The author describes three "icebreaker" activities she uses to help a class of students get acquainted with one another--learning names and personal information--during the first days of the school year. (SJL)

Camp Armstrong is a summer program which provides rising sixth grade students with a thorough orientation to their new middle school. Activities develop students' familiarity with the school's physical layout and provide hands-on cooperative learning in academic and recreational subjects. A workshop for parents of rising middle school students is…

Educators in Indiana's Duneland School District found the transition from elementary schools to a newly organized middle school unacceptably difficult for both the students and their parents. After assessing student and parent preconceptions of the middle school as revealed in their responses to questionnaires, the middle school principal…

An orientation and peer helper program was developed at a public middle school in a rural community to reduce the problems associated with sixth-grade students transferring into the school during the school year. Transfer students and their parents or guardians were provided with a video and brochure that explained the school's services, programs,…