Back to School Ice-Breaker Activity
Step 1: Gallery Walk
1. Print out the quotes relating to names and hang them on
the wall.
2. Students will walk around and read the quotes while the
music plays.
3. When the music stops, pick a student to share their feelings
about the quotes.
Step 2: Inside and Outside Circle: Get to Know Each Other
1. Ask students to count off by two.
2. The students who are ones will form the inner circle.
3. The students who are twos will form the outer circle.
4. If you have an extra student, let him control the timer.
5. The inner circle students will ask their partner from the
outer circle questions about their partner’s name. The
question prompts are on the next slide. After one minute,
the outer circle students will take their turn.
6. Every two minutes, the outer circle students will move to
the left by one position. Continue until everyone has met.
Question prompts:
• What is your name?
• What do you know about your name?
• Does your name have a meaning?
• How do you feel about your name?
• Do you have a nickname?
• If you were to change your name, what would you change it to?
Alternative Step 2: Interview and Note-Taking
1. Pass out the worksheet on the next slide to all students.
2. Ask the students to count off by two.
3. Ask the students who counted two to write their name on a slip of paper
and place it into an empty box.
4. The students who are ones will pick a slip from the box and interview the
student with that name, taking notes using the worksheet.
5. The interviewer and interviewee will then switch roles.
Step 2: Interview and Note-Taking
Interviewer________________ Interviewee_______________
Questions Prompts Answers
1. What is your name?
2. What do you know about your name?
3. Does your name have a meaning?
4. How do you feel about your name?
5. Do you have a nickname?
6. If you were to change your name, what
would you change it to?
7. __________________________________________________________?
8. __________________________________________________________?
9. __________________________________________________________?
Step 3: Let’s Write About Our Names
◦ 1. Students will write a short essay about their name. They may use one of the following topics as a title or
they can create their own titles.
◦ My Name
◦ All About Me
◦ Where I Come From
◦ Once Upon a Time…
◦ _________________
“When I was young, poverty was
so common that we didn’t know it
had a name.”
--Lyndon B. Johnson
“From our families come our
names, but from our virtues
come our honors.”
--Latin Proverb
“What's in a name? That which we call
a rose by any other name would smell
as sweet.”
--William Shakespeare
“If I'm going to tell a real story,
I'm going to start with my name.”
--Kendrick Lamar
“Once you label me you negate
me.”
--Søren Kierkegaard
“A person with a bad name is
already half-hanged.”
--Chinese Proverb
“Nicknames stick to people, and the most
ridiculous are the most adhesive.”
--Thomas Chandler Haliburton
“The beginning of wisdom is
to call things by their right
names.”
--Confucius
Do not say, “It is morning,”
and dismiss it with a name of
yesterday. See it for the first
time as a newborn child that
has no name.
--Rabindranath Tagore
“Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use
the proper name for things. Fear of a
name increases fear of the thing itself.”
--J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and
the Sorcerer’s Stone
“Mother is the name for God in the
lips and hearts of little children.”
-- William Makepeace Thackeray
“A Leader does not deserve the
name unless he is willing
occasionally to stand alone.”
--Henry A. Kissinger
As you awaken, may your dreams greet
you by name, and may you answer,
“Yes!”
--Mary Anne Radmacher
“Proper names are poetry in
the raw. Like all poetry they
are untranslatable.”
--W. H. Auden
“A good character is the best tombstone.
Those who loved you and were helped
by you will remember you when forget-
me-nots have withered. Carve your
name on hearts, not marble.”
--Charles Spurgeon
Credits:
Created by Luyun Reitz
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Golden-Promise
Feel free to contact me at [email protected]
Copyright © 2018 Luyun Reitz
All rights reserved by Luyun Reitz
Permission to copy for classroom use only.
Electronic distribution limited to classroom use only.
Clip Art Credits:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whimsy-Clips
http://teachersuperpower.com
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/I-Teach-Whats-Your-Superpower-Megan-Favre
