The first couple weeks of school are pretty tricky. There is a plethora of information that needs to be conveyed to the students, and a whole bunch of kids that you don’t know sit at their desks staring up at you. How can you get to know these kids in a way that isn’t the cliched ice breakers that they all dread? I searched for a long time to try to find something that would get the students interested and give me some info about them at the same time.
I use an activity that I made last year to really get into the students head and see what is most important to them. I call it the “I Can’t Imagine Life Without…” activity. Last summer I drew the words ‘I Can’t Imagine Life Without’ in the middle. The idea is that the students make a list of all the things they can’t imagine life without.

After the students write their items down, I ask them to add some color and then pick one specific thing that they can’t imagine life without. When they choose, they then have to write a paragraph on a notecard explaining to me why it is that they can’t imagine life without it.
This activity gives me a great way to get to know what is most important to my students and also gets them writing a little bit the first week of school!
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