Take a parachute to a gymnasium or outdoors for this activity. Ask the kids to lift up the parachute. Say a characteristic out loud to the class, and ask the students who meet the characteristic to run underneath the parachute to the other side. You can say, "students who own a dog," "students who like spaghetti" or "students who have a younger brother." The students can see what they have in common with other students in the class.
Ask students to bring a paper bag to the class. Cut out the sides of the bag and cut a hole in the top of each bag so that a student can fit his head through the hole. Ask students to draw a coat of arms on one side of the paper bag and divide the bag into four sections (draw a diagram of the instructions on the board). The students draw something that describes them in each of the four sections, such as their hobbies, their favorite sport, their house or their favorite book. The students can present their coat of arms to the class. The students who have something in common with the presenter can drop a penny into a jar on her desk. See who has the most pennies at the end of the presentations.
Make bingo cards with pictures of students' faces on the cards before the class. Go around the class two or three times and have students say their names out loud. Pass out the bingo sheets and bingo markers. Read a name of a student and ask the class to mark the face of the student on their bingo card. This allows students to practice remembering their classmates' names and faces.
Students get to know one another while they practice working together with this activity. Divide the class into groups of six to eight students. Ask the students in each group to stand in a circle and reach their hands into the circling, grabbing the hands of two different people in the group. The students have to work together to untangle themselves. Students ask each other to move under or over someone's arms to untangle the human knot. Ask the students to state the person's name before they move in order to practice learning names.
Ask students to sit in a circle. Give the students a bean bag to toss. They can toss the bean bag to anyone in the circle, but they have to say the name of the person they toss it to beforehand. Play music while the students toss the bean bag. Stop the music, and ask students to shout out the name of whoever holds the bag.