Friendship Games for Students

That's Me!
Kids tend to view friends as those who have similar interests, so it
can help build friendships when you play a game that shows
children ways they are the same. To play this game, gather a
group of children together and have them sit down. One kid will
begin the game by calling out a statement about himself, such as
"I like to ride my bike" or "I have a younger brother." If the
statement is true for any of the other children, they should stand
up and say, "That's me!" This game gets children on their feet and
is an easy way for the kids to see the similarities in others. Your child
may discover that he has more in common with a friend than he
thought.
Never Have I Ever
Hold out 5 fingers (well, 4 and your thumb) Go around the circle
and one at a time, each person announces something that they
have never done, beginning the sentence with the phrase "Never
have I ever..." For example, a person could say, "Never have I ever
been to Europe." For each statement that is said, all the other
players drop a finger if they have done that statement. So, if three
other people have been to Europe before, those three people
must put down a finger, leaving them with 4 fingers. The goal is to
stay in the game the longest (to be the last person with fingers
remaining).
To win, it's a good strategy to say statements that most people
have done, but you haven't. Be creative and silly (but not rude, of
course).
Chaloux, S. (2015). Friendship Games for Kids to Play. Retrieved
from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/friendship-games-kidsplay-11803.html
Shoe Talk
1. Split the group into 2 halves.
2. Get each half of the group to line up against opposite sides of
the room or hall.

3. Get each person to take of 1 shoe and make a pile of their

team's shoes.
4. Get each person from one team to come a select a random
shoe from the other team's pile and then find the person that shoe
belongs to.
5. Once they have found their match, have a question ready so
each person in the pair can ask each other a get to know each
other a little bit better. Make sure you don't leave this time too
long, but don't make it too short either, give both people a
chance to answer.
6. Get the other team to do the same process with the first team's
pile of shoes.
Mingle Mingle Mingle
Get the whole group together. The leader running the game calls
out a category question (for example - what is your favourite
colour?). Everyone in the group would then have to start calling
out their favourite colour to each other and find the others in the
group who have the same favourite colour as them.
When a player finds another player who has the same answer as
them they then join together (by linking arms) and continue to go
round the group looking for more people with the same answer.
After a minute or so (completely up to the leader running the
game) the leader can call "STOP". Each group needs to call out
their answer. If there are two people/groups who have the same
answer but are not linked together then they are eliminated from
the next round. Or alternatively, to keep everyone involved, you
can give each kid five wrapped lollies or popsticks to start with
and if they lose one each time this happens.
Be creative with the questions you ask:
- Favourite pizza topping
- Favourite ice cream flavour
- Favourite TV show
- Favourite band

- Favourite book
etc.
Zerner, J. (2014). Top Ten Get to Know You Games. Retrieved from
http://youthgroupgames.com.au/top-ten-get-to-know-yougames/

Friendship Getting to Know You Games

Beanbag Compliments
One skill that children need to have in order to form positive
friendships is the ability to take others' feelings into account. Play a
game to help your child see how making someone else feel good
can help him build friendships. Gather a small group of children in
a circle and toss a beanbag to one of them. That child must say
another child's name, greet him with a "hello" and then give him a
compliment. Encourage the children to say things about their
friends' personalities, such as "You make me laugh" or "You are a
good listener." After the game, talk with your child about how
good it feels when a friend says something nice about him.
Cooperation Musical Chairs
Friends often have to cooperate to solve a conflict or work
together. A game that promotes cooperation among children is
the classic game of musical chairs with a twist. Have a group of
children form a circle of chairs, with one chair for each kiddo. Play
upbeat music and have them walk around the chairs until the
music stops, and then they have to find a chair to sit in. With each
round, remove one chair, but all of the children will still play. Each
time the music stops, they will have to find a way to fit into the
decreasing number of chairs. This will encourage them to share
the chairs, and talk with each other about how they can all find a
place to sit. By the end of the game, they will be giggling with
excitement as they work to fit into the one remaining chair.
Trust Path
Trust is an essential part of a friendship. One game that can help
build this trust involves children forming two parallel lines to make
a path for another kid to run through. The children making the

