First Day of School

I play a cute greeting game with my kiddos during the first few classes of school called 'Pum!' (Pop!), based on a game from Responsive Classroom. It is played like this:
Kids sit in a circle.
Kids count off, one at a time- the first kid in the circle says 'uno', the next kid says 'dos', the next says 'tres'. The next says '¡Hola!', jumping up like a piece of popcorn popping. The rest of the class then greets the kid who jumped up, saying '¡Hola ______!'. This kiddo stays standing and the countoff continues, always having the kids who are sitting do the counting. Keep going around until there is only one kiddo left- this kid will need to count to 'tres' before popping up so the class can greet him/her.

This greeting game is quick and fun. It is great for you and the class to learn each other's names. Remember: you should model how to 'pop up' before you do this game. Otherwise, there will always be one or two who will be overly exuberant! :) You don't want anyone to accidently hurt another by being out of control.

Have fun!

Olas y holas

At the beginning of each class, we do a greeting activity- this not only establishes a routine the kids can expect, but provides an opportunity for them to practice simple interpersonal vocabulary and skills. Here is a simple one which plays on the homonyms, ola and hola.

The entire group recites the following:
Olas que vienen,
Olas que van,
Hola __________,
¿cómo te va?

The name of a student is put in the blank- you can choose which child will be next in a wide variety of ways:
-the child currently being greeted rolls a ball to another child, who will get the next turn
-using popsicle sticks with all of the students' names on them, the teacher randomly chooses a popsicle stick and calls out the name
-children are greeted in the order in which they are sitting- this works best when they are sitting in a circle

The child who is being greeted then answers the question- ¡Bien! works perfectly even for the littlest of students.

Next student is selected and the greeting is repeated and so on until all students have been greeted.

*It is really cute to have the students make wave motions as the poem is recited.