I'm going to be teaching a 4th grade religion class starting next week and would love some ideas for an icebreaker on the first day. Although I have a lot of experience teaching at the college level, I've never taught kids before. Any ideas would really be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Here's one I've used before:

Write on slips of paper different animals and put them in a bowl. Have everyone take a piece of paper out of the bowl, put everyone in the middle of the room and whatever animal is on their paper, they have to make that sound. When you hear someone else making the same sound, they go to them. You'll end up with everyone laughing and mooing, oinking, barking all in their animal groups.

Love that idea! Any idea what I can have them do after they pair up? Maybe introduce themselves to each other and then to the class?

Yeah.. like say "Ok, we're going to have the cows introduce themselves first." Then go on like that....

You could tie it in with Noah's ark.

Is there any way you could get baby pictures of each child prior to class? (none of the embarrasing ones!) If so, have them on a poster board, numbered and then have the kids guess who is who. Then you have each kiddo come up, point their picture out and give a little bit of information "oldest of 5 kids", "youngest of 2 kids", "born in Canada" etc.

split up in groups of 3-4, and have each group build a bridge w/ toothpicks, marshmallows and gumdrops, then see who's bridge will hold up the most hot wheel cars. (team building--really funny when you have a group of engineers trying to figure this one out!).

Have the kids split up by month of birthday--then have cupcakes for each group (snack time) with each month's cupcakes decorated accordingly....

Musical chairs is always fun!

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

Great Ideas- I knew I came to the right place!

Human Tic Tac Toe:

Make a pretty decent sized grid on the floor using masking tape. Divide the class into two groups and assign each person on each team a number (there would be a #1 for each group, a #2 for each group, etc). Have the groups stand on opposite sides of the room an equal distance away from the grid. Call out a number and the people assigned to that number run to the grid and pick a spot (one person per square). Once they are situated on their square, call out another number, continue doing this until a team gets three in a row. It teaches the kids teamwork, team spirit, and gets them a little active.

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I've had a Foreman Grill for about six years. I've done about 85% of my cooking on it, but I've never burnt myself. Probably because I don't use it as a pillow.