The beginning of the school year is an exciting time for both teachers and students 👩🏫🎉. It’s an opportunity to set the tone for the year, build relationships, and create a welcoming and engaging classroom environment. One of the best ways to achieve this is through fun and easy projects for the first few days of school that cater to different learning styles: visual, tactile, and auditory learners. Here are 15 project assignments that will help you kick off the school year with enthusiasm and creativity.
📝All About Me Poster
Learning Styles: Visual, Tactile
One of the easiest projects for the first few days of school is an “All About Me” poster. Have your students create a poster using poster boards and various art supplies. They can include their name, a self-portrait, their favorite things, hobbies, and a fun fact about themselves. This project helps students express their individuality and allows classmates to learn more about each other.
📝Personal Timeline
Learning Styles: Visual, Tactile
Students can create a personal timeline that highlights significant events in their lives. They can use drawings, photos, and captions to illustrate milestones such as their first day of school, family vacations, or achievements. This project helps students practice sequencing and storytelling skills.
📝Classroom Scavenger Hunt
Learning Styles: Tactile, Auditory
Organize a classroom scavenger hunt where students work in pairs or small groups to find specific items or locations in the classroom. Provide them with clues or a checklist to guide their search. This activity encourages teamwork and helps students become familiar with their new classroom environment.
📝Favorite Book Presentation
Learning Styles: Visual, Auditory
Ask students to bring their favorite book to class and prepare a short presentation about it. They can create a poster or digital slideshow to showcase the book’s cover, main characters, plot summary, and why they love it. This project promotes public speaking skills and a love for reading.
📝Self-Portrait Collage
Learning Styles: Visual, Tactile
Provide students with magazines, colored paper, and other craft supplies to create a self-portrait collage. They can use different materials to represent their interests, personality, and appearance. This project encourages creativity and self-expression.
📝Selfie Presentation
Learning Styles: Visual, Tactile
Similar to the Self-Portrait Collage, the Selfie Presentation will allow your new students to tell you and their classmates about themselves in a fun and creative ways. The students will take a selfie. Print it off. Add the selfie to a poster board or a PowerPoint presentation. Then, they will create a collage of the various things that make them unique. They can use different materials to represent their interests, personality, and appearance on their selfie. This project will allow your students to express their individuality.
📝Memory Box
Learning Styles: Tactile, Auditory
Students can decorate a small box and fill it with items that represent their summer memories or important aspects of their lives. They can share the contents of their memory box with the class. While doing so, they can explain the significance of each item. This project fosters storytelling and active listening.
📝Classroom Community Quilt
Learning Styles: Visual, Tactile
It is important in the first few days of school to create a classroom community. And, a great project for these first few days of school is to create a classroom community quilt. You start by giving each student a square piece of fabric or paper to decorate. They can include their name, a drawing, or symbols that represent themselves. Assemble the squares to form a quilt that can be displayed in the classroom, symbolizing unity and diversity.
📝Classroom Constitution
Learning Styles: Auditory, Visual
Have students work together to create a classroom constitution that outlines the rules, expectations, and values of the classroom community. They can brainstorm ideas, discuss and debate, and then write and illustrate the final document. This project promotes collaboration and a sense of ownership.
📝Goal Setting Vision Boards
Learning Styles: Visual, Tactile
Students can create vision boards that reflect their goals and aspirations for the school year. I am a big fan of vision boards. I feel that they are a great way to stay focused. I do them myself, and I want my students to see the power of them.
Provide your students with magazines, scissors, glue, and poster boards for students to cut out and paste images and words that represent their goals. You can also opt to let your students do these digitally and present them. There is no right or wrong way to create a vision board. This project helps students focus on their objectives and stay motivated.
📝Interview a Classmate
Learning Styles: Auditory, Tactile
Team building time! As one of your projects for the first few days of school, you can have your students conduct classmate interviews. Pair your students up and have them interview each other using a list of pre-written questions. After the interview, each student can introduce their partner to the class, sharing interesting facts and highlights from the interview. This activity encourages active listening and helps students get to know each other better.
📝Classroom Puzzle
Learning Styles: Visual, Tactile
Give each student a blank puzzle piece to decorate with their name and unique designs. Once all pieces are decorated, assemble them to create a classroom puzzle. And, this is probably the simplest one of the projects for back-to-school on my list. This activity symbolizes how each student is an important piece of the classroom community.
📝Favorite Song Analysis
Learning Styles: Auditory, Visual
Ask students to choose their favorite song and analyze its lyrics. They can create a poster or digital presentation that includes the song’s lyrics, themes, and why it resonates with them. And, back-to-school isn’t the only time that you can use this activity. It can be used throughout the year. This project combines music appreciation with critical thinking and presentation skills.
📝Classroom Map
Learning Styles: Visual, Tactile
Have students create a map of the classroom, labeling different areas and important spots. They can use colored pencils, markers, and other art supplies to make their maps visually appealing. This project helps students become familiar with the classroom layout and practice spatial awareness.
📝Technology-Based Assignment: Digital Storytelling
Learning Styles: Visual, Auditory
Students can use digital tools like Google Slides or other storytelling apps to create a short digital story about themselves. They can include photos, text, and audio recordings to make their stories engaging. This project integrates technology and storytelling skills.
📝Classroom Recipe Book
Learning Styles: Visual, Tactile
Here’s a yummy community building activity for you class. Ask students to contribute their favorite family recipe to a classroom recipe book. They can write out the recipe, illustrate it with drawings or photos, and share a short story about why it’s special to them. Compile all the recipes into a book that the class can keep and use throughout the year.
These 15 projects are designed to be fun and easy, helping students ease into the school year while catering to different learning styles. By incorporating visual, tactile, and auditory elements, as well as technology, these projects will engage students and create a positive, inclusive classroom environment. Try these activities in your classroom and watch your students thrive from day one!