Remembering Names

Grade Levels: K - 5

Objectives

 Students will improve their listening skills.

 Students will build classroom community.
 Students will learn each other's names.

Materials

 Soft foam ball

Procedures

1. Everyone sits in a circle, including you.

2. Explain that you are going to practice each other's names. Therefore it's very important that they
listen and make eye contact with people who are speaking.
3. You go first; say your name and then hand the ball off, rotating the ball clockwise around the
circle. The next student says your name, his name, and then hands off the ball to the next
student. That student says your name, the previous student's name, and then his name. Proceed
in this pattern around the circle. Allow the students to help each other remember the names.
4. Now, sitting in the same circle, roll the ball to a student. She should say your name and then her
name. She should then roll the ball towards another student, saying that student's name.
Continue this until everyone has been named.
5. Have the students stand up and scramble the circle. Try remembering everyone's name with one
of the above procedures.

Postcards Icebreaker
Grade Levels: 3 - 6

Objectives

 Students will write and illustrate a postcard to a classmate about a summer vacation, camp
experience, or other summer activity using a pen name.
 Based on the information in the postcard, students in the class will try to guess each postcard’s
author.

Materials

 Numerous slips of paper, each with the name of a famous person on it

 5" x 7" index cards
 Art materials

Procedures
1. Have students draw from a hat the name of a famous person for their pen name. (Famous writers
or authors are a good choice.)
2. Place all names back in the hat and have them draw the name of the famous person to whom
they will be addressing their correspondence.
3. Using one side of a 5" x 7" index card, have students write a letter from their vacation spot as if
they were still there, detailing where they are and what they’re doing.
4. On the opposite side of the index card, have students draw a scene from their vacation and
address it to the recipient.
5. Collect and redistribute the postcards over any period of time.
6. Have students give a presentation on the postcard they received, and allow the class to guess
who – instead of Virginia Woolf or Mark Twain – really visited the Grand Canyon during the
summer.