Icebreakers



* Icebreakers *****************NOTES

1. An icebreaker must be appropriate for the cell group. If it's too childish, people will not feel comfortable. If it's too threatening, people will draw back.

2. Make it clear that everybody is expected to participate.

3. Some icebreakers can be used many times.

4. Be alert for a person in crisis as the icebreaker is shared.

5. Icebreakers become shorter and less important as the group becomes tightly knit over the course of the cell cycle. You might spend 1/2 the time on an ice breaker the first two meetings, but you only need to spend 10 or 15 minutes after a few months.

Looking for a way to calm those first-day-of-school jitters -- for your students and yourself? Why not try an "icebreaker"? Icebreakers, fun activities to help students get to know one another and their teachers, can ease those first-day nerves and get the school year off to a great start.

Some teachers prefer to jump right into classroom rules and instruction. Icebreakers, they say, are a waste of good instructional time. Most teachers recognize the potential of icebreakers, though. Icebreakers can help teachers get to know their students. They can reveal who the class leaders might be, what skills and special abilities students possess, and how well students might work together.

Teacher Ellen Berg used to rush into instruction on the first day of school. Getting down to business was a good way to get kids focused on learning right from the start. Berg's ideas about the importance of the first days of school have changed, however.

"Because cooperative learning skills are essential and necessary for good community, I like to set up high-interest cooperative projects for the first days that allow my kids to practice group skills while allowing me to get a good picture of their strengths and weaknesses," said Berg, who teaches at Turner MEGA Magnet Middle School in St. Louis, Missouri.

One of Berg's favorite activities is a mini-lesson on scale drawing. After the lesson, she challenges students to work in groups to draw scaled-down maps of the school hallway. "The project allows my students to work together in small teams while it helps them learn where their core classes will be," said Berg. "It is exciting to see them with their yardsticks, heads bent together, debating measurements and how to deal with fractions."

Lessons such as this one are great icebreakers, and they are great teaching lessons too, Berg added.

Anne Jolly agrees that icebreakers can be easily slanted to accomplish academic goals. Students could compile a class book by having each subject-area teacher focus an opening day icebreaker on the subject, Jolly suggested. "In science, kids might tell about the most catastrophic natural event that ever happened to them and how they felt," explained Jolly. "In language arts, they could tell about their favorite book character and why they like him or her. In history, they could tell about a place they've visited or would like to visit or name a historical figure they admire and tell why. In math, they could tell about a time when a knowledge of math was vital to them; it will probably have to do with money!"

The students can keep a record of their responses as they go from class to class, said Jolly, a veteran grade-eight science teacher who is currently working as an education program specialist with SERVE. SERVE is one of ten regional U.S. educational laboratories.

Icebreakers are not good activities only for the start of the school year, Jolly added. When she was in the classroom, she found ways to use icebreaker activities throughout the year to reinforce the ideas of community and teamwork.

1. I found this idea at but I couldn’t get back to it when I tried to go there later.

Communication Skills

Have participants form pairs. Read the following paragraph to the participants:

Stna klat without gniyas a drow! Did you know that when stna touch each other with their eannetna, it is one way they klat or etacinummoc? 

Ask anyone who understood what you said to raise his/her hand. (No one will.)

Advise the groups that you are going to have a competition with a prize going to the pair who can first decipher the hidden message. Give each pair a sheet of paper with the mixed up paragraph on it.  

Ask the group who first deciphers the message to read it out loud to the rest of the participants (it shouldn't take long for one pair to decipher it).

Debrief by saying that communication can be like the mixed-up message. Often we send mixed messages or messages that sound like garbly-gook to the listener. It can take a lot of time and effort to find the key to the real meaning (f the listener even feels like trying to sort it out). And a misunderstood message can result in poor performance, frustration, and extra costs for a company. 

Advise the participants that this workshop will show them how to make sure that the message they give is clear and easily understood by all.

Actual wording is: Ants talk without saying a word! Did you know that when ants touch each other with their antennae, it is one way they talk or communicate? (from *This site would not come up.

2. Wow! This one is a treasure. (Type icebreakers into the search box.)

Thanks to Education World readers, we now have an archive of more than 75 unique getting-to-know-you activities for the first days of school. Use these activities to get to know your students and to help them get to know you! Included: This year, we offer 15 new activities from readers plus links to four more years of back-to-school icebreaker ideas!

CLASSROOM ICEBREAKERS

What to look for in an Icebreaker Exercise

It begins a real conversation: silly games like scavenger hunts don’t do much to start adult conversation.

It requires an appropriate level of self-disclosure: we start relationships by sharing information, but we don’t start with our deepest darkest secrets.

It should require a collaborative activity: you want to encourage the creation of a team atmosphere.

It encourages content related discussions: any conversation should relate to the topic or course and information gained should re-emerge later during the course.

It is inclusive and validating: all cultures should be able to equally participate and the exercise should put everyone on an equal footing

What to avoid in an Icebreaker Exercise

Anything that causes embarrassment to individuals: “my most embarrassing moment” speeches might be entertaining for the instructor, but they don’t do anything to foster a conversation.

Also watch out for icebreakers that involve

uncomfortable or forced communication

fun and games that detract from course content

time consuming activities

competition, or assignments that establish differences or create status for some students

cultural bias

activities in which success requires prior knowledge or experience 

Some Icebreaker Exercises that have worked well

▪ ♣        Describe  the group/class/topic as a thing or animal and discuss the implications of the various analogies. This can also a safe way to address difficult topics or conflict issues.

▪ ♣        Tell about something that happened to you before the age of seven that illustrates something relevant to the content of the course. For example, an art teacher might ask for things that illustrates creativity.

▪ ♣        Find a partner who is different from you in gender, ethnicity or country of birth and find twenty things you have in common.

▪ ♣        Find two things the whole class has in common.

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