Uh-oh.

It's five minutes till your advisory meeting, and your planned activity just fell through. You have a few things ready to go—an ongoing project to check in on, some old business to wrap up. You can fill up your 30-minute block with that, right?

Gulp.

The trial of keeping the period slightly more active than an academic one, but still with structure. What to do?

Okay, scrap that—let's say for a regular day you've got this covered. Busy work here, free period there, an activity thrown in for good measure—you're set.

But maybe it's time for your first advisory or homeroom of the year, and you're itching for an activity or plan for a larger project that will help bring this group together in a meaningful way. That's right, we said meaningful.

Whatever the reason, we've got a few tricks up our Shmoopy sleeves that you can feel free to pull out as needed. But first, a quick caveat.

First, a Caveat

If you're panicked about how you're going to use your time, remember that the culture of your group is much more important than the content of your meetings.

Say it with us: "culture over content."

Advisories and homeroom periods provide students an opportunity to interact with teachers and one another in a non-graded atmosphere that isn't focused on either content or assessment. More often, the purpose of these periods is help students feel safe, welcome, and comfortable. And even if you've got one of the homerooms that works like nothing more than a five-minute pit-stop for roll call and announcements, maybe it could still take a boost from some of these tips.

Whatever sort of sitch you've got, it's a good idea to focus first on creating and maintaining a safe and welcoming space for all students. Always. If you're too worried about what you're going to do, you may fail to notice issues that arise, conflicts between students, students who are having difficulty, or those who could benefit from a quick check in or an offer of support.

And that's where the culture-over-content thing comes in.

To that end, our first set of activities is more about how to be with your students, rather than what to do with them. Though as it turns out, some of these how-to-be activities involve a little bit of doing.

Just Be…and Listen

Kumbaya.

Take it as you will. And also take a handful of these ideas—mostly variations on your typical "check in" sort of thing—as regular ways to begin your advisory or homeroom period. Pull them out as needed. It's up to you. And that's how you just be.

Take the temperature of the room.

No, you don't need 20-30 disposable thermometers. Organize chairs in a circle and ask students how they're feeling. If they don't feel like sharing? You can use scales (i.e., "from 1-10, with 1 being the worst day ever and 10 being the best"), feeling faces, energy levels (low, normal, high), or gestures like thumbs up or down or numbers of fingers to show the types of days people are having. Go around the circle to allow each student to indicate a mood. Follow up with a summary of the room's temperature and, if you like, a chance for students to explain their moods or ask questions.

Spread the news.

Well, don't spread it. Not beyond the classroom, anyway. That would kind of defeat the purpose of the community feel thing, after all. The gist of this one: ask students if they have any news or announcements to share, and be clear that while one person is speaking, others should listen attentively. Once a speaker has finished sharing whatever news she has, give others in the circle a chance to ask a question or add to the news before moving on to the next student.

And again, for this you'll want to get those seats in a circle. Spoiler alert: that's going to be true for pretty much all of these activities. When you're in a circle everyone's able to see, acknowledge, and listen to everyone else in the room. And that's the whole point, right?

Greetings all around.

Got those chairs circled? Great. Choose one student to begin. Have that student (Jonas, for example) turn to his right and say, "Good morning, Dorothy." (Or the name of the student to his right, if she happens not to be named Dorothy. Then Dorothy answers with "Good morning, Jonas," before turning to her right and greeting Matilda in the same way.

This pattern continues until you have gone all the way around the circle and the first student has been greeted by (and responded to) the last student. Obviously, if it's afternoon…we're not even going to finish that sentence.

Sounds cheesy—actually, is cheesy—but it can get some giggles out and just calm everyone down a bit.

Formal greetings all around.

Same thing as above, but this time have students use full names (first and last—middle names are optional) and shake hands with each greeting. It can feel silly, but just like the regular greetings game, it can help loosen everyone up and get them interacting in a friendly way. And that in itself can boost some moods at the top of the day.

Plus, it's something they'll need to practice doing once they're adults. Ew.

A lovely morning to you too, Matilda Antigone Clodhopper III.

Hot potato share.

Ask students a simple question. For example: what's your favorite color, food, sport, class, ice cream flavor, pro athlete. Give them a few seconds to think, and then have them share their (one- or two-word) answer as quickly as possible. The answers to the question should move around the circle as quickly as though the students were passing a hot potato. Or iPhone that's been out in the sun for awhile (or other 21st-century equivalent).

And here's a hint. Don't use this sharing style for more serious questions or for taking the temperature of the room. Only for the quick and the light, we beg of you.

Getting to know you.

Okay, all the "just be" ones go pretty quick. They're good icebreakers, but they're done in moments. So here are a few ideas to help folks get acquainted—or better acquainted.

Two lies and a truth.

You know where this is going, right? Each student comes up with three statements about himself. Two should be completely made up, but plausible (more or less), and the third should be true. Students take turns sharing their three statements and having others guess which statement is the truth and which are the lies.

