No Contact Greeting Ideas for Early Education Classrooms

You’re not a kindergarten teacher or preschool teacher if you haven’t been awkwardly hugged by a student or held a sticky hand.

They love us and we love them and we both want to show it.

In our classrooms, that usually starts with our morning greetings.

We hug or high-five or have a special handshake.

Some teachers even post a “menu” outside their door where students can choose how they want to personally greet their teacher.

And for many of our students, that’s the highlight of their day.

Unfortunately, with Covid-19 concerns, even if we might be teaching in our classrooms this fall, we definitely won’t be touching our students.

But we still need ways to connect with our students. We have over 75 ideas here to build a strong classroom community this year including how to host a virtual meet the teacher event.

And we want to greet our students in a meaningful way to start our day strong…without the germs.

No more hugs or handshakes or high fives for a while. 

So here are no contact greeting ideas to teach your students to greet you and their peers, without touching them.

No Contact Greeting Ideas:

Without our go-to hugs and high-fives, we need new ideas to connect with our students in meaningful ways but also in ways that keep them and us safe from germs. 

And if you want a “menu” of these new ideas you can “click download it here” below.

Here are fun new ways to teach our kids to greet us in ways that still keep us socially distanced:

• Air High-Fives
• Elbow bump
• Curtsey
• Snap your fingers
• Silly face
• Thumbs Up
• Hug Yourself
• Make up a Silly Dance

You can download our printable No Contact Greeting “Menu” below or cut them apart and use them as cards.

Or you can teach your kids multicultural greetings.

These greetings from around the world allow you to stay six feet apart and learn about different cultures from around the world.

You can teach your students different ways to say ‘hello’ from around the world. They can then greet you in whatever language they prefer.

Language	Hello	Pronunciation
Spanish	Hola	Oh-lah
French	Bonjour	Bohn-jure
Italian	Ciao	Chow
Japanese	Konichiwa	Ko-neesh-ee-wah
Mandarin	Ni-hao	Knee-how
Hebrew	Shalom	Shah-lome
Hindi	Namaste	nam-eh-stay
Arabic	Asalaam alaikum	Ah-sah-lam Ah-lay-come
Russian	Privet	Pree-vee-et
Korean	Anyoung haseyo	Ahn-yong-ha-say-yo

Or you can teach them these non-verbal no contact greetings from around the world:

In Tibet, they stick out tongues. Since that gesture can be considered rude in our culture, we can explain this only works if you’re doing it in a fun Tibetian way of greeting friends.

In Zimbabwe and Mozambique, they clap in a special way to greet each other. The first person claps once, then the second person claps twice.

In Malaysia, they connect their hands together, sometimes called prayer hands, put their hands over their heart, and bow their heads.

In Cambodia, India, Nepal, Laos, Thailand, and Japan they bow.

It doesn’t matter how you say “hello,” as long as you create a classroom environment where kids are excited to come and learn with you.

These no contact greetings will help you do just that.

Want More Ideas to Create a Classroom Community?

Creating a tight knit classroom community while we’re socially distancing and while we’re unsure of what the school year will look like can be tricky.

We’ve got over 75 ideas shared by teachers from around the world on Creating a Classroom Community while Distance Learning.

Download the No Contact Greeting Ideas Menu

Click the button below to download. You will immediately be redirected to the freebie.