Classroom Community Builders : Activities for the First Day and Beyond

This is an indispensable book, for novice and experienced teachers, for teachers of young learners or adults, or in the ESL or EFL context. — Scott Thornbury

With solid pedagogical explanations for the exercises rendered in these pages, Burns offers a worthy professional tool for fellow teachers. — Kirkus Reviews

Tired of doing the same old icebreaker on the first day of class? Sick of choosing between doing a fun activity or getting down to work?

Classroom Community Builders solves the problem. This collection of almost 100 activities energizing do both! Each activity is designed to build community in the classroom, but also help students practice language work!

And let's not forget that nothing builds classroom community better than working together as a team toward a clear objective, so most of these activities work as group projects. In fact all the activities are highly adaptable and are described with variations so you can fit them into your class with your students!

• Culture Shock: Students talk about how they do different things in their culture such as greet a person or give a gift. A great way for students to share their culture and create a space that is respectful of difference and diversity.
• Good Teacher / Good Student: Discuss what makes a good teacher and what makes a good student. A great way to set class expectations for everyone, develop self-reflection and encourage good study skills.
• Syllabus Scavenger Hunt: An interactive way to teach the syllabus and build community!
• Sentence Auction: Evaluate language knowledge while community building. Students bid on sentences, trying to "buy" correct ones and avoid wrong ones.
• Different Thoughts: Brainstorm different ways to do a simple task, while showing students why working as a team is better than working alone.
• Plane Crash Survival: A classic survival task that teaches students the importance of a diverse range of voices in a community. After a plane crash, students debate the usefulness of various objects.
• Sorting Line: A line-up activity. Students sort themselves into lines by age, height, years studying English or more. It's a great classroom community builder than also has students practicing communication skills.
• Picture Flashing: Students are given 3 seconds to look at a picture, then describe it to a partner. Strong descriptive skills and teamwork required!

There are also roleplays, logic puzzles, tasks, ideas for getting-to-know-you activities, and even ways to help the students get to know you, the teacher! A great resource for the new teacher, the CELTA graduate, or even an experienced educator looking for some new ideas!