Conversation Starter Cards

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We recently created conversation starter cards at our house for a teen dinner party we had New Year’s Eve, but it’s also an ice breaker activity teachers could use in the classroom. Over the holidays, we hosted a small dinner for about eight friends. We printed a handful of funny questions and prompts to kick off conversation at the table. The questions were printed on cardstock paper and cut into roughly a business card size (~2″ x 4″). We put the stack of cards on a cupcake stand in the center of the table, and people reached for them during the dinner.

Conversation starter cards, an ice breaker activity for home or the classroom

We got the idea after opening Christmas crackers at a family dinner. When we popped the Christmas crackers, they had small papers in them with trivia questions and conversation prompts. The questions worked well for a group of mixed ages and kept everyone at the table engaged. You can create all kinds of prompts depending on the age of your audience. Since our dinner was all teenagers, THIS CONVERSATION STARTER PAGE has questions that are a mix of pop culture and general opinion.

Conversation Starter Cards

Using Conversation Starters at School

If you want to adapt this conversation starter idea for school, you can create a page LIKE THIS ONE with “Would you rather…” questions. We used this activity for a big/little mentor program we have at our school. Older grades are paired with students in younger grades. Our sixth graders met with their second grade “littles” and asked a series of questions and recorded all responses. Students polled a handful of students until they completed the question chart. After all the responses were tallied, the students incorporated math skills by creating a bar graph to determine the most popular answers.

Would You Rather questions and chart

Depending on the lunch program at your school, adding conversation cards to lunch tables encourages students to interact with peers. We assign lunch seats at our school and often students may not talk to a lunch buddy if it is someone they do not know well. By placing conversation prompts at the table, it encourages students to chat with someone different.

Conversation starters are a great ice breaker for the first week of school to begin building a community in your classroom. Or, use the ice breakers after a long break like the December holidays as a fun way to ease students back into the school routine.

To see more ideas for your classroom, visit my TeachersPayTeachers store.

Back to School Teacher Kits

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Over the years I have assembled a variety of back to school teacher kits to give to my children’s new teachers on the first day of school. I usually make teacher emergency kits. This year I deviated slightly and filled pencil boxes with items for re-stocking a teacher’s desk rather than a little pouch a teacher might keep in his/her teacher bag.

Back-to-school-teacher-kit

The kits are always a little different, but the contents are based on items I need at school but don’t always have. For this version, I added items I like to have to keep class running smoothly. It’s things I use to grade papers or hang items on the walls or boards. I still included a few personal items like chapstick and Tylenol, but the focus of the kit is classroom supplies that a school might not supply to its teachers.

Back to School Kit Contents

You can use any kind of bag, pouch, or box for the contents. I have used plastic bead boxes from Michael’s crafts or make-up bags from a store like Bed Bath & Beyond. If I am really in a crafty mood, I sew small pouches. This year, I used a type of student pencil box with a tray insert for two layers that I purchased at Staples.

Below is what I included in the kits this time. I wanted to include packing tape and Astrobright paper too, but they wouldn’t fit in the pencil box! You could also consider adding things like a good Flair pen or Sharpie pen, travel sized lotion, Advil or Tylenol, mini Windex wipes for electronics (I have seen these at Target), a Tide to Go pen… I browse the travel-sized aisle at places like CVS and Target for inspiration.

  • Expo markers in assorted colors
  • Mechanical pencils
  • Pilot G-2 ballpoint pens in assorted colors
  • Frixion erasable highlighters in assorted colors
  • Heavy duty clip magnets
  • Wite-out EZcorrect tape
  • large paperclips
  • Command hanging strips
  • Minty gum
  • Tylenol/Advil
  • Band-aids
  • Vaseline (chapstick)
  • Disinfectant wipes for cleaning surfaces
  • Assorted Post-it notes
  • Staples and Starbucks gift cards
back-to-school-teacher-gift

To get more inspiration for Back to School Teacher Kits, take a look at some of mine from previous years by clicking the links below. You could also opt for a shared teacher appreciation gift like this SOFT DRINK BAR that I set up in the teacher workroom during teacher appreciation week.

