Back to School Activity - Fun Icebreaker: Human Bingo (updated for 2023!)

Fun Back to School Activity to get your students talking!

• The Human Bingo worksheet contains 24 questions, including a new one for 2023!

• There's also a blank template for students if you or your students want to create their own Back to School Icebreaker questions!

• No PREP, just print PDF version.

• Or, edit the Google Docs and Microsoft Word files. (Use the one-click copy links provided in the PDF.)

BACK TO SCHOOL Activities Unit Plan: Get Ready for SEPTEMBER 2023!

How to have an awesome BACK TO SCHOOL 2023 in 3 steps.

Build classroom community and classroom expectations around a Growth Mindset. Explicitly teach Social Emotional Learning skills to set the tone for a year of learning.

STEP 1. Play human bingo activity to get your students talking.

• PRO TIP: Don't just hand out the worksheet. (Otherwise, students will just walk around and tell people to write down their name.)

• Instead, check out this blog post for ideas on how to use Human Bingo as a communication mini-lesson.

• Take up the human bingo questions and see who in the class has already used ChatGPT or AI.

OPTIONAL: Show students how to respectfully disagree

• If you notice from the Back to School Activity (Human Bingo) that your students have trouble interacting with each other, then we need to practice respectful disagreement.

• Check out these fun, high-interest Classroom Citizenship Debates to set up rules for conversation. Students get to work their way through "easy" topics to more "challenging" topics.

STEP 2. Have a classroom debate: Should ChatGPT be allowed in Schools?

• Use this ChatGPT lesson to introduce critical thinking.

• Set up a classroom community where the expectation is to think critically and look for high quality information to test our assumptions / bias.

STEP 3. Explore 21st Century Learning Skills. Give students a common language to view academic and life challenges during this school year: Character, Citizenship, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, and Critical Thinking.

• The world is always controversial and changing: Covid, the war in Ukraine, ChatGPT, Black Lives Matter, Global Warming, etc.

• The problem with ChatGPT is not that it's a cheating tool. (Well, it is the ultimate learning / cheating / biased tool rolled into one big temptation.)

• The problem is that ChatGPT represents change. And change is hard and controversial because there are many perspectives, strong feelings, and winners / losers.

• ChatGPT is simply the next opportunity for us to explore 21st Century Learning Skills / Social Emotional Learning through explicit instruction.

• Do we cheat by using ChatGPT to generate the answers? Maybe. Maybe not. What choices do we make when no one is looking? Self Awareness. Self Management. Social Awareness. Responsible Decision Making. Relationship Skills. (Hello CASEL 5 SEL!)

• Use this Back to School Learning Skills Challenge Task to have students learn about Growth Mindset / 21st Century Learning Skills while trying to stay in a Growth Mindset and use 21st Century Learning Skills.
  

PRO TIP: If you want to do these 3 steps and explicitly teach students how to use 6Cs / 21st Century Learning skills, then you want the Back to School 6Cs Growth Mindset Bundle. Save time and money by getting 90+ lessons that you can use throughout the year to help students with Social Emotional Learning.

About the Human Bingo Ice-breaker activity

Help students get to know their classmates.

Use this with: 

• students at the start of a new class, new semester, or new school year

There are 2 versions in the PDF worksheet:

• Regular human bingo (with generic timeless questions),

• BLANK human bingo template.

Things to know:

• All files can be edited to mix, match or change questions. (Google Docs™ / Microsoft Word™ files included.)

• Or, just print the NO PREP JUST PRINT version. (The PDF you download includes the worksheets!)

FREE COMMUNICATION LESSON PLAN:

• Oral communication is more than just public speaking.

• Before you begin the Human Bingo Back to School icebreaker…

• How to play Human Bingo (as a communication mini-lesson)

• Rules of Human Bingo (as a communication mini-lesson)

• Communication Strategies to help you play Human Bingo

Here are some other resources you might enjoy:

• Help students respect other students’ points of view using debate (CITIZENSHIP unit)

• Remind students how to learn (Learning Skills Group Challenge Task)

• Teach students how to set goals and achieve them (Goal Setting Bundle)

If you have any questions, feel free to ask below or to email me at Mike@educircles.org

..... Monday, Jun 3, 2024: Are the marks in, but you still need something to teach? Here's a fun, no prep, just print and go text message activity to give your students.

Are the marks in, but you still need something to teach?

⭐ END OF YEAR Life Skills Activities ⭐

Fun, "easier" work that still has learning value.

Plus, you can re-use these lessons next year during Back To School season!

⭐ LIFE SKILL - Problem #1: Students don't try, especially when things don't work right away. They give up.

• ➡️ Check out this CHARACTER unit

⭐ LIFE SKILL - Problem #2: Students don't do the right thing or stand up for each other. Being part of a classroom means being an active citizen. We don't always agree, but it's important to speak up.

• ➡️ Check out this CITIZENSHIP unit

⭐ LIFE SKILL - Problem #3: Students don't know how to work in groups. Collaboration is not the same as teamwork. One person doing all of the work is not collaboration.

• ➡️ Check out this COLLABORATION unit

⭐ LIFE SKILL - Problem #4: Students are mean, especially when they're upset. Good communication isn't just about presentations. It's also about getting your point across when both sides are upset, and things matter!

• ➡️ Check out this COMMUNICATION unit

⭐ LIFE SKILL - Problem #5: Students wait for someone else to solve their problems. Creativity is about connecting ideas in new ways. When you are faced with a tricky problem, we use creativity to create a solution. Creativity is a skill we can learn.

• ➡️ Check out this CREATIVITY unit

⭐ LIFE SKILL - Problem #6: Students believe rumors, gossip, and viral posts. They don't think for themselves.

• ➡️ Check out this CRITICAL THINKING unit

⭐ LIFE SKILL - Problem #7: ALL OF THE ABOVE 

• ➡️ Check out this CHALLENGE TASK. Can your class learn about a growth mindset while trying to stay in a growth mindset at the same time?

My name is Mike Fuchigami. I'm the Grade 8 teacher behind Educircles. 

• I taught middle school English Language Arts for 13+ years in Ottawa, Ontario.

• I had a mental health crisis because of something that happened at school.

• Social Emotional Learning skills (6Cs) literally saved my life. That's why I'm so passionate about this stuff.

• I want to help your students develop Growth Mindset and Social Emotional Learning skills.

• ➡️ Read the article: Former Teacher Michael Fuchigami puts spotlight on lack of student mental health protection

Teachers around the world have DOWNLOADED 112,441 Educircles resources in over 59 countries!

• I donate 10% of everything I earn to STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH organizations. It's a promise I made to get through some dark times.

• Together, we've donated $15,520.51 (Check out the donation log.)

✅ SAVE HOURS OF PREP (and money) with a bundle!

• Reading Strategies

• Social-Emotional Learning (6Cs Growth Mindset)

• Get all of my resources for less than $1 each!!!

⭐ This is the TED talk that I will give one day. If you like this, then you will love my resources.

Need help? Ask in the Q&A section or email Mike@educircles.org