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First day of school games

On the first day the subject is not the subject — it is names, and whether this room is going to be safe. A game that says everyone's name out loud six times does more for September than any syllabus overview.

Type the class list into the name wheel once and it is there for the rest of the year, on that device, for every lesson after this one.

Games in this collection

Interactive Game

Fortune Wheel

A painted carnival wheel with your class on its slices. Spin it, hear the ratchet slow, and a ticket prints with the lucky name.

Interactive Game

Name 3

Tap the floating cube. It turns, a topic is engraved on the face it lands on, and you name three.

  • Ages 4–11

Interactive Game

Painter's Attic

A secret word arrives on a painter's palette and you draw it on a real easel canvas — brush sounds, paint-blob colours and a skylight for a timer.

  • Ages 5–11

Interactive Game

Sorting Stones

Every name is a pebble in a leather pouch. Tip it over a circle of standing stones and the class lands in fair, random teams.

Interactive Game

Wishing Dice

Tip the leather cup and one to four ivory dice tumble out onto the velvet. The total is stamped into the felt in wax.

Interactive Game

Jungle Jump

A monkey shows the move, the ring counts it down, and the next card flips up. Every deck ends calm enough to sit back down.

  • Ages 3–11

Printable packs

Print & go

School

  • 16 words

Family

  • 16 words

Feelings

  • 16 words

Colours

  • 12 words

Send as homework

Five joyful minutes at home: the child listens, taps the right picture and collects stars.

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25-minute lesson plans

School — a ready 25-minute lesson plan

A ready 25-minute Classroom Objects lesson for young learners: warm-up, six new words, a game block, real speaking and a calm landing.

  • 4 min

Questions teachers ask

How do I learn twenty names in one lesson?

Say each one out loud four or five times in a game, not once in a register. The name wheel does that for you — every spin is another repetition with a laugh attached.

What if a child will not speak on day one?

Let them answer with a drawing or a thumbs-up. First-day silence is usually caution, not refusal, and it ends faster if nobody makes it a moment.

Are these only for language lessons?

No. The wheel, the team maker and draw it do not care what subject is on the timetable — any first lesson needs names, groups and a shared laugh.

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