Teacher Emergency Kit 2015

Teacher Emergency Kit 2016

Teacher Emergency Kit 2017

Teacher Emergency Kit 2020 (COVID Edition)

BTS-Teacher-Emergency-Kits

Write like a Book Author

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A great way to encourage good writing is to have students write like a book author. Some of my favorite novel study writing activities require students to analyze sections of the author’s writing and mirror the style from a favorite passage in their own work.

At the end of the year, my students reviewed Lois Lowry’s descriptions of pleasant memories in The Giver. They recalled a favorite memory of their own and brainstormed verbs, adjectives, and other descriptive words that went with the special recollection. Using Lois Lowry’s description of a sled ride as a starting place, they wrote their own version of a personal memory. By following Ms. Lowry’s sample, the students were able to successfully practice descriptive writing at a high level.

Write-like-a-book-author

How to Write Like a Book Author

  • Describing a Person: Find an example of an in-depth description of a book character. Pull the descriptive passage(s) out of the book or story and remove key words. Replace the key words with a blank line and label the space with the type of word or part of speech that should go in the blank. Basically, build a literary Mad Lib. To see my Mother’s Day activity inspired by The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and download a free activity page, CLICK HERE.
  • Describing a Place: I have a descriptive writing activity about the setting in my full novel unit for The Cricket in Times Square available HERE. Students read Chester’s description of Times Square in New York City and list the details about how this famous landmark looks, feels, smells, sounds, and tastes (the 5 senses) based on the author’s words. Then, students recall a place they have visited personally and describe the new place using their own word choices.
  • Describing a Memory: Find an example of an in-depth description of a scene. In my example from The Giver, it was a vivid description of one of The Giver’s memories. Using a handout like THIS ONE, have students brainstorm a list of adjectives, verbs, and nouns that relate to a chosen personal memory. Once the list is created, students return to the original passage in the story. Using the passage as a frame, students replace verbs, adjectives, and key phrases with their own words to create a unique writing sample that mirrors the professional writer but is their own ideas.
write-like-a-book-author

Using published writing as a starting place helps students build confidence in their writing abilities. If you create a Mad Lib style template, you can reinforce grammar skills at the same time since students need specific types of words to re-build the paragraphs. By creating word banks and brainstorming prior to writing, students stretch their vocabulary and practice word choice skills. This activity can also be used to reinforce the concept of “mood” in literature. You can ask students to change the feeling of a passage from happy to scary or sad to exciting. My students always find success when using a published author’s writing style as inspiration for their own writing.

To purchase my complete Giver novel unit with additional reading and writing activities, CLICK HERE!

write-like-a-book-author

Fun Flashcards With Your Students

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Flashcards are a great study tool especially if you can transform them to a fun format. Trading cards are a great twist if you need fun flashcard ideas to motivate students with their studying. It is a project that can be implemented easily with literature and history (or really any academic area). In the past, my students researched a historical figure and designed a trading card about the person. That assignment incorporated research and summarizing skills. Another option is to design a card for a character in literature. My favorite trading card assignment with my students happened this year. My language arts class designed Greek mythology trading cards. We then had a trading card party, and students calculated card values after the trades ended. I made the activity technology based to build in computer formatting skills, but it could be a handwritten project too. Whichever way you choose to incorporate trading cards into your curriculum, it will activate many skills.

Fun Flashcards in the Classroom

Before starting your trading card assignment, look at traditional trading cards. You can look up samples online or have students bring in any collections they have to share with the group. Note basic features of the cards. Sports trading cards are the easiest to use as samples because they have a main picture, team symbols, stats, and some background information about each athlete. The format is easy to replicate with your history or literature information.

