Back to School Activities: Icebreaker Games for the First Week
The best back to school activities are short, structured games that help students learn names and settle in - two truths and a lie, getting-to-know-you bingo, and a live class quiz all work on day one. Below are five ready-to-run icebreakers for the first week of school, plus a way to build a getting-to-know-you quiz in minutes with AI.
None of these ideas need special equipment: a projector or shared screen, and the phones already in your students' pockets. With Glowit, a free live quiz platform, students join with a 5-digit room code and a nickname - no accounts, no app install - while you control the pace from the front of the room.
Create a free back-to-school quiz5 first day of school icebreakers that actually work
- Two truths and a lie: each student writes three facts about themselves, one of them false - the class guesses the lie. Run it as a live multiple-choice quiz so everyone votes from their phone at once.
- Getting-to-know-you bingo: hand out cards with squares like 'has a twin' or 'visited another country this summer', and students walk around collecting signatures.
- A 'how well do you know your teacher?' quiz: 8-10 questions about you - favorite food, childhood dream job. A guaranteed laugh that breaks the ice fast.
- Anonymous fact guess: collect one surprising fact from every student, read them aloud, and let the class guess who each one belongs to.
- Low-stakes trivia: a short general-knowledge round (animals, sports, movies) with nothing to do with the syllabus - the goal is laughter and friendly competition, not grades.
How to run a live getting-to-know-you quiz in 5 steps
- 1. Go to glowit.io and sign in with Google (only the teacher needs an account - students never do).
- 2. Create the quiz: 8-12 short multiple-choice questions, or give the AI generator a topic and edit the draft it returns.
- 3. Project your screen and share the 5-digit room code.
- 4. Students join from their phones with a nickname - joining takes seconds.
- 5. Play: a timer runs on every question, fast correct answers earn more points, a live leaderboard appears between questions, and a podium celebrates the winners at the end.
Build the quiz in minutes with the AI generator
Short on prep time the night before school starts? Glowit's AI quiz generator builds a complete quiz from a plain topic ('getting-to-know-you game for a 7th grade class') or from an uploaded document (PDF, DOCX, HTML, or TXT - up to 60,000 characters). Pick up to 25 questions and add instructions such as a difficulty level; the questions are multiple-choice and editable.
Every question is editable before you play, so you can tune the wording to your class's age. The free monthly allowance - 100 AI questions (no rollover), plus 20 more per rewarded ad - easily covers the whole back-to-school season.
Classroom-management tips for game time
- A code instead of chaos: joining via a room code on the projector replaces wandering around the room - the whole class is in within a minute.
- Let the timer do the work: a fixed time per question keeps the pace up and ends the 'one more second!' negotiations.
- Nicknames only: students never create accounts or type an email - just a nickname. Set a respectful-nickname rule up front.
- Works for a whole grade level: one live game supports up to 200 players, so you can run a shared opening activity in the hall or auditorium.