4 Fun Ways to Re-Engage Your Students (And Teachers!) After a Long Break

How to Get Ready for the Best Post-Winter Break Transition

Long breaks are necessary:

• They help us refresh.
• They help us refocus.
• They provide respite from the daily grind.
• They are key to preventing burnout.

Yet, it can be hard to transition back into the classroom after a long break. Reconnecting with staff and students is essential to starting off the new year on the right foot. We compiled several ways for teachers and administrators to help ease the transition.

The post-break period is a chance to refresh our relationships with staff and students. This view will help boost social-emotional well-being and enhance the school environment.

Re-Engagement in the Classroom: Why it Matters

Some students will have had great winter breaks full of family, fun, and celebration. Other students may have had a more challenging time at home that felt isolating and lonely. Our job is to provide a safe and welcoming space to learn. One where all students can re-adjust to the routines and expectations of the school environment. We must give students grace during this time, especially if their acclimation is a bit… rocky. It’s hard for adults to return to classrooms and offices after time away! We have to remember that it’s hard for kids to return to a classroom’s structure and rigor after a long break, too.

That said, this is a great opportunity for teachers to ease back into instruction. This is the time to take advantage of classroom games and SEL activities. This is the time to make classrooms a fun place to be for everyone!

Below are two approaches to returning to the classroom after a long break. There are short bell-ringer activities that take 10–15 minutes, and longer, full-class activities. Use them for elementary school, middle school, or high school. Choose one (or more!) that works for you.

#1) Fun Bell-Ringer Activities:

• Best Break Moment: Draw a picture of one great memory from your break, then do a turn and talk with your seat partner.
• “How to Survive Class” Comic: Review routines and expectations in a light-hearted way. Divide students into partners and give each set a classroom routine or expectation to display in comic form.
• Goal Setting: The new year is a great opportunity to set personal or academic goals. Take a moment to be intentional about setting goals with your students. You could feature the goals on a long paper chain to decorate the classroom, or on a large poster or bulletin board.
• Attendance Question Brackets: How do you make attendance exciting? Turn it into a tournament bracket! Choose a topic like best candy, best Disney movie, or best cartoon character, and create a March Madness-style bracket. Have students vote daily to find out the ultimate winner.

#2) Collaborative, Competitive Classroom Activities:

• Puzzlemania: Puzzles are a great way to get students thinking. They don’t even realize it because they are having so much fun! Students can do hands-on puzzles to get their brains exercising again. If you prefer, you can also keep it curriculum-based. Students can do word scrambles and brain-teaser puzzles about content that you covered before the break.
• Activate Prior Knowledge With a Fun Activity: Recalling information taught before break can be hard. Students will have an easier time if you make it low-stakes. One way to activate prior knowledge is to frame it as a task-based activity. Let’s say your class read Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol before the break. You could use Glose to have students return to Stave Three for a “Roasting of Scrooge.” It’s still literacy learning but in a fun, engaging format.
• Question Trails: Setting up a question trail around the hallway, or outside if you have nice weather, can be a great way to return after the break. The question trail can be curriculum-based or just for fun. Either way, it gets students out of their seats and working together, helping them re-engage with their classmates.
• Growth Mindset Escape Room: An escape room is a high-energy, high-motivation way to get students reconnected in the classroom. Keeping it focused on a growth mindset can help with personal and academic goal-setting as well!

Using classroom games and SEL activities will help students ease back into the rigor of the school day. By providing opportunities for reconnection, we create a warmer school environment.

How to Help Teachers Get Back in the Groove

Like students, the staff needs a grace period to re-adjust. Coming back after a long break and hitting the ground running is a system shock. It’s important that we take the time to provide opportunities for our teachers to reconnect and re-engage as well.

Here are two approaches for administrators to help ease their teachers’ transition back to the daily grind.

#1) Welcome-Back Treats:

Never discount food’s ability to turn the faculty lounge mood around! One of the hardest routines to get back into is remembering to pack an adequate lunch and snacks to make it through the workday. Some ideas to percolate:

• A coffee and donut cart at the sign-in desk
• Bagels and fruit in the faculty lounge
• A mobile snack cart that travels to teachers’ classrooms throughout the day (this is a great one for parents to help with!)
• A tasty mailbox surprise, like a candy bar or bagged snack

*An important note here: be mindful of dietary restrictions. You want all of your staff to feel welcomed back!

#2) The Gift of Time:

If there’s one thing every educator can agree on, it’s that they all need more time to get the never-ending workload down to a reasonable level. Giving your staff the gift of time will be more valuable than anything else. If possible, consider:

• Providing extra prep time
• Taking away a duty responsibility for the day
• Eliminating a meeting (it truly could be an email, we promise)
• Allowing teacher responsibilities to end when students leave

Whether you offer a tasty treat or some extra time, you are appreciated for doing what you can to ease the transition. The thoughtfulness and consideration will make everyone’s return to school sweeter.

The Benefits of Being Intentional About Back-to-School Return

Coming back from long breaks can be hard on everyone. It’s important to take time to help our school community reconnect. There are major benefits to dedicating space for re-engagement with students and staff. It can:

1. Ease the transition back to school
2. Increase positive connections between staff and students
3. Benefit the entire school culture
4. Boost social-emotional well-being

Relationships are a key component of a positive school culture. Investing in those relationships will help students and teachers re-engage in the classroom smoothly. Together, we can make the post-break blues disappear!