First Day of School Problem Solving Activity

Looking for something you can do to break the ice on the first day without having to gather a ton of materials? Worried that students are going to die of boredom if you do one more presentation on procedures and expectations? If you answered yes to either of those questions, this First Day of School Problem Solving Activity is the answer to your problems!

This First Day of School Problem Solving Activity is great for team building, inquiry, or scientific method practice, this resource is sure to bring up some interesting discussion and definitely provides a lot of practice for students in perseverance in problem solving.

In this resource, students are given a simple riddle to solve and a set of manipulatives (print or digital) to experiment with various solutions. The solution isn’t as simple as it may seem, and students will likely be stumped and frustrated at first. Use this as an opportunity to talk about “stuck points” and how we can move beyond them.

How Can I Use this First Day of School Problem Solving Activity?

• first day of school introductory lesson
• meet and greet for small groups or teams
• middle of the year reflection on best practices for group work
• brain break activity
• time filler for a lesson that doesn’t quite take as long as expected

Who is this Resource For?

This resource can be used by classroom teachers of any grade or subject with in person students.

What’s Included in this First Day of School Problem Solving Activity?

Purchase includes a printable PDF file in color with answer key. On page 2 of this resource you will find a link to a student friendly Google Slides version of this file. You will be able to copy this file and use it with Google Classroom or any other paperless initiative.

Please take a look at the preview file to see more of this resource.

More questions?

Email me at laneyleeteaches@gmail.com