Opening Day Activites

I am TERRIBLE at memorizing new student names and keep telling students to please not take it personally. However, this year I'm trying something new to immediately help me get to know them. See the Opening Day Student Questionnaire From this newly gained information I made up a game akin to a scavenger hunt to help students learn about the others in the class to give on the next day by using special information about each student. Entries were things like: "This rabbit owner played the stock market" and was taken from information directly from one student's responses to the questionnaire. The students had a great time identifying not only themselves by others in the class and learning interesting little tidbits about each other. It was a great collaborative group building exercise preparing students for their first lab experience. ~ J.Baumwirt

I have a similar form but I also ask things like favorite song, color, food, ice cream, etc. Throughout the year I use these items to group students by these "properties." They are asked to determine how they are grouped. In ambitious years I have arranged them in a periodic fashion. This really gets them thinking!
~ S. Ensor

One of my colleagues at school told me about the collaborative group building exercise she did that was similar. The students each took a sheet of paper and drew a line down the center. In rows they put something they had in common with another student and then in the other column, the student's name. The trick is to find something in common with each and every student in the class but one CANNOT REPEAT that commonality again. At that point students run out of the simple standards of "favorite color, food, car," etc. they really have to get to know the other students (e.g. shared allergies, birthplace of a grandparent, number of siblings, etc.)! I tried this today and found it was an excellent team building activity.

This is what I'm using this year - it changes from year to year as I pilfer from new sources. Personal Information Form ~ J.L.King

Like you, I had a hard time remembering names. I make a deck of cards (index cards) with each student's name on it at the beginning of the year. Then when I need answers for homework, or "volunteers" to come to the board, I draw names. It works great - as I shuffle it constantly, and everyone gets called on. It has come to be known as the "Deck of Doom" - there is no escaping being selected at some point! ~ C. Chimera
(Great Idea! Why not spread the "blame" and have
another student shuffle and select the "doomed one?!")

You might consider checking out a copy of "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson (online review) as the first few pages (The Introduction) makes a GREAT semester opening for any science class.
P.S. I found out that this will be available in paperback on September 14th from Border's Bookstore for $12-14 as opposed to the $24 hardbound edition. Don't forget to ask for your teacher discount!