That first day of school is so full of jitters, for both the teacher and the students. Every time August hits and the weather changes I get that overwhelming feeling of uncertainty.  What is the new school year going to bring? Am I ready? What are the students going to be like? It doesn’t seem to matter how many years I’ve been teaching, or how many classrooms I’ll be working in (25 this year!), I still have the feeling and it borders on both anxiety and excitement.  To ease this stress for both myself and the kids, I’ve always started the year with People BINGO. This is a silly little game in which students get to move around and get out those first day jitters by meeting each other and learning more about their classmates.

So I thought, of course, why not put a math twist on this?

A great game to get kids talking, moving and doing a little math right on the first day of school.

I have four different BINGO boards, where the prompts are the same but the math is more accessible, one each for Grades 2-5. The activities are aligned to typical end of the year standards (Grade 5 has things that fourth graders would have learned a little about the year before). There may be a few fun ones in there to challenge the students, too. Check it out and see if you like it!

Back to school activities that get kids up and moving help decrease those first day jitters!