3 Ice Breaker Games for the Beginning of the Year

Photo courtesy of stevendepolo at Flickr.com.

I love playing Ice Breaker Games at the beginning of the year. It is so fun to see my students starting to get to know each other and develop relationships that are going to last the rest of the year.   However, when I was looking for Ice Breaker Games to play with my firsties many of the games were too complicated or involved too much writing.  So, I developed a list of three Ice Breaker Games that are easy and fun for young students.  As an added bonus they require very few materials!

1. Who is it?

Supplies: a rag rolled up with a rubber band, chairs placed in a circle

Have the students place their chairs in a circle.  Have the students go around the circle and state their names for the class. Choose one student to be "it" and have that student stand in the center of the circle.  Call out the name of a student in the class.  The student who is "it" must try and tag the student whose name was called with the rag.  The student who was called must call out the name of someone else in the class before they are tagged.   If a student is tagged they become "it."

 

Photo courtesy of alexanderdrachmann at Flickr.com.

2. Wall to Wall

This game is great for helping students to recognize the similarities they have with their classmates and to appreciate the differences that exist in their class.

To play this game the teacher reads questions that have two possible answers.  The teacher designates two different walls in the room to represent the answers.  For example the right wall could be yes and the left wall could be no.  The students move to stand by the wall that represents their answer to the question.  Optional: after the students have moved to the wall that designates their answer have the students discuss their answer with a classmate who had the same answer.

Before playing be sure to specify that students must not run while playing this game.

Example questions:

Do you like pizza? (yes or no)
Do you ride the bus to school? (yes or no)
Do you have siblings? (yes or no)

3. Bean Bag Toss

Have the students sit in a circle.  Start the game by tossing a bean bag or soft ball to one of the students.  Ask the student a question about themselves (i.e. What is your favorite color?). After the student answers the question have them toss the bean bag to another student and ask a question of their own.  Encourage the students to make sure that the bean bag is tossed to everyone in the circle before anyone gets a second turn.  Praise students for thinking of original questions rather than just repeating one another student asked.

Tell me about your favorite ice breaker games in the comments below!