Similar to ice breaker games, "get to know you games" are games that help kids mingle and find out a little bit about each other. It might be a game that simply introduces names, or it might go deeper. These games are great for breaking the ice and helping new kids feel welcomed. 1. FIND SOMEONE IN THE GROUP WHO….. Students are given a sheet of paper that has a list of attributes such as “has long hair”, “owns a pet dog”, “went overseas in the last school holidays” “has a sister” “loves sushi” “was born in November” etc. They need to put a name of someone in their JALI group against each of the attributes - and can only use names once. JALI group teacher should also be included. (see worksheet in this folder) 2. TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE For this great get to know you game, each student must make three statements about themselves, one of which isn't true. For example: I have two brothers, I was born in Australia, I have a motorcycle. This works best when you give the group some time to think of their statements, and write them down if they need. Once one person makes their statements, the rest of the group must guess, or vote on, which statement is the tale. You could play as a team, or individually. It could work well to get each group member to write down their own answers and see who gets the most correct. Use the whiteboard. 3. TEAM ARCHITECT Team Architect is basically a game where you get each team to build something with very little amounts of strange materials. For example, you could give each team a packet of paddlepop sticks and a roll of sticky tape and get them to build a bridge which will support a heavy book. Or paper and paper clips. Marshmallows and toothpicks. Straws and string! Whatever! 4. INTRODUCE A FRIEND Pair students up - split Year groups where possible. Give them 5 minutes to ask their partner some basic, easy questions such as, what’s your name? which primary school did you attend? What are you really good at doing / or what do you really enjoy? What annoys you the most? etc. After they have listened to one another - they introduce their partner to the rest of the group. 5. BANG Get everyone to stand in a circle facing inwards. The leader running the game will need to stand in the middle of the circle. The leader has to say the NAME of someone in the circle. That person must duck down straight away and the two people either side of them must turn to face each other, hold their hands in the shape of a gun and say/yell "bang". All this needs to happen as quickly as possible. Whoever ends up getting "shot" is out. So if the person who gets pointed at originally doesn't duck down quick enough, then they are out. If they do duck down quickly, then whoever says "bang" first out of the two people either side of them stays in and the other person is out. Students are also out if they duck down unnecessarily, or if they don’t duck down and they are standing between two shooters and get caught in the crossfire. When there are only two people left, they stand back to back, and the person who was in the middle starts counting. With each count the two people take steps away from each other, western style. The person who was in the middle then yells bang, and the two people turn and say "bang". The person who is fastest wins, and gets to be in the middle the next round. This is a super fun group game that needs to no extra materials and is easy to explain and get the hang of. Kids might want to play a few rounds so they can get a second chance if they get out really quickly. For the leader running the game, after a few turns they might want to make their pointing a bit trickier by looking away or spinning in a circle. Be creative! 6. ALLITERATION NAME GAME - BUILD UPS Sit JALI group students in a circle. Ask for a volunteer to say their name with an alliterative adjective in front of it - for example, ‘silly Sarah’. Move on to the next student who must say their name with an alliterative adjective AND the previous student’s name. Continue around the circle building up the names until the last student has to say their own and everyone else’s in the circle. CAN YOU THINK OF FOUR MORE????
