Name of game: "Name Tea Party."
Materials: None
Prerequisites: The participants should know how to spell their names and
recognize the letters of the fingerspelled alphabet.
Summary or object of the Game: Participants learn each other's names and
practice spelling as well as receptive fingerspelling.
Set Up: Participants sit in a circle or semi circle so they can see everyone.
The teacher picks a student and has him or her spell his or her name. Then that student spells someone else's name. It then becomes that person's turn. The second student spells his or her own name and then spells someone else's name (but NOT the name of the person just previous). Going back and forth between the same two people is called a "tea party" and is forbidden.
For example, suppose the teacher selects a student named "Bob" to start.
Bob spells his name (B-O-B) and then spells the name of some other student at
random, for example, "Mary" (M-A-R-Y).
It then becomes Mary's turn. She has to spell her own name, and then she
spells a different student's name--anyone other than Bob. For instance,
S-T-E-V-E. Then Steve spells his own name and someone else's. Steve
can spell B-O-B, or any name other than "Mary" who just had her turn.
(Later in the game Mary is welcome to spell Bob's name and Steve is welcome to
spell Mary's name as long as it isn't a tea party "back and forth.")
The teacher may decide to "get people out" if they mess up. Or the
teacher may decide to play this game without ever getting anyone out.
You can also play this game with vocabulary instead of fingerspelled names.