First Day of Speech Ice Breaker
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Getting to Know You Speech Spectrum
It’s hard to think of a unique activity for the first speech therapy session of the school year. Most older students are asked to complete “Getting To Know You” forms for multiple teachers, so finding a unique way to break the ice and learn more about your students is important.
One of my favorite activities that I’ve done to break the ice in my high school speech room is my “Getting To Know You Spectrum.” Not only does this fun activity give me a chance to know my students better, it sparks great conversation about the students in the school are similar and different.
Check out more ideas for the first week of school HERE!
The activity is quite simple. I thought of 6 personality characteristics that easily fit onto a spectrum.
I used a free Canva template to create posters with each personality characteristic, added a funny meme (because I can’t help myself), and taped the posters to the wall. I am obsessed with rainbows, so I used rainbow masking tape to connect the posters to illustrate the idea of a spectrum.
After we got through the housekeeping portion of our first session, I introduced the spectrums. I shared my personal rating for each spectrum and gave concrete examples of why I’d rated myself that way. Before students began rating themselves, I made sure everyone understood that no ratings were “wrong” or “bad” and gave examples as needed. I wrote the students’ initials in Sharpie on little Post-It Flags, and they rated themselves on the spectrum by sticking the flags to the wall where they felt they belonged. After the students rated themselves, they shared their answers, and the group discussed their similarities and differences to the other students “on the wall.“ I asked lots of questions to learn more about the students, and many students shared really interesting anecdotes and stories related to their ratings.
I noticed a few interesting things as we completed this activity. Students who are I know are more rigid thinkers rated themselves either on an extreme or in the middle. Nearly everyone was a night owl (duh, teenagers). The students that I thought would say they were extraverts said they were introverts and vice versa. All in all, I learned a TON about my students, had great conversations, and everyone genuinely seemed to have a good time!
If you want to complete this activity during your first week of school, I’ve made it super easy for you! You can edit and download the Getting To Know You Spectrums using this link! I used it with high school students, but with a few changes to some of the personality characteristics, I think that it could be used with elementary and middle school students too!
Check out more ideas for the first week of school HERE!
Have you tried this activity? Let me know the age of students you used it with and tell me how it went in the comments!
