Happy New Year – No Prep Art/Team Building for First Day Back

Word Clouds! An easy classroom idea you can use anytime, but it's especially great to use after holiday breaks. Easy with minimal prep!
Need an easy idea to get you pumped (or at the very least to keep you from being horribly depressed) about going back to the classroom after break? We all love children, but we also love sleeping in and sipping our coffee leisurely, all while going to the bathroom anytime we want for two whole weeks! That first day back can be brutal, so let’s wade in a toe at a time shall we?
Word Clouds! An easy classroom idea you can use anytime, but it's especially great to use after holiday breaks. Easy with minimal prep!

Here’s a super simple project you can do anytime during the first day/week back – word clouds.  All you need is paper (Easy!), pencils (You can do this!), and some crayons or colored pencils (Everything will be just fine. You will go to the bathroom at 4 pm.)

Word Clouds! An easy classroom idea you can use anytime, but it's especially great to use after holiday breaks. Easy with minimal prep!

1. Have students think about all the things they did during the break and brainstorm this as a list of words (this step is optional, but makes the project take longer – you might need this sort of project when you go back).
2. Have students share the 3-5 most important or exciting words from their list.
3. Now pass out the paper (I like white) and have the kidlets write those 3-5 words nice and big in PENCIL.
4. After the big words, have students fill in the rest of the page with the other words on their list.
5. Have students cut out around the words and voila!  They have a word cloud!
6. Now they can trace their many words in color and even color the background or draw a cloud shape around their words.
7.  Wanna get fancy?  Have students share their word clouds with partners around the room.
8.  Wanna get even fancier and take up lots more time?  Give each student a piece of tape, and have them tape these around the room. Then do a silent art gallery with the word clouds for a few minutes (Oh sweet silence!  You shan’t be here again until Spring Break)

Word Clouds! An easy classroom idea you can use anytime, but it's especially great to use after holiday breaks. Easy with minimal prep!

DONE!  An easy, as time consuming as you want it to be, art/teambuilding activity you can use first thing you get back with almost zero prep needed.  Another thing I LOVE about this project is it’s a way for students to tell their many break stories to students around the room (instead of to me) and display them for all to see.  They love, love, love telling their holiday break stories and I love, love, love having an easy activity for when I need a breather (or even a bathroom break) that first day back!

Word Clouds! An easy classroom idea you can use anytime, but it's especially great to use after holiday breaks. Easy with minimal prep!

Good luck this week (or next week if you’re lucky!)!  GO, FIGHT, WIN!

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0 Comments

  1. Hi! I'm following all the Vegas bound bloggers on the forum thread. I'd love to have you follow me back @ itsabouttimeteachers.blogspot.com. Super excited for Vegas!

    Barb

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