By Rachel Wells
Learning everyone’s names at the beginning of the school year can be a challenge for both students and teachers – but the quicker everyone knows who everyone else is, the quicker you can start building a solid classroom community.
Name games are simple to set up, exciting to play, and the perfect way to help your students introduce themselves and learn who everyone is. These activities are perfect for the start of the school year and guaranteed to bring a smile to the faces of all students whether they’re 4 or 14.
Favorite Things
Have students stand in a circle. The first person in the line should say their name and their favorite thing (you can choose a category such as favorite food, animal, sport, etc. or just leave it open ended) The group then repeats the statement. After that the second person in the line should state their name and favorite thing, as well as the name and favorite thing of the first person. The third person then shares their information as well as the first two people in the line. This continues until the entire group has a turn!
Name Ball
Grab a ball that’s easy to throw and catch, and have students stand in a circle. Give the ball to one player who will say their name and answer a question about a favorite thing (food, color, hobby, etc.) They will then throw the ball to another student. The receiver of the ball has to say “thanks {the throwers name}” before they can share their name and favorite thing and continue the game until everyone has a turn to share.
Web of Names
This one is similar to the game above except you will play with a ball of yarn. Have students sit in a circle, give one student the ball of yarn, and have them throw it to anyone in the class. The person who catches the ball has to introduce themselves. They then hold on to a piece of the string while throwing the rest of the ball to another person who will catch it saying “thanks {the throwers name}” before introducing themselves. The game continues until everyone has had a chance to introduce themselves and the class has created a large web of string.
Zombie Name Game
This is a great name game because it gets students up and moving. Before playing, students will need to stand in a circle and say their names. Choose one student to be the ‘zombie’ and have them stand in the center of the circle. To play, call out a student’s name. The ‘zombie’ heads toward the student who was called to try tag them, however if that student calls out another student’s name before the ‘zombie’ can tag them, the ‘zombie’ must head to the new student instead! If someone gets tagged, they will switch places and become the ‘zombie’ in the center.
Guess Who
This game is great for the end of the day, after students have met each other. To play, one student comes up to the front of the room and puts on a blindfold. The teacher will then choose a small group of 4 or 5 students to come up to the front as well. Each student from the small group will say something simple to the guesser who will have to guess who is speaking by only hearing their voice.
Wordsearch
Create a custom wordsearch hiding all of your students’ names in it. This makes a great calm and quiet activity to use during the first day.
Teacher Test
What’s better to a student than being able to put the teacher to the test?! On the first day of school make name tag tents by folding cardstock in half and writing students names on them. Leave them on your students desks all day, but at the end of the day have students flip their name tent down so their names are hidden. To play the game the class gets to time the teacher to see how quickly they can go around the room naming everyone in class.
Name Trading Cards
Have students create their very own trading cards that include a drawing, their name, and some fun facts about themselves. Be sure to give students time to trade cards with each other!
Walk the Runway
One by one students walk on a pretend runway stage (with runway music playing of course!) down the middle of the classroom while the teacher says their name and introduces them. At the end of the runway the teacher will be waiting with a microphone so each student can pause and share something fun about themselves. Encourage students to show off their best moves during their turn down the runway!
