8 Fun First Day Activities For High School

From decorating the classrooms to creating interactive bulletin boards, teachers make a lot of effort in welcoming high school students on their first day. The main goal is to make them feel welcomed and break the ice. Apart from this, teachers indulge in a lot of activities for high school students. This is because activities make up the mood for everything, and nothing better can break the ice between peers.

The first day of school opens many opportunities, including knowing your students, and activities can be a great way of doing so. These can be set up for many reasons, whether it is to make students feel welcomed or establish rules and regulations from the first day itself. Fun activities never fail and always interest the students. 

In this post, you will find the various first-day activities for high school students which will help them know their peers better, and also help out teachers know their new batch. 

Need of First Day Activities For High School

The first day in school is an important day for every student as it can turn memorable just by a few positive moments. It is the day that sets the tone for the student and gets them prepared for their entire high school life. First day activities for high school has the following purposes and benefits –

• These activities inculcate the best and positive impression on the school environment, attire, and norms.
• Students get a chance to introduce themselves effectively with those features that actually help them in their high school life. 
• The institute can set a level of discipline and expectations for the students, thus preparing them for future days.
• Students get to know each other to develop great peer relationships. These bonds are crucial in many phases of high school.
• Students’ level of understanding and knowledge is understood; simultaneously, students are made aware of the content and course of the sessions. 

First Day Activities For High School 

First-day activities have a special place in welcoming the new students to the school. These activities stimulate introductions, make students get free and talk without hesitation, and set the right frequency and tone for all the students according to institutional standards. 

Here are some of the first day activities for high school students which the teachers can pick up cues from- 

Activity 1 – Introduction With An Adjective

The first days of high school involve a lot of introducing yourself. Imagine how fun it would be if you introduced yourself with an adjective. For example, ‘Hi, I’m Pretty Sonia’ or ‘Hey! I’m Tall Tom.’ This would also be engaging as students would pay more attention to their classmates and get to know them better and faster. Through this activity, the teachers would also get to know this new lot of high schoolers.

Teachers could also ask the students to hear the introductions carefully, try and memorize their adjectives, and later, ask each student randomly about another student’s introduction or the adjective they used. This way, students would get to know who is who on just the first day. 

Activity 2- Be Unique, or Sit Down

This is another great that teachers can indulge their high schoolers in. High school is a period where everyone wants to stand out and be unique. Give them this chance on the very first day. Ask the students to stand up, and each one should say something unique and distinctive about himself. 

For example- Hello, I’m Tom, and I can speak four languages. Or, Hi! I’m Sonia, And I have a certification from NASA. But the catch here is, whichever student has the same quality, qualification, or uniqueness, must point out, and then both the students would sit. That means, if another student speaks four languages, this quality is no more unique in the class; and so, both the students must sit down. The ultimate goal of this activity is to keep standing for as long as possible. This is a great activity as it encourages students to know about each other and also, to interact more with one another. 

Activity 3- Say it On the Bulletin Board

The first days in high school can be full of anxiety. But, once you have friends around, it’s no more a plight, but actually quite the opposite. The teachers must keep an interactive board activity and give students some questions, a paper, and a pen. The questions can be something like-

• What do you wish to achieve in high school?
• Tell us 3 things about yourself?
• Have you ever wished to get fame in school?
• What is your biggest fear?

Students need to answer these questions and stick their paper on the board. Later, students should be given time to read each other’s answers so that they can get to know their peers in this new world. To make it more interactive, teachers should initiate a discussion by pointing out a particular sentence that a student must have written, and asking the other student about it. For example, ‘John, Tom says that he wishes to make a lot of friends this year, do you also have a similar goal?’

Activity 4- Who Said This?

This is an interesting game in which the students are asked questions and are later read aloud. As the name suggests, the responses are kept anonymous. Teachers start this game by preparing a few questions about the high school student’s year or life ahead. The questions can be like – 

• What is the biggest goal this year?
• Who do you think you’ll get along with the best in high school?
• What do you think of high school?
• What expectations do you have from high school?

This game makes students know that they are not alone with their views. After this session, they will feel that many other students have the same ideology and thus feel a sense of belonging to that place. That is one of the reasons why this game acts as one of the best activities for high school students on their first day.

Activity 5- Say Something Nice!

In this activity, each student is given a compliment anonymously. This way, the student will come to know their strengths. While each student picks a classmate to compliment, they feel positivity on the first day of their new journey. Moreover, knowing their strengths will increase their academic performance due to the motivation they get from this game.

Activity 6- This Or That? 

This activity includes asking students questions having two options to choose from. The questions can be related to their career options or their habits in general. Asking such questions would help students know each other, and the teachers would also get to know their new bunch of high school kids. 

The questions can be like – 

• Would you rather be an actor or an artist?
• Would you rather top the class or get fame through extracurricular activities?
• Would you rather have a private jet or an expensive sports car?
  

This session makes the students understand who are alike and who are not. This makes it easy for them to understand others and make friends quicker. The other goal is that the students get the right perception of life if the questions are suitable enough. 

Activity 7- Stranded on An Island

This activity initiates a conversation between students on the first day itself and helps them smoothly break the ice between them. The teacher must ask students to divide themselves into pairs and then think of one item that they would take with them if they were stranded on an island. To make it more interesting, the teachers could make up rules like no two pairs can choose the same item. For example, no two pairs can say ‘Mobile Phones’ or ’Water.’ So, whoever says it first, the item gets canceled, and the pair must quickly think of a new item. This initiates correspondence between students and helps them feel less alone on the first day of high school. 

Activity 8- Spot The Lie

This is a guessing game that initiates an interesting conversation between two students. This is an interesting game that works by dividing the entire class into pairs. As the name suggests, students need to make up a statement, which states two truths, and one lie, and the other pair needs to guess which two things said are right and which is the lie. This game is an interesting activity to learn about other students. The students can understand their classmates without any stress and with great interest. Moreover, being in pairs gives them a feeling of being together and not feeling alone in a new place.  

Bottom Line

The first day of high school can be intimidating. Seeing all new faces, new teachers, and a fresh atmosphere can be bewildering and appalling. In such situations, indulging in a few activities to make students comfortable can be great. The activities mentioned above will help students adjust to these new surroundings, and making friends would be facile.