On the first day of school I do an information sheet to get to know my students. Then over the first and second nights of school I make up classroom grids for each of my classes. Each student gets a grid with one block of information for each student in the class, but there is no name.
Every student has to find all the people on their grid. The rules: you can't ask questions like "which block are you?" or copy off someone else's sheet. You can ask, "hey, do you have a dog and ride your bike to school?" The teacher should play along as well (unless you've memorized the answer sheet, which you shouldn't do because that's cheating).
Name tags are a nice thing to use on these days, since it's only the third day students have seen each other that year. Then there's none of that awkward, "who are you?" while students are filling out their sheets.
Previous - Day Two: Name Games
Hi Ben,
ReplyDeleteI really like this idea - at the moment we use a sheet with statements such as "I can skateboard" "I have a dog" "I have no brothers or sisters" etc and the students have to ask the other students in the class to sign their name next to one of the statements - however, it can be done easily without much talking to each other. Your way would generate far more discussion. I took a look at your other pages too and again, have taken away some ideas to use. Many thanks for sharing. Jackie
Jackie,
ReplyDeleteThe advantage of the way you do it now, however, is that you can put one of these sheets together without the almost insane task of compiling all the student's information and then putting it onto a table for each preparation. Definitly something I might resort to if I come to a particularly busy start of the school year.
Glad to hear this series is sharing some useful ideas. Thanks for commenting!