Getting To Know You Bingo (FREE Printable)

 

This FREE worksheet is a great ice breaker for new classes. "Getting To Know You BINGO" allows your students to get out of their seats and walk around the room to practice speaking to one another and find common ground. They have to ask each other (and you!) questions to find people who can fit the prompt in each square. Each square has facts such as "Someone who is wearing glasses," or "Someone who plays a sport". When they find someone who meets those criteria, they write the person's name in the box with the goal of getting a BINGO/Five in a row. 

This is a quick and easy activity that usually gets kids laughing, and it can be fun for students to see what they have in common with their peers, learn each other's names and even find things in common with their teachers! If you have a smaller classroom, you can allow students to use names more than once but challenge them to do so only after they have used everyone in class. You can also make the game harder by challenging them to get "double BINGO" with 5 in a row in two directions, or to get a horizontal, L-Shape or vertical BINGO.

If you want to use prizes for this game, some cheap and easy ideas are:

Fun Stickers

Candy or Snacks

Classroom Coupons (free time, computer time, homework pass, etc.)

Pencils or other school supplies

Fidget spinners or other small toys

You can download the BINGO worksheet from our Google Drive for free by clicking here

Or download it for free from Teachers Pay Teachers/TPT by clicking here

Free Lesson: A Kid Is a Kid Is a Kid

 A Kid Is a Kid Is a Kid, written by Sara O'Leary and illustrated by Qin Leng is a great book for the beginning of the school year. It opens with a new student who keeps getting asked if they are a boy or a girl. The story continues with children sharing the questions they get asked again and again, such as "Where are you from?", "Why do you always have your nose in a book?' and other questions the children wish people would stop asking them. Instead, they share things that they wish people would ask them to get to know them better or to get a sense of who they really are. in the end, the children come to find that there is one question that all kids want to be asked: Do you want to play?

A Kid Is a Kid Is a Kid is a great book for teaching about diversity and inclusion. I like to read this book to my new class near the beginning of the year to remind them to be mindful in the ways they get to know each other. It can also be used as an opportunity learn more about them by asking them what question they wish other people would ask them to get to know them. This FREE worksheet allows them to create their own cover for the book and write a sentence about a question they wish people would ask them. 

You can download it here from our Google Drive

Or download it here from Teachers Pay Teachers/TPT

Lego Building for Social Skills: Public Speaking

 Legos are a great tool to bring into your social skills lessons. They are usually toys that children already have a connection with, and they enjoy working with them. I have used legos in the path to teach about emotions, team building and many other things. This lesson in particular is focused on building public speaking skills. 

The teacher or a volunteer can roll two dice. Whatever number you roll is what you will have the class build. It works best to set a time limit for building, usually 5-10 minutes in sufficient, otherwise you will have some students who just keep building and building and will never be done! After the students have finished building, allow them to share about their creations.

Solo Lego Building Activities:

Directions: Roll two dice, whichever number you roll is what will be built. Set a timer for students to build, and then allow them to share their creations with the class.

2. Build something that is important to you

3. Build a superpower you wish you had

4. Build your favorite animal

5. Build an invention you wish was real

6. Build something that shows how you feel today

7. Build a place you love to be

8. Build a mode of transportation (car, boat, plane, etc.)

9. Build your favorite game

10. Build your favorite food

11. Build what you want to be when you grow up

12. Build the tallest tower you can before the timer goes off

 I have found that kids who never want to raise their hand or stand in front of the class to speak are surprisingly open to standing up and sharing their Lego creations! These prompts are simple and lighthearted, good for introducing your students to Lego social skills. Follow me for Lego lessons, where I will have some based on team building, accessing emotions and following directions. If you would like an easy print-out of this lego prompt list, you can access it here!