Friday Fun - Linky - Remembering Names

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Today is the day. I get to meet all my brand new fledgling fourth graders. I am so happy that our county has gone to an online registration system. This completely frees up this day to actually chat with my students and their parents. I don't have to rush around checking paperwork, collecting forms, and handing out money orders. It is such a more relaxed session than it was in the past.

My room is pretty much ready and I am already lining up stuff I need to print out for the first day of school. Shh, but I already have names on forms and stuff and I haven't even met them yet! There's always a chance that someone has moved over the summer. For some reason I always get ahead of myself and end up redoing a bunch of stuff. That's okay, right?

There are 27 students on my list and I have some interesting names to remember this year. As I was typing the list up three ways to Sunday, I was already practicing who would come next. It was  kinda hard this early. I need to see them to really get a handle on who they are. It usually takes me a week of interacting with them to really get all of their names down. What helps is that I greet them at the door every morning with a choice:

Do you want:

A. A Five High

B. A Firm Handshake

C. A Finger Jazz

D. A Fist Bump

Most of them go for a high five (I had to change the name up a bit to fit with the other choices), but after doing this a while they start getting creative. I had one teach me several different cool handshakes last year. It's a great way to see who is shy, who are the more boisterous ones, and which ones might need some work on the social interactions. 

Each morning I try to greet them by name and ask them something about themselves. It doesn't always get great responses at first, but they eventually come out of their shell. Some of them a little too quickly, if you know what I mean.

What are some ways that help you to remember their names in the first week? Add your post links below, I'd love to read them!