We Are...A Get to Know You Activity

In our school, we have our regular classes and then we have an Advisory.  We see them everyday at least in passing, but we have lessons with them once a week and then SSR one day a week. 

This year I have Juniors for Advisory and the lesson that was presented to us was a "Superhero" lesson...and knowing the kids I had in Advisory - I didn't think it would go too well.  So I found this idea on Pinterest and decided to give it a try.  Here was the inspiration:

This was a two day activity; on day one the kids did "speed dating."  I set them up across from each other and gave them 2 minutes to really get to know each other.  I told them they had to 'sell themselves' and what their best qualities and interests are.  Then I had them rotate to the next person until they had talked to each person in the advisory.  I was a little worried they wouldn't buy in, but they really got into it after the first few rounds and talked a lot to each other.

On day two, they came in and i explained how they were going to use the information they gained about their peers.  One at a time a student would go up to the whiteboard and stand facing me.  Then their peers would go around them and write characteristics about the person.  *I kept an eye out to make sure they stayed school appropriate* Then I took their picture.  I had a student erase the words around them before the student at the board could move.  So no one was able to read what others wrote until the picture reveal.  We repeated this process for all the kids, finally when we had done all of them - they wanted to do it for me.  I let them - but you gotta give these kids some credit, because standing up there all vulnerable was actually pretty scary.  But I was impressed with their willingness to participate and work together as a group.

Here are pictures of my kids and what others said:

When i printed them, I had to go back and add sharpies to the writing because it was kinda hard to read...but overall; they turned out pretty good.

The last step was that I made a bulletin board in my room with all of their pictures and with the help of Facebook and Edmodo - we came up with the title as "We are..."

The kids really enjoyed the reveal and had a good time with the activity.  I was proud of them!