path extend their arms toward each other to block the way for
the person running. When the child begins to run through the lines,
the other children must drop their arms just before he runs through
them. He will learn to trust that his friends will clear the way for him
as he moves through the path. As children begin to trust each
other, they will be able to move more quickly through the path.
Chaloux, S. (2015). Friendship Games for Kids to Play. Retrieved
from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/friendship-games-kidsplay-11803.html
Name Bingo
This is probably one of the oldest and most well known
icebreakers. It's also known as "People Bingo" and "Get To Know
You Bingo". It works for groups of all ages, and can be a really
interesting game if played properly.
You'll need to create a name bingo sheet, so basically a 4 x 4 or 5
x 5 grid of personal statements. IE. "has long hair" or "has more than
5 siblings" or "has travelled overseas" etc
Hand these people bingo sheets out to each person and give
them a pen, and then send them off to mingle and find people
that fit in the gaps. Each player can only use another person once
on their sheet.
So the game can either finish when someone collects a name for
the entire grid.
Alternatively, the game can continue and bingo can be played
after everyone has completed their grids. So a leader would start
reading out the names of the youth group kids and then they
would need to cross off a name when it has been called - if they
get 4 in a row - they win!
Two Truths and a Tale
For this great get to know you game, each person 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.
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 pop sticks and a
roll of sticky tape and get them to build a bridge which will
support a heavy book.
Another example is to give each team a few sheets of newspaper
and some string and then get them to make an egg support.
Each teams egg support has to stop the egg from breaking when
dropped from a certain height.
After the allocated building time is up, all the groups come
together and the structures or inventions are tested.
Speed Dating With A Twist
Set up the chairs in two circles, a small circle and a larger circle
outside of that. Make sure that the chairs are facing each other
and there are an equal amount of chairs in the inside circle as
well as the outside circle.
The format or idea of how the game is played is like speed dating.
Every kid will sit across from another kid, can be same or opposite
sex, and will have a task to complete in 30 seconds before they
rotate to the next person. The purpose is to completely gross kids
out by the questions they need to answer or the tasks they have to
complete.
Here is a list of questions we asked kids to complete with each
other:

- Smell the other person's shoes

- Make your best farting noise
- Tell your grossest food story
- Make your best screwed up face
- Tell if you fold or scrunch your TP and why
- Share an embarrassing story
- Tell how many times you have gone to the bathroom today
- Count each others nose hairs in one nostril
- Stare at each other's feet and tell what toe is your favorite and
why
- Tell your worst vomit story
Some of these topics may need a little longer than 30 seconds,
others may need less. We used a cymbal as our rotation gong. This
game is a great introduction to the topic of love or dating that
also acts as a way for kids to get to know each other and break
out of their comfort zone a little.
Mix & Meet
Get each person to grab some M&M's. Tell them not to eat them.
Assign a different meaning to each colour:
Blue = family
Green = school
Yellow = friends
Red = hobbies
Brown = music/movies
However many M&Ms they have in their hands, that is how many
facts they have to tell. For example, if they have three blue, they
would have to say three facts about their family.
This game can also be played with toilet paper. They rip off how
much they would normally 'use', and then they have to say a fact
about them per sheet of toilet paper they have.
Get To Know You Bang
This is the "get to know you" edition of the youth group game
called "Bang". You'll need to know the general rules of Bang to

understand this game so it's best to read them first:

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 points at 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.
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 youth 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!
Get to know you bang:
Firstly get everyone in the circle to say their name, their age and
their favourite hobby. Once you've done this you can begin.
For round one, let everyone know that before saying "bang" they
will need to say the name of the person who gets pointed at. For
round two, you could try saying the age, and for round three, you
could go for the hobby.