And guess what? You can sit in a circle. We know, you'd be lost if you couldn't.

Find a new seat.

Arrange chairs in a circle (yesss), but set them up so that you are one chair shy. The person without a chair stands in the middle and says, "Find a new seat if you…" and completes the sentence with a descriptor that could apply to any number of people in the room.

For example: if you are left-handed, have blue eyes, were born in April, have a pet, love pizza, read all of The Hunger Games books, know at least three words in sign language. And so on. Any students the descriptor fits leave their seat and find a new one, and the person in the middle also goes scurrying for a seat. Whoever winds up without a chair becomes the new person in the middle, and the getting-to-know-each-other continues.

Sound dangerous with all those chair legs (and human legs) dashing around? No problem: no chairs needed. Stand in the circle and the last person who's scrambling in the middle is the next caller. Easy.

Human knot.

Have everyone stand shoulder to shoulder in—believe it or not—a circle. First, everyone extends right hands across the circle and clasps someone else's. Then, same deal with left hands. And that's your human knot.

The idea is to untangle it without unclasping hands. Students will have to step over, under, and around one another—and be careful not to pull too hard or move without considering others if they want to maintain the hand clasps. For an added challenge, have students try to untangle themselves without talking.

Although it may look like a terrible mess, every human knot can be untangled. Some students may wind up with their arms crossed, but once untangled, everyone should be standing in our beloved circle—no more knots.

If that sounds too ambitious, particularly if you have a large group, you might want to have students make two small circles and untangle them separately (everyone loves a race) before trying it with the whole group in one knot.

Bigger Fish to Fry

And you thought the human knot was big. But you better believe we've got plenty of plans for when you're ready to take your group to the next level.

Take on a service project.

Brainstorm ideas for community service projects your advisory could work on together. Commonly suggested activities: volunteering at a soup kitchen; collecting food for a food pantry; participating in a Toys for Tots campaign; putting together holiday baskets for a shelter; making a meal for an organization like the Ronald McDonald House; conducting a penny drive for a charitable organization. Once your advisory or homeroom decides what they want to do, spend some time figuring out all of the steps that need to be completed to accomplish the goal, map the whole project out, and get started.

But wait, does that mean saying sayonara to check-ins and getting to know you activities? Don't worry—we wouldn't wish such a thing on our worst enemy. Use those activities to start your advisory period, and use the rest of the time to work on your project.

When it's all done, don't forget to spend some time reflecting on the process and discussing any missteps (or great achievements) along the way.

Take a leaf out of "20 Face to Face Advisories."

What we have here is a document from Tolerance.org that details plans for (you guessed it) 20 different advisories or homerooms. Each requires at least a 30-minute period, and some longer. And we're not just talking circle games anymore: the theme of all these advisories is "Perspectives for a Diverse America," and they're designed to help you build community while considering deeper issues. That's legit.

Find a solution to a school issue.

Start with a brainstorm. That's always a good place to start—especially if you do it sitting in a circle. Sure, when you open it up with "let's talk about some issues in our school," you may get some jokesters with ideas like "too much homework" or "not enough TV in class." But once you get down to business you may get some great ideas.

Like what? Some students may feel that the overall school climate needs improvement, or that there's an issue with pesticides on athletic fields. Perhaps there's a need for an outdoor gathering space, a school garden, or more parent involvement.

Whatever they identify, let them go with it. Have students conduct research, propose solutions, invite administrators to meetings, and see what they can do to make an improvement. Plus, it's a great way to boost your students' involvement in the community—and you never know, maybe vice versa, too.

Again, be sure to continue to use your advisory for check-ins, and ensure that it remains a safe and welcoming space for all. And when you're done? Reflect, relax, and refocus.

Head down to Austin-town.

Depending where you're sitting as you read this, that may be kind of a big field trip. But that's why we're just talking about this link: "Expect Respect Austin," which gives a list of advisory plans in the Austin area. And guess what? They can be adapted to your area, too.

Designed by the Austin Independent School District Guidance and Counseling Office and geared for high school advisory groups, these advisory plans can be expected to take 30-40 minutes each. There are 6 separate "lesson plans" included here, and they are geared toward some specific (and legit) goals. They're all centered around the theme of healthy development, and you can take your pick between bullying and sexual harassment, healthy dating for adolescents, mental illness awareness and empathy, and suicide prevention.

Sound a bit heavy? Don't worry—the last lesson features a readymade game of Jeopardy! If that won't lighten things up, we don't know what will.

For more ideas for your advisory or homeroom, check out this great list we found on Google Docs. It's called "40 Key Lessons for Building Community in Advisory/Community Circle," and we bet you can guess what it contains. Though the author states that the list was created for students participating in project-based learning, most of the ideas can be used with little or no modification in a whole range of classroom environments.

And remember our catchphrase of the day: culture over content.

It's not what you do that matters the most—it's how you do it.

Kumbaya.