First Day of School Activity for US History | United States History Icebreaker

This first day of school activity is one of the most fun and engaging ways to start your American History class! With this activity, students have the chance to connect with you and their classmates while completing prompts that pertain to United States History topics! To give you more flexibility, all of the prompts are editable in PowerPoint, and there is also an enrichment activity and digital version!

To use this activity, students will receive a bingo-inspired grid, which they must try to fill out as completely as possible. They will go around the room and find a different person who can answer or complete each question or statement, and write that person's name in the box. They are not allowed to use a person's name more than once, to ensure that they talk to all students (and the teacher) and not just their friends! Some examples of the statements students will respond to are:

• I have watched a Presidential debate or speech.
• I have a family member or friend who has served in the U.S. military.
• I can name more than five of our past Presidents.
• I have been to more than ten states in the U.S.

We have also added Mystery Sorting Challenge as a bonus enrichment activity if students complete the bingo grid early! This enrichment activity includes an answer key.

The digital version of the activity is a Google Slideshow that features 20 of the statements from the bingo-inspired grid, each on their own slide with editable text. This slideshow could be presented to your class and students could raise their hands for each statement and share their answers aloud to the class. This version was added to provide a digital option when many teachers were remote, but it can still be a helpful addition to the lesson now!

Looking for other versions of this activity? We also have a version for Ancient Civilizations and World Geography!