First Day of School Activity Using Hashtags

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Today I’m sharing an original first day of school activity that could also double as a meet the teacher night activity.

In the past, meet the teacher night has been easy. I had either known the students from previous years or had their siblings in the past. Therefore, I knew almost every student in the school. Meet the teacher night was a breeze. However, now that I am in a new school, things are a little different. I do not know ANY of the students.

My initial plan was to do some sort of activity where I could get to know my students. I have seen ideas on Pinterest where you ask the parents to write on what they want their children to learn for the year. However, this idea just did not seem to fit what I was looking for. This is when my teammates and I decided to have the students create a hashtag that best describes them.

Our First Day of School Activity

I decided to do mine on the whiteboard. Some of the other teachers used an anchor chart. I started the list by writing my own hashtag. I started off by writing #dreambig and then putting my name under it (not shown.) As students walked in, they dropped off supplies, found their desk, and created a hashtag. They loved the opportunity to write their hashtag on the board. (What student doesn’t love writing on the whiteboard?) They loved being able to see what other students wrote. Some chose not to participate (and that was totally fine.) On the first day of school, we looked at all of the hashtags everyone wrote and discussed a few different things. It was awesome.

How Our Activity Went Over

I learned quite a bit about my students doing this activity. I learned that one of my students loves pickles, that another one is in love with mac and cheese, and another one doesn’t like math :(. This activity created a memory we can hold on to for the remainder of the year.

This could also be a great activity to do later on in the year. The parents could, themselves, actually create a hashtag about their child. I always find it really interesting to get the perspective of others. It tells you a lot about the child as a student and as a person.

What other fun first day of school activity ideas do you have? Let me know! I would love to see them.