Million Dollar Classmate
📝 This post million Dollar Classmate, was originally published in 2013 and has been updated with new information and resources.
Friendship issues come up in every classroom, and first grade was certainly no exception! Whenever my class needed a little extra help with friendship and getting along, we spent some time talking about what it means to be a good friend and getting to know one another better.
One activity I loved using was Million Dollar Classmate.
The idea is to pair students with classmates they don’t usually spend much time with, give them a chance to learn more about each other, and then have them create something together. It’s a simple activity, but it can help students discover that they have more in common with their classmates than they realized.
Pairing Up the Students
For this activity, I chose the partners rather than allowing students to choose their own.
I intentionally paired students who didn’t typically play or work together. The goal was to give two children who might not know each other very well a reason to sit down, talk, and learn a little more about one another.
They might discover something they have in common, begin a new friendship, or simply walk away with a better understanding of someone else in their class.
Interview Your Classmate
Once students have their partners, they take turns interviewing each other using the interview page.
The questions can really be about anything you’d like your students to learn about one another. We used the questions included in the product, which focus on things such as interests, family, and things they enjoy.
Most importantly, each student has a chance to talk—and a chance to listen.
Create a Million Dollar Classmate
After the interviews are complete, students use what they learned to create a million dollar bill featuring their partner.
Completing Front of the Million Dollar Bill
Students write their partner’s first and last name on the lines and draw a picture of their classmate in the center.
Completing Back of the Million Dollar Bill
On the back, students take the information they gathered during the interview and turn it into a paragraph about their partner.
This adds a nice writing component to the activity while giving students a real reason to use the information they collected.
💚 Grab the Million Dollar Classmate Friendship Activity from TPT.
Why I Love This Million Dollar Classmate Activity
What I like most about Million Dollar Classmate is that it encourages students to step outside their usual friendship groups.
Young children naturally gravitate toward the same classmates, and there may be children in the room they know very little about. A simple conversation can uncover all kinds of connections—maybe they both have a dog, love the same book, play the same sport, or have little brothers who drive them crazy!
They don’t necessarily have to become best friends. Sometimes simply knowing more about another person makes it easier to understand and connect with them.
And that makes every classmate pretty valuable—maybe even worth a million dollars. 💚
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