I'm not sure about you, but I always feel the weight of anxiety creeping up as school approaches. Not because I'm not excited to go back and see my students, but because I DREAD the awkward first day of school ice breaker activities or the monotonous repeating of the syllabus that I know my students have heard over... and over... and over again.
So as I was preparing for the school year to start, I started thinking about activities I could do that would both eliminate the awkward silences in the room (anyone else hate a silent classroom??) and keep my students engaged. We actually don't even talk about the syllabus until the third day of class.
I had done a review activity with hexagons in the past, and my curriculum partner brought up the idea of doing it as a get to know you activity - and thus, hexagonal connections was born!
After going through a "How Well Do You Know the Teacher" Quiz where students learned about me, I explained that I wanted to learn about THEM and that they should get to know each other, too.
How it Worked
I teach grades 9-12, and this activity worked well with all of them! Even the students I already knew and had had in class previously participated.
Each student received a hexagon (linked below) and were asked to put their name in the center. I asked them to answer the 6 questions I had projected on the board and informed them that these would be hanging in the hallway, so they should do their best to "make it pretty" and actually take their time!
About the Questions
You'll notice that the questions I asked them were low stakes questions. Part of forming a comfortable, safe environment means not asking students to divulge personal information to their peers. The questions I used also allowed them to put answers they feel comfortable sharing (for example, if the biggest fear was actually something pretty personal, they could put a more basic fear that doesn't show vulnerability).
You can use any questions you think will fit your students! I asked their plans for after high school because we have many students who plan to work and also some who plan to go to college, so I knew there would be a variety of answers. The goal is to make sure they have a way to connect their hexagons together, which means generating questions that will produce loosely similar responses amongst your students.
How I Eased Students Who Were Uncomfortable
As always, I had some students who didn't know how to answer the questions. With these situations, I reminded students that it was okay to put "I don't know." I think sometimes as teachers, we get wrapped up in thinking there HAS to be an answer, when in reality, that's not always true. Some students honestly might not know their favorite food, and that's okay.
I also used this as an opportunity to observe my students. One student said she couldn't think of any hobbies, and I noticed she had gotten her nails done. I asked if she enjoyed going to the salon, and she realized that it was something she could put in her hexagon.
I also had students who felt uncomfortable with having their hexagons hanging on display in the hallway because they were afraid their peers would "use their answers against them." For these students, I said they could just put their initials instead of their name, and in other cases, I didn't hang them up. Making students comfortable should always come first.
Making Connections
Once the students were finished, they cut their hexagons out. At their tables, they were instructed to connect them with their classmates' shapes. For this to work, ALL of the sides of the hexagons that are touching MUST be connected or related in some way. Some groups had a line where each hexagon only had one side touching another, while other groups were able to have multiple sides touching.
For this part, I reminded students that the connections might be STRETCHED and gave some examples using my own hexagon. I explained that if I put I wanted to travel to Germany and another student put Italy, we could connect them because they are both in Europe. I had one student put that they were afraid of monkeys and another student put that their favorite food was bananas, so they connected those. It was fun to see how they made the relations to one another!
Depending on the class, you can have the entire class connect theirs together. My 9th grade class had 28 students, so we skipped this step. Instead, I had each group hang their connected hexagons in the hall and then the next group went out and tried to connect theirs to the one already hanging. My junior class is smaller, with 17 students, so we connected them all in the room together and hung it up outside once it was done. In the end, do what works best for your students and your classes!
What I Liked Most About this Activity
As the students were coloring and sharing at their tables, it not only helped them be more comfortable with each other, but it gave me a chance to get to know my students better. I am a teacher who loves being involved WITH my students (I do everything they do!). I would put up a chair with my colored pencils and hexagon and just chat with the students until I moved on to another table. It really gave me a chance to get to know them before diving into the curriculum, and now we can bypass the awkward silences in class as we start our first unit!
If you try this with your students, let me know how it goes! I would love to see your end result! Or in the comments, share with me your favorite back to school activities!
Here's the hexagon I gave each student:
Until next time,
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