MAKING A COAT OF ARMS

A nice ice­breaking activity for the first day of school is having every student in class make a Coat of Arms. Coats of arms have been used since Roman times to represent a person, a family or a military unit. They are divided into four or six areas and contain visual elements that are associated to the personality of the owner. Therefore, making a coat of arms involves representing graphically different aspects of our personality, and then telling others about us. In this case, 2nd Year Bachillerato students had to divide their coats of arms into 4 sections and include: an animal that represented them, a favorite (hobby, sport, food...), a country or place where they lived or had lived, and a symbol of their role as a student. Even though our students have known each other for many years, it was a good activity to make them think about how they see themselves and how they want to present themselves to others. It was also an easy presentation activity involving every student’s favorite topic: themselves.

Javier García
English Teacher