It may get tricky for kids to get it right because they will often say
the name of the person they are looking at, not the person who
ducks down.
Penny For Your Thoughts
Each kid gets a coin. When asked, they share something
significant that happened to them the year the coin was made in.
This is basically just a novel way to get conversation flowing and is
probably best played with older kids who have been alive longer
:P (make sure you check that the dates on the coins are not
before the kids were born!)
It could also be a good way to split groups up (ie. one group can
be the 1970s, another the 1980s etc)
Zerner, J. (2014). Top Ten Get to Know You Games. Retrieved from
http://youthgroupgames.com.au/top-ten-get-to-know-yougames/
Opening-Day Letter
Write a letter to your students. In that letter, introduce yourself to
students. Tell them about your hopes for the new school year and
some of the fun things you'll be doing in class. In addition, tell
students a few personal things about yourself; for example, your
likes and dislikes, what you did over the summer, and your
hobbies. Ask questions throughout the letter. You might ask what
students like most about school, what they did during the summer,
what their goals for the new school year are, or what they are
really good at. In your letter, be sure to model the correct parts of
a friendly letter! On the first day of school, display your letter on an
overhead projector. Then pass each student a sheet of nice
stationery. Have the students write return letters to you. In this
letter, they will need to answer some of your questions and tell you
about themselves. This is a great way to get to know each other in
a personal way! Variation: Mail the letter to students before school
starts, and enclose a sheet of stationery for kids to write you back.

Stringing Conversation Together

Cut string or yarn into pieces of different lengths. Each piece
should have a matching piece of the same length. There should
be enough pieces so that each student will have one. Then give
each student one piece of string, and challenge each student to
find the other student who has a string of the same length. After
students find their matches, they can take turns introducing
themselves to one another. You can provide a list of questions to
help students "break the ice," or students can come up with their
own. You might extend the activity by having each student
introduce his or her partner to the class.
Animal Groups
On the first day of school, gather all the students from a grade
level in a large common area. Give each student a slip of paper
with the name of an animal on it. Then give students instructions
for the activity: They must locate the other members of their
animal group by imitating that animal's sound only. No talking is
allowed. The students might hesitate initially, but that hesitation
soon gives way to a cacophony of sound as the kids moo, snort,
and giggle their way into groups. The end result is that students
have found their way into their homerooms or advisory groups for
the school year, and the initial barriers to good teamwork have
already been broken.
A Tangled Web
Gather students in a circle sitting around you on the floor. Hold a
large ball of yarn. Start by telling the students something about
yourself. Then roll the ball of yarn to a student without letting go of
the end of the yarn. The student who gets the ball of yarn tells his
or her name and something good about himself or herself. Then
the student rolls the yarn to somebody else, holding on to the
strand of yarn. Soon students have created a giant web. After
everyone has spoken, you and all the students stand up,
continuing to hold the yarn. Start a discussion of how this activity
relates to the idea of teamwork -- for example, the students need
to work together and not let others down. To drive home your
point about teamwork, have one student drop his or her strand of
yarn; that will demonstrate to students how the web weakens if

the class isn't working together.

Student Dictionary
Write five questions on the board. Questions might include the
following:
What is your name?
Where were you born?
How many brothers or sisters do you have?
What are their names?
Do you have any pets?
Tell students to write those questions on a piece of paper and to
add to that paper five more questions they could ask someone
they don't know. Pair students, and have each student interview
his or her partner and record the responses. Then have each
student use the interview responses to write a "dictionary
definition" of his or her partner to include in a Student
Dictionary. You might model this activity by creating a sample
dictionary definition about yourself. For example:
Reynolds, Kim. Proper noun. 1. Born in Riverside, California. 2. No
brothers or sisters.
Have students bring in small pictures of themselves to paste next
to their entries in the Student Dictionary. Bind the definitions into a
book, and display it at back-to-school night.
Classmate Scavenger Hunt
Provide each student with two index cards. Ask each student to
write a brief description of his or her physical characteristics on
one index card and his or her name on the other. Physical
characteristics usually do not include clothing, but if you teach
the primary grades, you might allow students to include clothing in
their descriptions. Put all the physical characteristic index cards in
a shoe box, mix them up, and distribute one card to each student,
making sure that no student gets his or her own card. Give
students ten minutes to search for the person who fits the
description on the card they hold. There is no talking during this
activity, but students can walk around the room. At the end of the
activity, tell students to write on the card the name of the student
who best matches the description. Then have students share their
results. How many students guessed correctly?

