Beat the Feet
As previously mentioned, I spent my childhood, teen, and young adult summers at Camps Winacka and Whispering Oaks. At these camps, like most west coast camps, new groups of campers arrive weekly. To help the counselors and campers quickly learn names, each unit plays name games during down time on the first day. On a safety level, this prevented situations like, “Counselor, my friend fell down and got hurt!”
“Who?”
“Ummm...I don’t know her name! Help!” and on a more human level simply helped girls to feel validated and form relationships.
I now use name games in my classroom toward the beginning of each course. I typically schedule take five to ten minutes between our class circles and lessons to play, especially on days when the students will not be doing a lot of talking during the lesson. I am always surprised that even though I taught at a small residential high school for the past ten years, I frequently had students who were unsure of their classmates names. This year, I am moving to a much, much larger school--I will see twice as many students daily as the total population of my previous school! I am looking forward to using name games throughout the first few weeks of school this August. …show more content…
If you use one, please share on social media and use the hashtag #tvszed and/or tag @npriester or @tvszed, and I will share it with others. Also, feel free to leave questions or suggestions below. Have
As previously mentioned, I spent my childhood, teen, and young adult summers at Camps Winacka and Whispering Oaks. At these camps, like most west coast camps, new groups of campers arrive weekly. To help the counselors and campers quickly learn names, each unit plays name games during down time on the first day. On a safety level, this prevented situations like, “Counselor, my friend fell down and got hurt!”
“Who?”
“Ummm...I don’t know her name! Help!” and on a more human level simply helped girls to feel validated and form relationships.
I now use name games in my classroom toward the beginning of each course. I typically schedule take five to ten minutes between our class circles and lessons to play, especially on days when the students will not be doing a lot of talking during the lesson. I am always surprised that even though I taught at a small residential high school for the past ten years, I frequently had students who were unsure of their classmates names. This year, I am moving to a much, much larger school--I will see twice as many students daily as the total population of my previous school! I am looking forward to using name games throughout the first few weeks of school this August. …show more content…
If you use one, please share on social media and use the hashtag #tvszed and/or tag @npriester or @tvszed, and I will share it with others. Also, feel free to leave questions or suggestions below. Have