First week activities! Send us yours to be featured! Back to School! First week activities! Send us yours to be featured!

What can I do the first week back. Goal 1. 1 What can I do the first week back? Goal 1.1.6: Develop a Robust World Language Program Goal 1.2.1: Provide Rigorous coursework in World Languages Developing relationships is where the foundation of teaching begins! Take some time to get to know your learners! Instead of taking all class period to go over policies and procedures, start with how you can connect students to languages and get them motivated and excited to use the Target Language. Why? Because by the time they get to you last period, imagine how engaged students will be if they have only been sitting through policies and procedures all day.

Who are our learners?

Make Comparisons! Have students view slides of schools around the world using sites below! http://www.takepart.com/photos/classrooms- around-world/schools-around-the-world http://www.samsam.net/item/8/schoolse- zaken-wereldwijd http://www.travelchannel.com/interests/family /photos/back-to-school-around-the-world Generate a list of comparisons and contrasts! A class discussion could be started about their favorites or most unique and why!

IDEAS! Get to know your students by using a partner bingo scavenger hunt. Afterwards, have groups make a visual graphic plotting similar answers. This builds community and draws out commonalities.

Summer Travels… Have a series of postcards, travel brochures, travel destinations, and maps, etc. Or, allow students to use the app Pic Collage to generate their own collection of photos! Allow students to select a picture that best represents their summer travel activities. Have students write a short description and share descriptions with table mates. Groups must try and guess the location. There are many variations to this activity, be creative!

What can you interpret? Tell students about yourself in the Target Language and ask them to write down what they understand and then re-tell it to you or a partner! Then have students do the same activity but in pairs! Read a short story in the TL and ask students to brainstorm main ideas using a graphic organizer. Readings could be cultural regarding summer holidays or festivals from the TL country.

Let’s get interpersonal! Write questions in the TL and have students play conversation Jenga by answering the pre made questions. You can also leave some pieces blank for students to create their own in groups. Have question starters on index cards and have students form inside/outside circles to answer them.

Scavenger Hunt! Make a QR code Scavenger Hunt for students to learn about the TL and Culture. Students could go around and see how many they get correct.

Spark interest! Have students set goals for the year. They can make a paper chain or use a goal setting template. Then, show students a few things that they will be expected to do by the end of the year within their proficiency level and Can do statements! Let students debate on a topic. You may give them a question such as “Should students have to start back to school in August”. Share with students some key expressions from their “Communicative Skill Builders” to get points across.

Keep it going! Do a matching game of common expressions in the TL for students to find their seats. One half could be taped to desks in order to assign seats. Learn a song for greetings or routines. Examples include the “Good morning song, How are you?, Alphabet, etc.” Buenos Días

Show an info graphic about learning languages! Show an info graphic about learning languages and have students write hash tags to show what they understand or what they agree/disagree with!

New Ideas Create a review game on Kahoot and play with students to see what they know about the TL and Culture and or remember from last year. Students can use their own device to answer questions. Create a Kahoot game at https://getkahoot.com/ Give them a learner survey in the TL! See some examples from the dare to differentiate wiki! http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/ Play Hot potato! Pass a ball around to pop music in the TL and when the music stops, have students introduce themselves to the class. If you have several balls, you can have multiple “hot potato” groups going on at the same time.

Guess Who! Give students a Guess Who card in the Target Language! Have a group member collect table members cards and see if group members can guess which description matches which tablemate.

ABC Book and ABCs Give each student a different letter of the alphabet. Ask students to create a list of 5 words that start with that assigned letter. Using the generated words, students should create a sentence or two that include at least three of their words. Give students a “die cut” of the letter for their final draft and have them glue their letter and their sentence onto a sheet of paper. Alphabet letters could also be used for students to spell their names.

Top 10 list! Have students create a top 10 list of why learning a language is important. Students should do this in the Target Language and should try to be funny and creative. Share poster lists with other groups! Class can vote on class favorite by putting a sticker dot on their favorite.

Class Mascot! Adopt a class mascot like a stuffed animal or object! The first day of school allow students to generate and choose a name from the target culture to be assigned to the mascot as well as a series of questions they may have. For example, what does the mascot eat, where does it live, etc. Share with students that the mascot will be going home with each of them at some point in the quarter. They will have to write a description of their activities over the course of a few days.

Gallery Walk Have students generate answers to questions like what do you need to do to be successful, what does the teacher need to do, and why school is important! After groups have brainstormed ideas in the TL, have a gallery walk.

Beach ball Put some statements on a beach ball. Pass around for students to answer. Allow some spaces for students to create their own questions for each other.

Connect to Pop-Culture! Relate to learning a language through celebrities and pop culture. Show the video and reading below to students. Afterwards, have a discussion on the value of learning a language. http://www.businessinsider.com/celebrities-who- speak-more-than-one-language-2013-10?op=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1YU0KOGHuQ What do you do? Please reply so we can add on to the list!