Breaking The Ice With Your Students- Article

Breaking The Ice With Your Students
To help get you started, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite ice-breakers.

As the school year begins, you will probably have quite a few new students to meet and get to know. Why not try a creative ice-breaker as a way to learn more about your students (and help your students get to know each other)? An ice-breaker’s purpose is to not only help you and your students get acquainted, but will also ease the tension and apprehension that comes with the first week of school.

To help get you started, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite ice-breakers. Many of these can be adapted to small or large groups, so they work well whether you’re a guidance counselor looking for creative ways to get to know the students you’ll be working with this year, a teacher in search of activities that will help you get to know your classes (as well as help students get to know each other), or an activity sponsor needing ideas to help the students in your extracurricular group get acquainted.

Two Truths and a Lie
Group size: 2-10 (if you have a large class, you may want to break them into smaller groups for this exercise)

Time: 10-20 minutes, depending on group size

Description: Ask each student in the group to list three facts about themselves on a piece of paper. Two of those facts should be true and one should be false.

Ask someone in the group to volunteer to read their three facts. Then, ask the other members of the group to guess which fact is false.

After the student reveals which fact is false, have that person elaborate on their true and false statements to allow the rest of the group to learn more about them. Then, move on to the next person in the group until everyone has had a chance to speak.

Finish This Sentence
Group Size: 2-10 (this also works great as a one-on-one activity)

Time: 5-10 minutes, depending on group size

Description: Go around the room and have each student complete one or more of these sentences, or create your own similar sentences:

My favorite subject is…
The class I struggled most in last year was…
The worst homework assignment I ever had was…
The most challenging homework assignment I ever had was…
I usually feel stressed out when…

As a variation on the activity, you can also prepare a list of questions for the student to ask you so they can learn more about you.

Map Yourself
Group Size: No more than 20

Time: 20-40 minutes depending on group size

Description: Use masking tape to draw an outline of the United States on the floor or draw the outline on a chalkboard or dry-erase board. (You could also use a map of the United States or the world and push pins). Ask the group a question (such as “where do you want to go to college?”). Then have the first student stand (or mark a star or place a push-pin) on the location where he/she would like to go to college. Once all the students have chosen their dream college’s location, ask each student why he or she would like to go to school there.

You could also ask a few more questions to learn more about the students, such as:

If you could live anywhere, where would you live and why?
Where is one of the coolest places you’ve ever been?
Where would you go on your dream vacation and why?

Five Necessary Occupations
Group Size: 5 to 30 (this also works great as a one-on-one activity)

Time: 5-15 minutes, depending on group size

Description: Give students the following scenario:

“Imagine that the world has to start over and nothing exists except water, land, trees, animals and 50 people whose ages range from 10-50. In order to re-start the world, your group of 50 has put you in charge of choosing the five most necessary occupations to get the world going again. No training is necessary for any of these occupations.”

Give the students a few minutes to write down the five occupations they’d choose and why they would choose them. Then, ask each student to share what they’ve written with the rest of the group.

(This ice-breaker was adapted from an activity created by The Center for Applied Research in Education.)

Multiple-Choice Getting to Know You
Group Size: 10-30

Time: 10-20 minutes, depending on group size and number of questions asked

Description: Hang a large piece of paper in each corner of the room, with the letters, each with a different letter written on it. You may want to have students push desks to the center of the room so they’ll have room to move around.

Have all students stand at the front of the room. Tell them that you are going to read some multiple-choice questions and they’ll choose their answer by going to the corner of the room with the corresponding letter. After you’ve asked all questions, have students return to their seats and lead a discussion about the similarities and differences in how they answered the questions.