Ice breakers are a fun way to get to know your students and for your students to introduce themselves to each other. They also are a good way to build classroom culture. When picking an ice breaker to play, it is important to figure out how well the students know each other already. It’s possible that they’ve been in school together for a long time or this particular class may be a new grouping of students who don’t know each other very well. Ice breakers are a good way to build a positive classroom culture no matter how well the students know one another. Here are some examples of ice breakers you can use:
Introductions
- Students introduce themselves with information based on preselcted categories
- Example categories: name, age, favorite movie, dream job, etc.
Little-Known Facts
- Everyone writes a secret talent or fun fact down about themselves on notecards
- Shuffle the cards and hand one out to each student
- Everyone reads their card out loud one at a time and tries guessing who it belongs to
Snowball Fight
- Similar to “Little Known Facts,” except the students crumple up the paper with their fact into a “snowball” and begin a snowball fight
- When the teacher says stop, each student will go pick up a “snowball,” read the fact out loud, and try to guess who it belongs to
Two Truths and a Lie
- Students comes up with three facts about themselves
- Two of the facts they pick must be true and one of them must be a lie
- The student will read them out to the class in random order and the other students have to guess which fact is the lie
This or That
- Have the students gather in the middle of the classroom
- Ask a question that only has two possible responses and assign each response to a side of the room (For example: “Are you a dog or cat person?”)
- Students will move to the side that corresponds to their answer
Groups and Lines
- In this ice breaker, students are prompted to either line up in a certain order or form groups based on something they have in common
- “Line up in order of your birthdays”
- “Form groups based on your favorite TV show”
BINGO
- Give each student a BINGO board filled with prompts like, “Find someone who has never left the country,” “Find someone wearing flip-flops,” etc.
- Students go around the room trying to find a different classmate to answer each prompt
- Squares get colored as classmates answer each prompt and sign off on the square.
- Whoever fills their board first, wins!
Hidden Identity
- Have each student write down the name of someone famous on a sticky note and collect them
- Tape one sticky note on the back of each student without them seeing it
- The students must figure out their “Hidden Identity” by asking different classmates yes or no questions
Beach Ball Game
- Blow up a beach ball and write various questions on it
- Play music and toss it around the room
- When the music stops, whoever is holding the beach ball must answer the question that their right hand is on
Virtual Classroom Ice Breakers
Ice breakers can also be played in a virtual classroom setting. These ice breakers can also be related to the transition topic being discussed. This information will help instructors learn more about students’ goals for after high school. Below are some examples of how to get introduced to your students virtually.
- Kahoot: https://kahoot.com/
- A resource that allows you to create engaging and interactive games
- Questions are displayed on a shared screen while students answer on their personal devices
- To use this as an ice breaker, create multiple choice questions so that students can select the answer choice that applies most to themselves
- Once everyone has answered the question, a graph will pop up showing the distribution of the responses among the class
- Poll Everywhere: https://www.polleverywhere.com/
- Similar to Kahoot, Poll Everywhere allows you to create a question or prompt and students use a code to respond on their own devices
- Polls can be in the form of written questions or graphics
- Students can either submit their response with their name or anonymously
- To use this for an ice breaker, create poll questions about student preferences and see answers to questions in real time
- Flipgrid: https://info.flipgrid.com/
- A platform that allows you to create a question or prompt and students respond with a short video clip
- To use this as an ice breaker, ask students to introduce themselves with a list of prompts and questions
- The student will record a video of themselves responding to each of the prompts and questions
- Padlet: https://padlet.com/
- An online resource that is described as an “online notice board”
- Instructors can pose questions on the board and students can post “notes” that can contain links, videos, images, and written descriptions
- To use this as an ice breaker, you can post basic introductory questions and students can respond using any of the media types listed above
For additional resources on engaging virtual instruction tools: https://transitiontn.org/vr/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Resources-for-Engaging-Instruction-.pdf