Fun Flashcards n the Classroom

Flashcard Ideas for History

  • Not only can students research people, they can also create cards for famous locations or events in history.
  • Assign students a topic or let them choose. Provide some type of research handout like THIS ONE for students to take notes.
  • Students organize their facts into the trading card template and print. You could download, save, and use this semi-editable POWERPOINT TEMPLATE or design your own template. Printing on white cardstock is preferred because it is sturdier and looks more authentic.
  • Alternately, you can print a template like THIS ONE and students fill in information and illustrations by hand. **Set printer preferences to two-sided and print on short edge**

Flashcard Ideas for Literature

  • Students consider traits of a main character related to a novel study from class. Using a character chart or a brainstorming page like THIS ONE, students organize notes about the character.
  • In place of character cards, students can design cards for the setting, theme, or important symbols from the story. Any aspect of the novel you are highlighting with students could have a card designed for it.
  • Like the history version, students either format their information in a trading card template on the computer or print and handwrite information into the cards.
Trading Cards with literature

Trading Card Party

  • To extend the trading card activity, plan a trading party.
  • After all cards are complete, print two sets of cards. One set the students keep. The other set is for trading.
  • Create a point value system for the cards. With my group’s Greek mythology cards, Titan cards were worth the most, and mortals were worth the least. I also had a few cards that were worth extra points because there was only one available in the whole class. Students traded cards with each other for about 20 minutes; I revealed the value of the cards, and then we calculated how much their collection was worth. Students also totaled the value of their original set of cards. It was a great way to integrate a little math into the activity.

After the trading cards are finished, they are truly fun flashcards for students to use while studying. To see more ideas for the novel, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson including the book character trading card, visit my TEACHER STORE.

Trading Cards in the Classroom

Student Holiday Cards

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My class is designing student holiday cards with a twist to give to family members and friends. The group started by designing a holiday scene on 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock. I got out my craft box, so students could create a mixed media scene if they wanted. Students used watercolor paints, colored pencils, markers, felt pieces, sequins, beads, yarn, and various other crafty supplies. The mixed materials give the backgrounds a 3-D effect in the final photo.

Holiday Scene Craftivity

Next, students thought about a good picture pose for their background and brought a few accessories to school like scarfs and mittens. I supplied things like Styrofoam balls (snow balls), wrapped boxes (festive gifts), and cocoa mugs (hot beverage) to add winter elements to the photos. A solid color wall on the school playground works well to quickly take single pictures. Since we were outdoors and only one person was having his/her picture taken, I was allowed to have students remove their COVID masks for the photo.

I edited the pictures to remove the backgrounds and saved the photos as PNG files with transparent backgrounds. I used the magnetic lasso tool in Photoshop but after much cursing and aggressive mouse clicking, I changed to the Photoshop pen tool and refined the edge. I recommend finding a YouTube video like THIS ONE to figure out the best way to remove the background from your photos.

The next step was to take pictures of each student’s holiday scene and upload the background scenes along with the posed pictures to the school’s shared drive. Students used a small foldover card template in MSPublisher. They inserted the individual posed picture on top of each holiday scene to design individual cards. They added personal messages on the inside.

Holiday Scene Craftivity

For an extra layer of good cheer, our music teacher helped us record the students singing a holiday song. We have been using GarageBand on an iPad for audio recordings. We designed new “group” background scenes and inserted multiple students into the pictures. You can use MSPublisher or PowerPoint to create a full page scene and then convert the finished pages into JPG image files. Both apps will easily save each page as a JPG file. The scenes were uploaded into iMovie and arranged into a video slide show. The recorded songs were added as background music. The short movie was uploaded to our school’s private YouTube channel. We were able to share the link to the holiday video through a QR code we pasted into the interior of each card.

Holiday Scene Craftivity

The finished cards have brought joy to all of us this holiday season. The bright colors and cheery faces of the students have made us smile. During these last few weeks of 2020, it has been nice to have a project that incorporated technology skills and some spatial thinking while also providing a little bit of a brain break. Use this process for holiday cards or some other area of your curriculum. I can imagine kids drawing a scene from a social studies unit and having students pose as historical characters or re-creating book scenes. There are many possibilities!

Holiday Scene Craftivity

For more winter craft ideas, try THESE TUNNEL POEMS or SNOW GLOBE TOPPERS.