Welcome back!

Teachers and students are usually very worried at this time of the year when all of us have to start again. The first day of class used to be difficult for me and I can imagine my students always felt the same. Now, even though I'm giving private lessons I can feel that it's not so different. The first day is always the first day! So I picked some ideas for you and your students to break the ice and have a very nice class with no stress at all! Take a look!

1)"My hypothetical Summer" - We're used to that old question teachers ask students on the first day: "How was your vacation?" or they say: "Let's write about our Summer vacation". "My hypothetical Summer" is interesting because students have to write and then read to class what they WISHED they could have done and not what they did. (http://classroom-activities.suite101.com)

2) "Two truths and a lie" - students have to tell the class their names, two truths and one lie for the others to find out with information is false. (http:// classroom-activities.suite101.com)

3) "The ball game" - teacher brings a ball to class and when the ball is rolled to a certain student, he/she has to say his/her name, something he/she likes, his/her favorite color and so on. (www.kinderthemes.com)

4) "Firts day pictures" - this idea is not very practical but it's soooo cute! I think it should work better with kids. Teacher take a photo of each student in front of the classroom door. Click! (www.kinderthemes.com)

5) The following ideas are to be used with adults. The first one you gotta show the class a picture of a deserted island and they have to say who they'd bring with and why. The last idea though you can also use with teens because students have only to walk around the classroom and spend 2 minutes talking to a certain collegue. When the time is up they have to move to the next and so on. Very nice idea! Don't you think? (www.adulted.about.com)

Good luck on your first day class!