3 Best Getting-to-Know You Activities for Kids

Call me crazy, but getting to know you activities are one of my favorite parts of back to school time. And here’s the thing: we don’t have to stop doing these activities once back to school season is over. We are constantly learning new things about each other through conversation, so why not add a fun spin to getting to know you activities all year round? Here I am sharing with you some of my favorite, free, easy, no-prep ways to learn more about your students–every day!

Rare Bird

This is perhaps one of the most clever activities I’ve unearthed in awhile. In fact, I like it so much that I stuck it in as a morning meeting activity in my upper elementary slides. Here’s the gist: at the beginning of the year, every student writes down an interesting fact about themself on a slip of paper. They sign the slip, as it will only be seen by the teacher.

In this getting to know you activity that can happen during morning meeting or just when you have a few minutes to kill, the teacher procures the Rare Bird jar. The teacher reads aloud a fact from the jar and the student must guess to which of their peers that fact belongs. Cool, right?

Fact and Fiction

In another of my favorite quick getting to know you activities, students share 2 true statements and 1 false statement with their peers. Using what they already know about that student, the class must guess which of the 3 statements is false. This is for sure a class favorite in our morning meeting time.

Stand Up, Sit Down

This one has always been a go-to getting to know you activity, but will come in handy especially this year as it respects personal space and can be done virtually. The teacher says aloud a statement: if it applies to a student, they stand. If the statement does not ring true for the student, they sit.

This is a great visual way for students to get to know each other and see quickly who they might have things in common with. I have a ton more Stand Up, Sit Down ideas in my Paperless Back to School Survival Kit.

And there you have it. Super simple, free, easy getting-to-know-you activities.