Introduce yourself for kids

Introducing Yourself

lessons for kids learning everyday English expressions

Learn English through pictures, sounds and sentence examples! In this lesson you will learn some expressions for introducing yourself.

Say your name

When you meet somebody for the first time, you introduce yourself (tell the person who you are).

To introduce yourself, you can just say:

My name is Goldie.

Hi! My name is Greengo.

Nice to meet you! I’m Blue-Blue.

Tell more about you

Introducing yourself to someone does not mean that you are just telling your name.

You can add other details such as: how old you are, where you are from, what your hobbies are, and so on. Here are some examples.

My name is Momo. I’m nine.

I am Sam from Summeria.

I am Lemonia. I like walking.

I am Monkerix. I am a wizard.

Ways of asking someone’s name

You meet new people wherever you go. You want to know their names. To ask someone’s name, you need to use special expressions.

Self-Introduction for Kids: Worksheets & Activities (Printable PDF)

Self Introduction for Kids: Tips to introduce yourself, fun self-introduction activities, and fun self-introduction worksheets for kids (printable PDF).

For many adults, the mere thought of having to introduce ourselves to someone new can be nerve-racking.

So it’s understandable that kids can struggle with learning this verbal communication skill too.

But there are plenty of positive ways to encourage and teach our children how to get a handle on self-introduction, and the added benefit of this is that we’re nurturing their social skills and their ability to communicate with others.

So here are a few tips and examples for kids to learn how to introduce themselves and start a friendly conversation, across a couple of different scenarios they are likely to encounter in their daily lives.

Why teach kids to introduce themselves?

Self-introduction for kids is an important skill for a number of reasons:

It’s always good to have a few practiced self-introductions at the ready, so they can adapt them to the context they are in – and we’ve included a few activities further down to assist with this.

It will also help to overcome any initial nerves (particularly if they are normally quite shy and reserved).

Self-Introduction for Kids: 8 Simple Tips for Introducing One Self

These are some simple self-introduction tips for kids.

The first five tips help you introduce yourself, and the following ones keep the conversation flowing

Other Self-Introduction Scenarios for Kids

The steps to a self-introduction that we have shared work well for a one-one introduction scenario.

There are other situations when children may need to introduce themselves to a group, most likely their classroom or an activity group:

In those situations, the steps cited above that aim to start a conversation wouldn’t apply.

Self-Introduction Activities for Kids

Self-introduction isn’t just about repeating a few words and questions, it’s about building confidence and resilience in situations where we may feel shy and not so keen to speak up.

So practicing the ‘art’ of self-introduction is a good idea for kids of all ages, and when the opportunity arises, they’re ready to go!

So here are a few simple activities that may help with at-home or classroom practice.

Interesting ways for kids to introduce themselves

Even as shy adults, we know there are some general things we can talk about with new people to “break the ice”.

But that’s not quite so obvious to kids who are still learning the ins and outs of social interaction, so we need to teach them!

And keeping it interesting will help them to remember what to do so much more easily.

So here are a few fun and interesting facts that kids can share when they introduce themselves to others.

According to S. Harter, when kids introduce themselves, they will share what they feel represents themselves:

Source: The Construction of the Self: A Developmental Perspective, S. Harter

(*) T his isn’t a guideline for what boys should say compared with girls and vice versa, but patterns found in the research quoted.

Introducing a Third Person

Now that we have plenty of ideas of fun ways for kids to introduce themselves, let’s think about what would happen if they need to introduce a friend to somebody else.

This is how the conversation could flow:

Other Social Skills Articles

Self-Introduction Worksheet for Kids (Printable PDF)

Let’s make this a bit more fun for the kids.

I’ve captured the tips and facts mentioned above in a fun self-introduction worksheet for kids.

Don’t forget to download it before you leave!⇓

Did you find this post useful? Don’t forget to pin it to your boards 😉⇓

Introduce yourself for kids

Hi! I’m Audrey Monke.
Thanks for visiting my little corner of the internet here at Sunshine Parenting! Watch this 1-minute video to learn why I wrote this post about the importance of teaching kids how to introduce themselves to others:

Because of my research on the importance of good social skills and positive relationships for a flourishing life, in recent years I’ve focused on training camp counselors, teachers, and parents to think of themselves as their kids’ “Friendship Coaches.”

