Free Teacher Resources
Teachers, help your students get to know you and their peers!
Here are some fun ideas and free teacher resources that you can use together with your books.
Fill out your 'My Friends and I' book
Fill out your My Friends and I book and read it to your students, so they know who you are, what you like, and what you do in your free time!
Have your students fill out your 'My Friends and I' book
Once you've answered the questions on the first two pages, let all of your students take the book home one by one, fill it out, and bring it back to school. Read the responses to your class or have the students read their own responses out loud. Everybody will get to know everybody in no time!
How well do you know your classmates?
Read one of your students’ answers to the questions in your My Friends and I book to your class. Then hand out the How Well Do You Know Your Classmates? questionnaire to every student and have them answer the questions.
For every right answer, a student gets 2 points. Have them add up all their points to see who remembers the most!
Tip: Change up the points. This is a great way to learn counting by twos, fives, tens, etc.!
Download the How Well Do You Know Your Classmates Template.
Explain!
Go through your My Friends and I book, pick an interesting answer of one of your students, and ask the child to explain their answer in more detail.
Examples:
Favorite Activity
Ask one of your students to explain or demonstrate their favorite activity to the rest of the class. Examples: playing an instrument, woodworking, chess, crochet/knitting, etc.
Favorite Food
Ask the child to bring the recipe of their favorite food to class. Maybe they can bring a sample or a photo of the dish. Have them explain how the food tastes and looks like, Tell them to use colorful and very descriptive adjectives, e.g. red, yellow, sweet, sour, spicy, round, oval, etc.
Tip: Use the above to teach your class about different tastes, shapes, and colors.
Go through the recipe with your class and talk about the ingredients, where they come from and how they grow.
Use the recipe to teach the class about measurements such as teaspoon, tablespoon, cups, etc.
Future Profession
Ask your student to write about what they want to be when they grow up. Have them explain what the profession entails and why they chose this profession. Have them include pictures, bring props, use stories, etc.
Friend of the Day!
Play this fun game, once all students have filled out the My Friends and I book.
1. Pick one child who’s going to be the 'Friend of the Day', but don’t tell your class just yet.
2. Have all kids stand up at their desks.
3. Using the Friend of the Day’s pages in the My Friends and I book, reduce the number of students standing up, by giving them instructions, like:
- If you’re not a girl, please sit down.
- If you don’t have brown hair, please sit down.
- If you don’t have brown eyes, please sit down.
- If your favorite food is not pizza, please sit down.
- And so on.
4. The last person standing is the 'Friend of the Day' and gets to wear the Friend of the Day hat.
5. Let the 'Friend of the Day' wear the 'Friend of the Day Hat' (see template below) and/or let them pick something out from your class treasure box.
Download the 'Friend of the Day Hat' template here: Friend of the Day Hat Template.
Tell us about…
Another fun way to get to know each other is our 'Tell us about…' printable.
Once all your students have filled out the My Friends and I book, write every student’s name on separate pieces of paper. Put all names in a hat and have each student draw a name. Let the students take the My Friends and I book home one by one and have them fill in the blanks on the 'Tell us about…' printable, by using the information their assigned classmate has entered into the My Friends and I book. Then, have them read their assignment to the class.
Download the 'Tell us about…' template here: Tell Us About Template.
Who am I?
How much do your students remember about each other? Once all students have filled out the My Friends and I book and you have read everybody’s pages to the class, let them play a game!
Pick one of your students and slowly read his or her answers to the class. After every answer, have them guess who it is. Whoever guesses right first, gets a prize.