Sneak peek: An icebreaker called Hexagon Connect that allows you to get to know your students and foster a sense of community within your classroom.
I have a fun Hexagon Connect Icebreaker to share with you. Which serves the dual purpose of a get-to-know-you activity, as well as a bulletin board classroom decoration to start the year!
I think my favorite question on this resource is “What is your favorite fictional character?” It is a lot of fun seeing who your students choose! We had a blast recounting some of the characters they chose and there is a beautiful bonding element to shared nostalgia.
Personally, I love this lesson because it allows for and encourages student creativity and serves as a visual way to quickly get-to-know your students (I am a visual learner so I find that exercises like this help me learn about my students much more quickly, and in a way that I can remember!) If you want to take the icebreaker to another level in order to get to know your students in a deeper way using this resource, there are many ways you could enrich this activity. An option that works well in this regard, is adding in mini-interviews with your class, where they explain to you what is on their hexagon and why they chose it. There is value in not only creating a personal piece, but in getting a chance to present yourself (and your hexagon) to your teacher!
DURATION
This lesson will take your students about 60 minutes to color their hexagon, cut it out, and share it with their table-mates.
LANGUAGES
I created several different versions of the worksheet. One version is in English for my Spanish 1 class who can’t read in Spanish yet – hello beginners! I also created a Spanish version for my Spanish 3 class, as well as another Spanish version for my heritage Spanish class that asks them to draw the flag of their Latin American heritage. This activity spans the full scale of linguistic ability!
PREPPING THE LESSON
This lesson is incredibly simple to implement. All you need to do is print off the worksheets according to your students/class sizes and gather some coloring materials like crayons, markers, or colored pencils.
This is such a nice low-key lesson on the first day of school. Perhaps you are like me, and find yourself a little nervous or apprehensive to start off the new year. I’ve found there isn’t a whole lot required of you in this lesson and it allows you to ease into the start of the school year and get a quick temperature of your group. Yay for a low prep and engaging lesson that lowers everyone’s stress levels on the first day of school!
Once you pass out the worksheet and go over the instructions with students, you can simply walk around the room monitoring how they are doing. Put on some music in the background and let your students express who they are through drawings!
PUTTING THE HEXAGONS TOGETHER
Once students have completed their drawings, it’s time for the icebreaker portion of this lesson. If students already sit at larger tables they can work with their table-mates to connect at least one of their hexagon sides to someone else at their table. If not, you will need to assign students small groups for this. To make the activity last longer, you could change the small groups several times.
Alternatively, if your class isn’t too large, you could work on this as a group by taping the hexagons onto the whiteboard or stapling them to the wall in the hallway. It’s a fun puzzle – trying to connect similar sides together! In one way, your class can see their similarities and feel a sense of belonging as their hexagon fits into the class as a whole.
BULLETIN BOARD
If you have a large class size, you can collect all the hexagons and put together a bulletin board on your own later. I have included the printable letters for a quote to include with the bulletin board- “Todos estamos interconectados de alguna manera.” Bonus tip- print these off on cardstock paper and ask a student that has free time or a free period during the day to help you cut them out.
Displaying these will help students get to know one another (you could do a gallery walk to show them off!) and it makes your classroom look colorful and inviting. Never hurts to display creativity and participative self-expression such as this for Parent Teacher Conferences or Parent Open House.
I hope you and your students enjoy this relaxing icebreaker activity in Spanish class this year! You can even use this in very class you teach! Here’s where to find the worksheets for the hexagon icebreaker.
If you are looking for more icebreakers to start the year, check out these five icebreakers for the beginning of the year.
Here’s where to find the worksheets for the hexagon icebreaker.
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