At a camp staff meeting several summers ago, I asked counselors to review a list of basic social skills and assess their campers proficiency in different skills. I asked them to give lower ratings to skills they saw as areas for camper improvement and higher ratings to skills they saw their campers mastering quite well.

There were a number of skills which counselors felt campers still needed coaching on, including:

Introducing yourself

Introducing other people

Negotiating

Concentrating on a task

Social Skills Checklist

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While some of these skills — like understanding the feelings of others and dealing with someone else’s anger — require empathy, practice, and — sometimes — an increased level of maturity, there were some that stood out as simple skills that could easily be addressed during a few weeks at camp.

7 Simple Steps to Teach Kids to Introduce Themselves

Introducing yourself (Can you approach people on your own and meet them?) and introducing others (Can you help people meet one another?) are very basic and useful social skills, especially at summer camp and school, where kids are meeting lots of new people. These friendship skills (among others) are ones we intentionally coach our campers on.

Introducing yourself is much more than saying your name; it’s a way to connect with someone new by exchanging words and often, physical contact. Introducing yourself to strangers can be tricky because what you say depends entirely on the context. You may introduce yourself differently depending on whether you are addressing an audience before you give a speech, meeting someone at a networking event, or just starting a conversation with a new person at a party. What is important is to introduce yourself in a way that is appropriate and makes people like and remember you.

Here are seven steps I review during counselor training about how to coach kids to introduce themselves and others. Parents can use these same guidelines for coaching kids on these important skills!

STEP 1: SMILE

Smile and make eye contact with the person you want to meet. Shaking hands or giving a high five are fun ways to say hello.

2020 COVID UPDATE: These are not times when a hand shake or high five are appropriate greetings. Some friendly non-touch alternatives include a thumbs up, nod, or a wave. These can all be done online, as well. If children are permitted to touch, a toe or foot shake or an elbow bump are fun alternatives.

STEP 2: SAY YOUR “OPENER”

“Hi, I’m Sunshine. What’s your name?”

Practicing introducing ourselves.

STEP 3: ACKNOWLEDGE AND USE NAME

“Nice to meet you, _________!”
People LOVE to hear their own name, and saying their name right away helps you remember their name.

STEP 4: ASK A QUESTION

“Have you been to camp before?”
“How old are you?”
“Where are you from?”
“What activities are you most excited about?”

STEP 5: LISTEN TO ANSWER AND RESPOND

Acknowledge similarities/differences: “This is my first year at camp, too!”

STEP 6: ASK MORE QUESTIONS OR OFFER A SMALL INVITATION

“Do you want to play cards?”
“Let’s sit next to each other at dinner!”
“Will you be my bathroom buddy?”

STEP 7: INTRODUCE TO OTHERS

“Have you met _______?”
“Sam, this is Joe. He goes to my school.”

While these steps may sound simple to adults, sometimes we forget to actually explain the process of introducing ourselves and others to our kids. Like most skills, with a bit of gentle coaching, our kids can improve tremendously in these areas!

At our camper orientation on the first night of camp this week, I reviewed these seven steps with our campers using a big flip chart. When I went over Step 4 (ask a question), I had some of the kids share ideas of good questions to ask someone they were about to meet for the first time. They came up with a lot of great ones. Next, I asked the campers to think of which question they were going to use while meeting their new friend. Every camper then practiced meeting someone new and then introducing that person to someone they already knew in their own cabin group. Counselors are going to continue encouraging kids to practice their introduction skills throughout the camp session.

If you try this with your own kids, I suggest role playing with them ahead of time, which is especially helpful with kids who are less confident socially.

One of my favorite things to do is to interview long-time campers about their camp experiences. This summer, I’ve already interviewed more than 50 campers ranging from 6-year-old first-time campers to 16-year-old, 10-year veteran campers.

A social skill that has come up in almost every interview, when I ask campers how they think their time at camp has changed or influenced them, is making new friends. Campers say that because of camp they are much more confident about meeting new people and making new friends. Some mention that they are more confident about starting at a new school or joining a new team or club because they know how to meet people and have learned to be more open and approach others with a smile and simple introduction.

Introducing themselves and introducing others is an important and useful social skill that we can easily coach our kids to master using these simple steps.

