“My child wants to invite his friend from religious school to his birthday party, but doesn’t know the boy’s name.”
Have you heard this from a parent before? So many times our students make friends with a classmate, but don’t know his/her name! Relationships. Building relationships means knowing each other’s names! So here are a few tried and true ways to help your students (and you) learn the names of their classmates. Rule #1 – As the teacher use your students’ names! Make sure you know each student by name, and then use their names whenever possible.
Ideas:
Name Tents (or Name Tags) – Use cardstock folded in half, and have your students create a name tent on the first day of school (or colorful name tags that can be reused each week). Be sure names are large and easy to read (or write them yourself). Students can decorate, sharing little bits about themselves. Use the name tents for the first weeks of school, or at least until you know their names! Great for ‘guest teacher’ (substitute) days, or for controlling the seating.
Greetings: provide opportunities for students to greet each other by name. This can happen during your opening circle or as brain break during the session. Here’s how: Child #1 (Sara) turns to Child #2 (Jacob) and says “Good morning Jacob”. Jacob looks at Sara and says, “Good morning Sara”. Jacob turns to Child #3 (Rachel) and says, “Good morning, Rachel”. And the activity continues. Students may greet the child next to, across from or even kitty corner, and then pass the greeting. Then reverse the order. Students might be sitting in a circle, standing in concentric circles or moving around the room and stop to greet when the music stops. Be sure students look each other in the eye while greeting their classmates. If you spend a little time each day practicing a greeting, students will begin to remember the names of their classmates! More Greeting Ideas here.
New Name Game: Everyone knows a version of this game. Students create a name for themselves using their given first name, and a last name that is a food (or animal) that starts with the first letter of the first name. But to help students learn each other’s names, try stopping after every 4 – 5 students and you repeat each students ‘name’. Challenge students to try the same. Can someone beat your time?
Line-Up: The first time you do this activity, students should be wearing name tags. Without talking, challenge your students to line themselves up in alphabetical order. Then saying each name aloud, check out the accuracy of the line-up. Fun Idea: have students line-up by birthday. Remember no talking!
Ice Breaker… BINGO: Use the BINGO page already created or design one of your own (4 or 5 squares across and down). Inside each square put a ‘get to know you’ question. Examples: “has been to Israel”, “visited a grandparent over the summer”, “loves to swim”, “went to services over the summer”, “has been to a bar/bat mitzvah”, etc. Students walk around the room attempting to “Find Someone Who…”. When found, the student writes that person’s name in the BINGO box. Goal – to fill the whole card. After Winter Break, play this game again with new questions. Repeat name games off and on throughout the year! Community building = relationship building! Download my sample BINGO card here.
Next… Brain breaks – short activities that energize learning
