5 Games for Introducing Students to a Class

Introducing Yourself in a Class

Games provide a fun and effective way for new students to get to know one another at the beginning of the school year, on the first day of school, or in any back to school activity. The games can range in complexity from simply learning each student's name to learning detailed facts about each person in lesson plans. This also helps the teacher get to know each of her students while letting the kids have some fun in the classroom with classroom activities and classic games. These classroom games can also be done in small groups of students or in a whole class to allow students to have direct interaction with each other. These activities should be done in the front of the room or in front of the class so that everyone can feel involved and included in the fun activities.

By utilizing a fun game, classroom interactions and introductions can have a bigger impact in student communications early in the school year in a fun way. These activities can also allow the learners to get to know you as a teacher or helper in charge. These interactive introductory activities and icebreaker games can be used in a range of classroom settings, from preschool to middle school or high school. These activities also encourage team bonding and team building aspects as students can work together or alone to create the correct answers. There are many apps that can be used for these activities as well, some including learning vocabulary words as well as introductions for a class. When thinking of which introduction activities to include, think which activity would you rather have for your own introduction.

What are Games for Introducing Yourself in Class?

1. Name Chain

This simple game helps students remember each others' names while also improving their information retention skills. Grab a small ball and sit in a circle with the students. Say your name and pass the ball to your left to the first student. Have that student repeat your name and recite theirs to the rest of the class. When they pass it, the next student or next person involved recites the two previous names and their own before passing. When the list starts to get long, encourage the students to help each other remember forgotten names. After the ball makes it back around to you, mix it up by tossing or rolling it to a random student. After they repeat your name and their own, they pass it to another random student to continue the activity.

2. Introduction Hot Potato

Arrange the students in a circle and grab a small ball. This game works well in conjunction with the "Name Chain" game. Explain that whoever has the ball gets to ask a question and toss the ball to a classmate, who answers the question about themselves. For example, if you start with the ball you could ask "What is your favorite movie?" and toss the ball to whomever you want to answer. After answering, the second student asks a question and throws the ball to another classmate.

3. Bingo

Create a 5-by-5 grid template, like those used to play Bingo. This grid can be on a whiteboard, smartboard or other larger format for easy viewing. Get one unique fact about each student to populate each square, while labeling the middle square as "Free." The Introduction Hot Potato game works well for collecting these facts and lets you tie both games together; otherwise, have each student fill out a brief questionnaire on a piece of paper or worksheet to garner the facts. Pass a game board out to each student and have them interact with classmates to try figuring out who matches each descriptor. When a student finds the person described in a box, they’ll have that student sign their name in that box. The first person to fill a row or column correctly wins the game.

4. Guess Who

After the students get to know each other a bit through the previous games, this one lets them freely interact with one another, stand up and have fun through a guessing game. Write each student's name on a name tag and attach the name tags to the students' backs, but give each student the wrong name tag. Pair the students randomly and have them each read the others' name tag. Each student gets to ask three yes or no questions to try figuring out whose name tag he has on his back. If they don't guess correctly after three tries, they switch partners and try again. Once they correctly guess whose name tag they have, each student returns the name tag to the right person. When a student correctly guesses whose name tag they have, they may go around and offer hints to those still guessing.

5. Two Truths and a Lie

Students can also incorporate some fun into their introductions in class by utilizing the Two Truths and a Lie game as an icebreaker activity. This game allows students to share something interesting or unique about themselves to their classmates and also be creative by coming up with a lie to tell as well. The student will come up with their own truths and lies to tell to the other classmates, and they will tell all of the students in the class at once for everyone to take a guess collectively. The student should tell the 2 truths and 1 lie in the same way, allowing for the deception of the statements all being true to be performed for the other students. The other students in the class will then give their guesses into which of the 3 statements was a lie.