Brain Teasers

• Shake hands on the first day of school to help become acquainted.Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images
  
  On the first day of school, announce that you will be introducing a puzzle brain teaser. Tell the students to introduce themselves to one another, shake hands with everyone in the class and introduce themselves by name. Only after every student has completed the hand-shaking exercise can you expose the exercise as part of the brain teaser. Ask students to work out the brain teaser on paper. Instruct them to add how many students were in the classroom and to figure up how many total handshakes occurred. For older classrooms, you can take this to a more complicated level if you know that some students didn't participate or entered late.
  
  

Classroom Unity Puzzle

• Make a classroom puzzle to illustrate unity.Polka Dot/Polka Dot/Getty Images
  
  Gather pieces of colored construction paper. Lay them on a long work table and cut the pieces so that they fit together and resemble large jigsaw puzzle pieces. Make enough pieces for each student in your class, for yourself, for any aides and for students who will enter the classroom throughout the year. On the first day of school, instruct students to decorate their pieces, write or draw about themselves and write their names on their pieces. Laminate the pieces. Staple them onto a bulletin board to illustrate ways that each student is different and alike. The puzzle promotes unity, teamwork and self-esteem.
  
  

Online Puzzlemaker

• Students enjoy word search and crossword puzzles.Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images
  
  The free Puzzlemaker found at the Discovery Education website is a puzzle-generation tool for creating customized word searches, crosswords, math puzzles, cryptograms, hidden messages, mazes, double puzzles and more, using your own lists. The Puzzlemaker is ideal for the first day of school. It allows teachers to place anything they want into the puzzle, including welcome messages, new students' names, classroom expectations or rules, or back-to-school words or poems.
  
  

Logic Problems

• Help a student find her high school class at the Puzzles website.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  The Puzzles website offers First Day of School, a logic puzzle involving the first day of high school. The object of the game is to help a student schedule her classes, teachers and classrooms in an organized fashion. It's not as easy as it looks. It takes skill, strategy and an ability to pay attention to detail. Read the clues to discover which teacher taught which subject at which hour and within which classroom. If you get stuck, click on "solving tips" or "solution."