5.1 Name games Level All
Age 4–12
Organization whole class
Aims To introduce yourself and say your name; to give personal information; to create a positive socio-affective learning climate with a new class. Language focus Greetings, I’m … / My name’s …, personal information Materials Essential: none / Optional: a soft ball, a puppet Procedure Use one or more of the following games when you start teaching a new class, to give the children an opportunity to introduce themselves and you an opportunity to learn their names. 5.1a Roll the ball (age 4–6)
Children sit in a circle on the floor. Say your name: I’m … . Roll the ball to any child in the circle. Encourage them to say their name in the same way and roll the ball back to you. Repeat with different children in random order until everyone has said their name. 5.1b Say hello to the puppet (age 4–6)
Children sit in a circle on the floor. Move the puppet towards one child and say Hello. I’m … . Encourage the child to respond Hello, … (naming the puppet). I’m … . Repeat with different children in random order until everyone has said hello to the puppet. 5.1c Silly puppet (age 4–6)
Pretend the puppet has a bad memory and needs help to remember the children’s names. Children supply the names and say Silly puppet! eg T: Hello, um, um um …. P: David! Silly … ! (naming the puppet) 5.1d Clap the names (age 4–8)
Children sit in a circle or stay at their desks. Clap twice using a strong, even rhythm and say I’m …. Clap twice again and the next child says I’m … , keeping the rhythm. Continue round the class, getting the children to alternately clap twice and say their names in a rhythmic way until everyone has introduced themselves. 5.1e Throw the ball (age 8–12)
Children stand in a circle. Say I’m …. What’s your name? and throw the ball to a child. That child then says their name, asks the question and throws the ball to another child, and so on, until everyone has introduced themselves. If children already know each other, miss out asking the question. 5.1f Introductions chain (age 8–12)
Children stand or sit in a circle. Say, eg My name’s … and I like … (dogs). Accompany this with a mime, eg pretending to stroke a dog. The child next to you says This is … and she likes dogs. (everyone joins in repeating the mime) I’m … and I like football. (and adds a mime of their own, eg kicking a ball). Continue in the same way round the circle, getting the children to repeat the sentences and mimes until everyone has introduced themselves. If a child can’t remember what others have said, they say Help! rather than go out of the game and other children respond. If you have a large class, children can do the activity in two or three groups. Comments and suggestions • Learning first names as soon as possible is a golden rule for any teaching, and with children it is particularly important for creating a positive socio-affective climate and managing the class effectively. • In many situations, children will already know each others’ names and you will be the only person not familiar with these. If this is the case, avoid activities which artificially get the children to ask each other their names when they already know the answer.
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