Four Simple Back-To-School Community-Building Activities With a Grammar Twist

By Missy Davis from ABetterWaytoTeach

The beginning of the year can be overwhelming as a teacher. You want to build routines and norms while establishing clear expectations for your students. You want them to get to know you and each other. You want to establish a safe space for risk-taking. And if you’re anything like me, you want that to all happen ASAP!

The reality is that these notable goals are not achieved overnight. That’s why the first month of school can be so hard.

After a few years of teaching, I came to expect that first month to be a lot of work. But I also found that it was worth the work I put into it. It was worth the intentionality. It did pay off the rest of the school year. My students felt more comfortable when I did the hard work of establishing all the things that matter most that first month.

While building community is important, being intentional with your curriculum is also important.

I’m a big fan of teaching grammar from the beginning of the school year because it allows your students to be more successful on those first few writing assignments.

However, you don’t have to jump immediately into a grammar lesson on week one. Instead, try a few of these super simple ways to bring grammar instruction into your classroom while building community between your students and strengthening your relationship with each of them.

1.) Partner Students Up Using Parts Of Speech Matching Cards

Using partner activities during the first few weeks of school can be a good way to allow students to work with each other and develop a level of familiarity with their classmates. You shouldn’t overuse the partner activities, but using them sparingly can build class community.

Since you want students to get to know more people than just their close friends, you’ll need to assign partners sometimes. This is a super simple way to assign partners while giving students a chance to review grammar concepts for a few minutes.

The concept is simple. Grab a pack of index cards and make “matches.” On one card you can write “proper noun,” and its match would say “Taylor Swift.” Another set could say “past tense verb” and its match would be “waddled.”

Is it a little chaotic for 3 minutes? Sure. But it’s also fun and allows them to review grammar in a low-stakes way. They can turn to the person next to them and say “Hey, do you remember what a common noun is?” rather than asking in front of the whole class or even worse, feeling dumb on a diagnostic test.

2.) Use A Warm-Up Game And See If Students Can Spot Parts Of Speech

I’m a big fan of warm-up games for grammar review and instruction. They’re fun, and they break down defenses. I use my warm-up games at the beginning of the year in a “volunteers only” framework, meaning that nobody is put on the spot.

One of my favorite warm-up games is “Name Your Price” which basically gives students a scenario and they must think of how much money someone would have to give them to complete that scenario.

For instance, how much would someone have to pay you to live without electricity for a year? How much would someone have to pay you to have a donkey as your primary means of transportation for a month?

Another way to play this game is for you, the teacher, to think of your “price” and see how close students can get to naming your price.

After you’ve played the game (which only takes minutes) ask students to look again at the question. Can they point out the nouns in the question? How about the verbs? Can they tell if it’s written in active or passive voice?

You can use this warm-up game ANYTIME. Use it at the beginning of the class period to set the tone for class, or use it at the end of class if you have 3-5 minutes left before the bell rings.

3.) Play Four Corners To Gauge Students Feelings On Grammar And Writing

You can use the traditional Four Corners game to informally see where your class as a whole is with feelings toward grammar and writing.

Set up your classroom with one “corner” (doesn’t have to be a corner) with a sign that says “strongly agree,” one section says “agree,” one section says “strongly disagree,” and one section says “disagree.”

Then, give them statements geared toward grammar and writing. For instance:

If I had to choose between writing about what I’ve learned and talking about it, I’d choose writing.
I prefer persuasive essays over analytical essays.
My favorite type of writing is creative writing.
I feel confident that I know all the parts of speech and how to use them.
I’ve written something in a previous Language Arts class that I was proud of.

Another way to learn about students’ history with language is to give them questions similar to this, but have them write their responses only to you on the first few days of school.

4. Circle Stories For A Sure Win

I’ve written more about circle stories here: “Five No-Prep Lessons With Grammar Connections” because I just love them. I’ve used them for years and have only had great responses from students when we did them.

I love them because they are basically no prep and truly engaging for students. They allow students to be silly while practicing writing skills, and they build class community.

Here’s what you do:

Put students in groups of four.
Each student takes out a sheet of paper.
Each person starts their story and has five minutes to write about basically anything. You can give students a story opener if you’d like.
After five minutes the paper goes to the left and that person reads the beginning and then has five minutes to continue the story.
Students continue passing the papers around until the person who began the story has their paper back. They finish their own story.

The stories that result are absolutely hilarious, usually nonsensical, and just a lot of fun. It helps remind students that writing doesn’t have to be drudgery and that everything they write doesn’t have to be perfect.

If you want an added layer of instruction, after students finish their stories, give them three more things to do:

Circle five vivid verbs in the story.
Underline three adjectives in the story.
Highlight two proper nouns.

Obviously you can change those three things to anything you want. Use it to gauge their memory on parts of speech or use it to assess other knowledge. For instance, later in the year you might have them do this:

Highlight one compound sentence.
Underline a sentence written in active voice.
Rewrite a sentence that has a linking verb so that it has a vivid verb.

The possibilities are endless!

Sneak In Grammar Instruction At The Beginning of The Year

There are tons of ways to bring grammar into your classroom even at the beginning of the school year that convey the message that writing matters and that grammar does not have to be boring.

If you want to integrate grammar instruction with writing instruction while highlighting great literature, check out my full-year, low-prep grammar curriculum.

Here’s to building strong community at the beginning of the school year while being intentional with your curriculum. You’ve got this!

What do you do to build community at the beginning of the year? Let us know in the comments or come share with us on instagram!