"Get to Know You" Activities

 Similarity circle

This activity is best done outside or in a gymnasium (any place where the students can be loud!). Have the group form a large circle. Read a statement aloud (suggestion list is below) and tell the students that if the statement pertains to them, they should run into the circle as excitedly as possible. When they run into the center of the circle, they can jump around, yell “woohoo”, give others in the circle a high five, etc.

This activity allows students learn about each other and see who shares some similarities. Be sure to yell out statements that are inclusive, so that students have the opportunity to run into the center a few times.

Statement suggestions… Run into the circle if you…

…have a sibling!

…have a pet!

…are excited about starting a new school year!

…ate ice cream this summer!

…live in (specific town)

…are wearing socks!

…like to read

 Birthday line Ask the students to get into groups based on their birth month. The tricky part: they can’t talk to each other. They must group themselves silently! The students should form the groups by communicating in ways that do not use words. Once the class is grouped by birth month, give each group an opportunity to yell out their birth month as loudly as possible! Which birth month group can yell the loudest? Have the class gather together again, and now their goal is to get into a line in the order of their birthdays. They should do this activity without talking too! Since they know who shares a birth month, they can figure out the order of the months but now need to use nonverbal communication to put themselves in order. Once the students believe that they are in the correct order, have them take turns calling out their birthday. Was their order correct? Follow up this activity by asking them what was easy or difficult about using non-‐verbal communication. 

Opinion blobs Have the students stand up and gather together in the center of the classroom. Designate one side of the classroom as “yes” and the other side of the classroom as “no”. Ask the group a series of yes or no questions. The students will gather together on the side the matches their opinion.

 You can also ask non yes/no questions and designate areas of the classroom for specific answers.

Yes/no question suggestions:

Do you like ice cream?

Did you swim in a lake this summer? Are you wearing red?

Do you have a sister?

Do you have a summer birthday? Do you play an instrument?

Non yes/no question suggestions:

Which sport do you like the best: soccer, baseball, or lacrosse? An area in the room is designated for each sport.

Which animal would you rather have for a pet: snake, lizard, hamster?

Which ice cream flavor do you like the most: chocolate; mint chocolate chip, or black raspberry?

Would you rather: play video games, climb a tree, or play a board game?

Would you rather eat: a worm, a dragonfly, or a beetle?

Bursting the Brain with Brain Games

 There are different approaches to playing and understanding brain games. In some Brain Games, you don’t have to worry about tricks. However, most require that you follow certain steps before you can figure it out. The goal is to see how fast you can figure it out using quick strategies. There are brain games that are to help build your vocabulary while some help boost your math solving skills. Or to test basic knowledge of logic, reasoning and pure common sense.

When you relate to puzzles in this manner, using magic squares, alphabets, numbers etc that can either be up and down or diagonally placed, you’re relating to strategies that have been in existence for many many years.

Centuries back, some scholars discovered that magic squares totalled 34 and they were engraved in Albert Durer- Menlancholia. The dates back to 1514. Today, this line of reasoning is still being studied. It was then that the Chinese began to create puzzles, followed by Archimedes. This was all before the Greek fathers came with their riddles.

Later on, in the mid 50s, a well known man J.A Hunter, came up with the concept of puzzles and dubbed them Alphametic. The term applies to formulas of puzzles that had the following structure:

Simple +

Demands

Easy

This basic puzzling solution is substituted for the correct numerals. According to the founders, if you produce the exact arithmetic case in point, you will find the numbers applied to the letters. Most researchers believe that puzzles have been in existence for many, many years. Thus, according to them, there is no such thing as a new puzzle. The reason behind this logic exposes the fact that even today’s puzzles are structured after the patterns of old. After discovering the Alphametic puzzles, it later spread out to the letter arithimetics. Doublets were later included Carroll Lewis who came up with the notion that if you changed a single word in puzzles to an additional word by following a succession of steps, during each step you will make the word true.

We’ll use some examples below to see how puzzles can benefit you. Each letter has a block before the words. You’ll need to add new words to reach new meanings with the endings of the words provided.

__ __ __bid

__ __ __get

Now, to create new words and keep the endings already provided, you can draw conclusions as to what answers are fit to create a functional puzzle. The first word, for example, can be recreated into morning, forbid etc. The second word, on the other hand, could be used to form the words like forget etc. Also, numbered brain games can help to enforce secondary thoughts.

X3x

X4

1xx2

This is so outlined so you can have an idea what particular numbers should fill in the formula. You can play with the numbers for a while to see what you come up with. The answer is 1432.