Asking to join in, taking turns, playing fair and being a good sport are easier if kids know each other’s names.
Besides helping children connect and gain a sense of belonging, a friendship theme also offers opportunities for them to learn math and language arts concepts.
Children that know how to share, take turns, and express their feelings, generally experience success more than those without these basic skills.
Read below for ideas to help students learn each other’s names with art, pattern and graph activities, a counting game and a rhyming song.
Easy class name book
Start a Friendship Theme with a class name book to help students learn each other’s names. Read the book every day for a while to help the students get familiar with all the children’s names.
Materials:
- 12 x 18-inch piece of paper with the words, ______ is a new friend, printed on or glued on the bottom
- photo of each child
- markers
- crayons
Procedure:
- Give each child a 12 x 18-inch piece of paper with the words ______ is a new friend, printed on the bottom.
- Each child makes one page of the class book
- Children draw a picture of themselves
- Keep a mirror nearby (not glass) so children can look at their eyes and hair
- The child completes the frame sentence by adding their name.
- The teacher also makes a page.
- If the children’s printing is unrecognizable, print it underneath in large printing so the other children will become familiar with it.
- Staples the pages, read as a group and put in the library for the children to read.
Handprint patterns
Materials:
- long sheet of paper (cut 12 x 18 inch pieces of paper in half to make 6 x 18 inch strips)
- 2 different colors of liquid paint in shallow meat foam trays
- paper towels or rags to wipe hands
Procedure:
- Have two children stand on either side of a table with a long sheet of paper in the middle
- Children tell each other their names.
- Give each child a different color liquid paint in a shallow meat foam tray
- Show children how to dip one hand in paint and then wipe off the excess
- Children take turns stamping hands to create a repeat pattern
- Both children print their names on the paper
Getting to know you counting…
Procedure:
- Children sit in a circle
- One child is it
- Teacher says an attribute, friends with baby sisters, friends with baby brothers, friends with dogs, friends with cats…
- The children who fit the criteria raise their hands
- Children take turns counting by walking around and touching each hand
Keep a deck of student name cards in an elastic band close by or in your pocket. Choose the top name for each child’s turn and then put it on the bottom of the pile. Continue choosing from the top for the next activity of the day. This way, although the activities may change, all children get the same amount of turns being “it”.
Sticky Notes Name Graph
Although this takes lots of sticky notes the children become more aware of how their name is composed of letters and have an opportunity to count how many letters in each name.
Materials:
- chart paper
- tape
- small size sticky notes in 2 colors
- felt markers
- strips of card to tape the notes onto
Procedure:
Students…
- Take a strip of card and some sticky notes
- Print one letter of their name on each sticky note, then stick it to their card
- Arrange the letters on their strip of card
- Add one of the second color sticky notes
- Count how many letters in their name
- Record the number on the second color sticky note
- add their name card to the chart paper
- You may want to secure the sticky notes to the cards with tape, so they can be rearranged for other activities without the notes dropping off.
As a group:
- How can we sort or rearrange the names?
- Is there a different way we can sort or rearrange the names?
- Ask – how many names all together, how many numbers all together, how many boys’ names, how many girls’ names
- Are there fewer (or more) names with 7 letters? 5 letters etc.
Use the name graph above to teach letters and letter sounds
- Rearrange the children’s names by beginning sounds
- Count how many begin with an A or B, etc.
- Show the children a letter and have a few children a day try to find the letter in the chart using a pointer
Teach names with a birthday graph
Procedure:
Make a birthday graph like this one from Amazon.com. Print students’ names as large as possible. Post the birthday graph as low as possible in the room or take it off the wall for the following activities.
As a group:
- Ask a student to find their own name and then find a friend’s name that starts with the sound …. (say a letter sound).
- Count how many birthdays in each month
- Count how many birthday cakes all together
- Teach vocabulary – months of the year, more than, fewer than
Getting to know you by recording data
Procedure:
- Make a quick eye chart on graph paper.
- Pair students with a new friend and have them print their friend’s name under the color of eyes that their friend has.
- Use preprinted name cards if necessary.
Make tally graphs of favorite colors or cereals to help students get to know each other. See here…
Practice rhyming with “Willaby Wallaby Wee”
Play “Willaby Wallaby Wee” to find rhyming words that start with the letter “w” and rhyme with your students’ names. Point to the name as the kids sing.
Willaby Willaby, wallaby woo……………………an elephant sat on you
Willaby, wallaby wee…………………….an elephant sat on me
Willaby, wallaby wamy……………….an elephant sat on Amy
Willaby, Wallaby wadison……………an elephant sat on Madison
Friendship Unit Posts:
6 Ways to help children make friends
Making Friends Student book Part One
Making Friends Student book Part Two
More Friendship Theme ideas
Social skills readiness tips for parents
To get a FREE printable copy of the, “Making Friends One Day at a Time”, student book pages, go to this page.