Introducing yourself

Everyday expressions for kids learning English

Episode 1. What’s your name?
Wordies begin their long trip to Earth. But they don’t know each other well yet »

A mini-lesson that introduces and explains basic expressions through pictures and sentence examples »

A set of learning and teaching resources including worksheets, tests, games plus classroom games ideas »

learning and teaching resources

This unit of the Everyday English Expressions includes both online and printable materials that can help kids learn the skill of introducing yourself in a fun way.

How the material is organised

Our learning and teaching resources are organised into three parts: a picture story, online lesson and printables. You can work through the unit in any order you like.

Comics »
Look, listen, read and learn English with Wordies! Wordies in Space is a picture story divided into 36 episodes. The story tells of some aliens, who are on their way to visit Earth. Kids follow their adventures while being gradually introduced to lexical items.

Lesson »
New language items presented through sounds, sentence examples and pictures. You can use the pictures to practise English by doing simple exercises. For example, ask kids to describe the picture, make sentences that go with it, ask questions about the picture, give the picture a title, and so on.

Printable resources »
The set contains worksheets, tests and games. The game pack includes resources that you can mix and use in a variety of ways to play different learning games. Also, we provide classroom games ideas.

How to navigate

There are several different ways you can navigate the Introduce Yourself unit. We invite you to use the bottom menu. It has quick links to other pages within the current section, and guides you to the resources you are looking for.

First Lesson Magic

First lessons are the perfect opportunity to tell students a little bit about yourself and get to know something about them as well. This may be your first chance to determine your students’ English level so it is important to encourage them to speak as much as possible.

First Lesson: How to Introduce Yourself

Warm up

Most teachers find one or two great warm up activities and use them often in their classes. If you have an activity that you like to start classes with, the first lesson may be the perfect time to introduce it to your new students. If you are not attached to any particular warm up activities, you can use the first five to ten minutes of this lesson to generate an interest in the topic, in this case, yourself. One way to do this is to have students guess things about you such as where you are from. You can use a handout of about fifteen questions for this activity and leave enough space for students to write their guesses as well as space to write the correct answer which they will learn later on in the lesson.

Introduce

Especially if you are from another country, students will be very interested in hearing about where you are from and specific cultural aspects of your country. Using pictures or flashcards will help students grasp the meaning of your self introduction without understanding every single word or sentence. The best approach is to use the simplest possible language during this section of the lesson. If students seem to understand the material very well you can prompt them to complete sentences based on the materials you are showing them to give them an opportunity to demonstrate things they have already learned. If you plan to do an activity later based on the introduction, you may have to repeat the material a couple times.

Practice

Now that your class has learned a bit about you, have them fill in the correct answers on the worksheet you gave them earlier or ask them questions based on your presentation and see if they can answer them. This will give you time to evaluate your students’ level and also see what they understood from your presentation. If your presentation was too easy or difficult, you can adjust it before presenting to other classes.

Icebreaker

At this point an activity would be important. You can use an ice breaker to get everyone moving and more relaxed. This also shifts the focus of the lesson from you to the students. Starting the activity yourself will give students an example of what they are being asked for. A very simple exercise would be to say your name and favorite color and have students take turns doing this. If your class has been together for years and years and the students are very familiar with each other, you may even ask the student whose turn it is to say all the students’ names that have been said already before saying his own. This will give you more time to learn the names and you can end the activity by attempting to say all the names in order.

Produce

Now you can ask students to volunteer to give self introductions. This activity can be structured a number of ways. If giving a full self introduction is too challenging, ask students to just say one thing about themselves or to use the worksheet as a guide so that if the first question on the worksheet was “Where are you from?” the first volunteer can answer that question. Encourage all students to participate.

Review

Use the last three to five minutes of class to have students ask you any questions they might have. This can be intimidating so you could expand it into a larger activity where students work in groups to think of a question to ask. The benefit of being the first group to ask a question is that no one else has asked the question already. Tell students that questions cannot be repeated so if another group asks the question first, they will have to think of a different one.

The first lesson is very important. You have to strike a balance between having fun and maintaining order in the classroom. Students need to respect you in order for you to have control of the classroom environment so use the first lesson to:

How do you teach your first lessons? Please share.