the lesson was when they sadly told me that they had been scolded for staying up too late reading under the blanket with a flashlight. I was able to empathize with the sadness of being scolded while inwardly celebrating their strong desire to keep reading.
Looking for more tips to help your intervention students adjust to a new school year? Read Back to School Tips to Support Students with Dyslexia!
These icebreakers for a new school year will help you develop a strong working relationship, build rapport, and put students at ease. That will pay off and set them up for learning success!
Check out even more icebreakers by watching the video below!
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