First Day of School Icebreaker: Two Truths and a Lie

About this video

Here is the worksheet for this activity! https://briantolentino.com/two-truths-and-a-lie-includes-worksheet/ Here is the software I use to make my videos: https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=18708&awinaffid=844903&p= Subscribe to Tolentino Teaching for online teaching resources: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxVnC3TU90xGfwGGJj--dHA?view_as=subscriber My favorite books on writing: The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker: https://amzn.to/38m0FWm How to Argue with a Cat by Jay Hendrichs: https://amzn.to/2MWQXCs The Elements of Style Fourth Edition: https://amzn.to/2MZeent On Writing Well by William Zinsser: https://amzn.to/30ouPnJ My Social Media Links Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tolentinoteaching/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tolentinoteaching/?eid=ARCDTu1yPrWNU95MIiqiab32h2xup6OJBVFlENV03XB6HHUOFxeS0gGlYvdIx-bKlzwzEW7N8uwtCagP Twitter: https://twitter.com/TolentinoTeach **Disclaimer: Tolentino Teaching is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and AWIN, affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.amazon.com and http://paidforadvertising.com/ A first-day of school activity I like to do is Two truths and a Lie. The activity is simple: you write two things about yourself that are true, and one thing that is a lie. This is a great way for students to introduce themselves in a fun and light-hearted way. I tell students this is your one chance to lie to me, so take advantage of it. I also tell students to make sure their lie is not too obvious. For example, students will say I like pizza. Last year I went to a Dodgers game. Yesterday I went to China. When the lie is too obvious, it takes away the challenge of the game. I write my two truths and lie on the white board so students can read them, and I always say my two truths and a lie before students start writing. I typically write something genius like this My favorite football team is the Minnesota Vikings I have traveled to 23 countries My favorite kind of food is Thai. Can you guess the lie? I’ll give you five seconds. The lie is number two--I have traveled to 22 countries. hahaha--Gotcha. Sometimes I tally all the times students trick me and play a game of teacher versus the class. I usually win. If I am teaching a class with English Language Learners, I like to include sentence stems. I typically use the simple past tense or simple present. I include the following stems: Simple Past Tense Yesterday I… Last year I Three weeks ago I Four years ago I Two months ago I For the present tense I like to include adverbs of frequency I sometimes… I never… I always… I often… I usually I tell students to be as specific as possible--preferably in a goofy way. I sometimes eat pizza with my sister on Thursdays. I often dance after hearing Justin Bieber on the radio. Overall, two truths and a lie is a great icebreaker to get students talking about themselves and to begin the process of building a fun and positive classroom culture. I have used this activity in three countries with students of various ages and it has worked swimmingly. Thanks for watching and please subscribe to Tolentino Teaching