Five Relationship Building Games for the End of the Year

Week 1: Relationships First

In the world of elementary education, there is no better place to start than relationships. Now, I know you may be thinking it's almost the end of the year, my students already know each other, and while that might be true, there is never a bad time to focus on relationship building. In my experience, behaviors during the few months between Spring Break and Summer tend to increase. This is the best time to slow down and spend time building relationships. So for this weeks post, here are five relationship games to play at the end of the year (or anytime!).

1. Fun Fact Bingo

There is still so much your students don't know about each other. My students had a BLAST playing Fun Fact bingo. Each students anonymously shares a fun fact about themselves that most people wouldn't know. I posted this as a Google Classroom question, but you could also just have them write their facts on a sticky note. You can take these fun facts and turn them into bingo cards (I used My Free Bingo Cards). Once you have the cards, students move around the room trying to find who the fun facts belong to. When students find them, they can initial or write their name in the box. You will love listening to the conversations your students have while playing this game! While this game does require the most prep on my list, I also found it to be the most impactful.

2. This or That?

I love playing this game at the end of the year, just as much as I do the beginning. The directions are simple enough, students pair up and are given two options. With their partners, they discuss their favorite of the two. Give students about a minute to discuss, then have a few groups share out. This game can be played with any age level! The slides are easy to make, or you can get some from my TpT store: link

3. Two Truths and a Lie

This game is a classic and now that your class knows each other, it's fun to see what students come up with. Give everyone a piece of paper or sticky note and have them write three facts about themselves, two of them true and one not. Have students read out their facts (either to the class or in small groups) and see if others can figure out which is the lie.

4. Ball Toss Boogie

This game comes from Lead4Ward's Instructional Strategies Playlist. Students sit in circles of 5 or 6. The teacher poses a question (could be a relational, academic, or any type of question!). A student starts with a ball and answer the question aloud, then they toss or roll the ball across the circle to someone else, who will then answer the same question. Game continues like this until every person in the circle has answered the question. With the goal of relationship building, the teacher could ask questions like the ones below:

• What do you like most about school?

• What do you like least about school?

• What is your favorite activity we have done this year?

• What is a good book you've read recently?

• If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

• Name two things you couldn't live without.

5. Never Have I Ever

My students had a great time playing this game together. You could play this game inside or outside, but you will need some space. Have students make a circle out of chairs, everyone gets a seat. Remove one chair, so that there is someone standing in the middle as the "it" person. The "it" person finishes the sentence "Never have I ever ____." Anyone in a chair who has done what this it person says, must get up and find a new seat. They cannot move to a spot right next to them. The "it" person will also find a seat. Whoever is left in the middle with no seats left, is "it" next. This game is so simple, and no prep is required.

There are hundreds of relationship building games out there, my small list of five is just the beginning. I encourage you to find what is best for your students. If there is anything to take away from this week's post, I hope it's this: It's always a good time to focus on relationships.