Look around your apartment and find 12 objects / take pictures of 10 things that say the most about you. (12 works best as it can accomodate groups of 3 or 4)

Put the kids into groups and give a few objects / pics to each group.

each group has a sheet of paper and 10 blank lines.

The group has to decide what each item says about you.

every few minutes, swap the items until all groups have seen all items.

Groups feedback answers to you, and you can give points for correct answers.  It also allows them to know more about you.

For instance:  You may give a guide book = i like to travel

Pasta: I love to cook / i love Italian food

You can make it easier or harder my changing how obscure the items are.

This also allows you to assess writing and speaking skills from day 1.

I teach at a very low level school so I have them tell me all the different ways to say hellp

1) I'd put them into groups, do something crafty, give them a big poster along with some construction paper, scissor, glue, etc.  and have them make a poster representing their summer, then come up as a group and present it. I'd also google summer esl crafts for some craft twists.

2) If there English is good enough, two truths and 1 lie about what they did over the summer.

3) Get an inflatable beach ball and do human battleship. Put a barrier between the two teams where they can't see each other, and have the students position themselves. They are not allowed to move once they've chosen their position. The students take turn throwing the beach ball over the barrier, if it hits a student they are out. Elicit statements on what they did over the summer before allowing them a throw.

4) Also, I have an UNO deck which elicit past tense for where, and what they did in past tense, if you are interested I can link it below no charge.

Yeah, no problem! I know how the new co-teacher bit goes. That can really rock your world. There was no telling for me at least... I usually had a change of co-teacher at least once a year.

Here is the UNO deck, I'm gonna give you the google drive link where you can download it for free, cause it is no longer free on the website:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RLjl1932elsnJxti5Wt1_4Oqp_I49nty

Here is a free Go fish deck as well that usually goes over well, especially for second-grade level:

https://halandsteveenglish.com/collections/games-activities/products/go-fish-food-like-favorite-grammar

thank you!