Hands-On Activity
Have students begin this activity by listing at least 25 words that
describe them and the things they like. No sentences allowed, just
words! Then ask each student to use a dark pen to trace the
pattern of his or her hand with the fingers spread apart. Provide
another sheet of paper that the student can place on top of the
tracing. Because the tracing was done with a dark pen, the
outline should be visible on the sheet below. Direct students to use
the outlines as guides and to write their words around it. Provide
students a variety of different coloured pencils or markers to use
as they write. Then invite students to share their work with the class.
They might cut out the hand outlines and mount them on
construction paper so you can display the hands for open house.
Challenge each parent to identify his or her child's hand.
Chain Gang
Begin by asking students "Who can do something really well?"
After a brief discussion about some of the students' talents, pass
out paper and ask students to write down five things they do well.
Then provide each student with five different-colored paper strips.
Have each student write a different talent on separate paper
strips, then create a mini paper chain with the strips by linking the
five talents together. As students complete their mini chains, use
extra strips of paper to link the mini chains together to create one
long class chain. Have students stand and hold the growing chain
as you link the pieces together. Once the entire chain is
constructed and linked, lead a discussion about what the chain
demonstrates -- for example, all the students have talents; all the
students have things they do well; together, the students have
many talents; if they work together, classmates can accomplish
anything; the class is stronger when students work together than
when individual students work on their own. Hang the chain in the
room as a constant reminder to students of the talents they
possess and the benefits of teamwork.
Silhouette Collage
Stock up on old magazines. Your school librarian might have a
discard pile you can draw from. Invite students to search through
the magazines for pictures, words, or anything else that might be
used to describe them. Then use an overhead projector or

another source of bright light to create a silhouette of each

student's profile; have each student sit in front of the light source
as you or another student traces the outline of the silhouette on a
sheet of 11- by 17-inch paper taped to the wall. Have students cut
out their silhouettes, then fill them with a collage of pictures and
words that express their identity. Then give each student an
opportunity to share his or her silhouette with the group and talk
about why he or she chose some of the elements in the collage.
Post the silhouettes to create a sense of "our homeroom."
Headlines
As part of the normal first-day routine, many teachers have each
student fill out a card with such information as name, address,
phone number, parents' names and work numbers, and so on.
You can use such cards to gather other information too, such as
school schedule, why the student signed up for the class, whether
the student has a part-time job, and whether he or she has access
to the Internet at home. As a final bit of information, ask the
student to write a headline that best describes him or her! This
headline might be a quote, a familiar expression, or anything else.
When students finish filling out the cards, give a little quiz. Ask
students to number a sheet of paper from 1 to __, depending on
how many students are in the class. Then read aloud the
headlines one at a time. Ask students to write the name of the
person they think each headline best describes. Who got the
highest score?
Bonus! It seems as if parents are contacted only if there is a
problem with students. At the end of each grading period, use the
home address information to send a postcard to a handful of
parents to inform them about how well their child is doing. This
might take a little time, but it is greatly appreciated!
Education World, (2011). Icebreakers Volume 5: All-About-You
Activities for the First Days of School. Retrieved from
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/icebreakers_for
_kids_2.shtml

Making Friends Dos and Donts

Dos
- Be friendly
- Be polite
- Show interest
- Listen
- Share
- Smile
- Laugh
- Compliment others
- Share common interests
-

Donts
- Ignore other speakers
- Talk about yourself all the time
- Speak rudely
- Insult someone
- Frown
-