(Celia on holiday with her husband Rad watching dolphins in North Carolina)
Contributor: Celia Popovic, York University, email@example.com
Method: Each person takes turns to say ;’I am N (eg Celia), when we went on holiday I took X (eg a bucket) with me.’ The next person says ‘I am John, when we went on holiday Celia took a bucket and I took a sock.’ The next person says ‘I am Mary, when we went on holiday Celia took a bucket, John took a sock and I took a stuffed rabbit’… and so it goes until the whole group has had a turn. The funny thing is that as people concentrate on remembering the items they feel less anxious about the names, but also have something to act as a reminder to link to the names.
As an alternative Mel Young suggests:
One cool twist on this game is that you can only say an item you are bringing that starts with the same letter as your name, so ‘I’m Mel. I’m bringing a map.’ It helps people associate items with the name. Another cool twist that I did with younger kids, but is just as much fun with adults, is I was the leader and I would say, ‘I’m Mel. I’m going camping. I’m bringing a map, do you want to come?’ I’d go to the first person in the circle. They would say, ‘I’m Jason. I’m bringing a tent, can I come?’ And I’d say ‘Hi Jason, but I’m sorry you can’t come.’ The next person would say, ‘I’m Candace. I’m bringing a canoe, can I come?’ And I’d say, ‘Hi Candace, yes you can come!’ It’s interesting to see how quickly the participants can figure out why some people are being allowed to come and why others aren’t. They aren’t told that their names and the item need to start with the same letter at the beginning.
Special Notes: This is particularly effective if you want to get to know names quickly with a group of up to 20 participants as it helps the participants remember each other’s names too, it is silly and fun.
Acknowledgments: This emerged from a childhood game, not aware that anyone showed it to me but can’t claim to have invented it either.
References: probably are some but none to my knowledge.
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