Ice Breakers/Teambuilders

BIG GROUPS

ANIMAL FARM: Give participants a card with the name of a farm animal, i.e. horse, chicken, rooster, lamb, dog, cat, etc. They may not tell or show their card to anyone. Tell them in order to find their group they must make the sound of the animal on the card and group themselves accordingly. Participants may or may not have their eyes closed or be blindfolded at the discretion of the facilitator.

Another Variation:

Use other words/objects such as "boat" "lamb" "bells" or "ball". Participants must find their groups by humming a tune of a song that corresponds with their card (i.e. boat = row, row, row your boat, lamb = Mary had a Little Lamb, bells =jingle bells, ball =take me out to the ball game)

ICE BREAKERS

Duck! : Everyone stands in a circle, with one person in the middle. The person in the middle points at someone in the circle and says their name (it is most helpful to go around and quickly say names first) Then that person ducks down, or steps back, and the people to the right and the left of that person must say the others name first. Ex: Karen, Joey, and Nicki are standing in that order in the circle. The person in the middle points to Joey and says Joey! Joey steps back and Karen must say Nicki! before Nicki says Karen! whoever is last to say the name is the next person in the middle. If it is a tie, the person who ducked out of the circle gets to decide who goes in the middle.

Look up, Look down, Lock: Everybody stands in a circle, shoulder to shoulder. The instructions of the game are for everyone to look up, then look down (pick someone that you are going to make eye contact with by staring at their shoes) and then lock (look up and make eye contact with that person whose shoes you were staring at) If, and only if, that person is staring back at you, you must say their name before they say yours. The person to say the name second, or not at all, or says the wrong name is out. You want someone who can be a caller to say Look up, look down, lock and to be the judge if there is a tie. So the circle gets smaller and smaller, when it is down to 2 people, you can have an Ultimate Showdown where the 2 people stand back to back, take five steps out, turn around to face each other, and then you say a category and the first person to identify something from that category wins. (ex: fruit, colors, presidents, states, Disney princesses)

QUESTIONS: Have candy of assorted colors (starburst, M&Ms, jelly beans) and have each group member pick a piece. Have a question associated with each color. Then go around and have the group members answer the question associated with the color of candy they picked.

Example;

Yellow=What is your favorite book?

Red=Where would you like to take a dream vacation?

Blue=What was the last movie you saw in theaters?

Green=Would you rather win an Oscar, Grammy, or Nobel Peace Prize?

DANCE: Stand in a circle and have everyone say his or her name and do a dance move. The next person introduces themselves and names the previous people and does the dance move(s). Everyone must do the dance move together after the person does their dance move. The final result is a whole dance of random dance moves!

NAME TAG TAG: Organize participants into a circle and hand each person a name tag.

Tell each person to write their name on the name tag.

The facilitator then takes all the name tags and redistributes them at random to the participants. (You may not have your own name tag or the person to your right in the circle).

The facilitator then instructs the participants to place the name tag they are holding on the back of the person to their right. On the "go" signal everyone must move among the group members and try to locate their own name tag while avoiding someone finding the name tag that is on her or his back.

You have to remain on all fours. Once a person finds their own name tag, they grab it off of the person's back and place it on their chest for all to see. Each person stays in the game until they find their own name and the person whose name was on their back finds her/his name.

HUMAN MEMORY: This is a version of the matching/memory game we played as kids. Two kids leave the room. The rest of the kids pair up (in unlikely pairs) and choose a noise. An adult then has each pair make their noise to make sure there are no duplicates. The kids then mix up and lay down on the ground on their stomachs. The kids who let left the room come in and try to match up the pairs. They do this by tapping a kid on the head, and then the kid gets up and makes their noise. This continues just like memory until all the pairs are matched. Variations: Use movie quotes or farm noises or animal sounds.

RABBIT, ELEPHANT, RHINO: Everyone stands in a circle. One person stands in the middle and points at someone and says rabbit, elephant, or rhino. Then that person must take the form of that animal, with assistance from the person to their left, and the person to their right. Here is how the animals are formed:

Rabbit:

The middle person brings their hands up like paws, the person to the left makes a bunny ear with a flat palm and places it straight up on the persons head, and the person to the right makes a bunny ear with a flat palm and places in straight up on the persons head, forming two bunny ears

Elephant:

The person in the middle makes a trunk with their arm, the person to the left makes and ear by making a circle with both of their arms in the side of the persons head, same for the person on the right, making two big floppy elephant ears.

Rhino:

The person in the middle makes a nose with a fist with one hand, and an index finger pointing with the other to form the horn, like a rhino. The people to the left and the right make fists and place them on the persons head to make little rhino ears.

The last person on the three to make the correct animal form is the next one in the middle of the circle.

BLANKET GAME: Be sure that all the members of the group know each others names or at least have had an opportunity to introduce themselves to each other. You will need a blanket, quilt, etc. that is not see-through, two chairs, and an assistant to help. Divide the group into two smaller groups. Place the chairs a few feet apart facing each other. Have each group stand behind one of the chairs. Hold the blanket up between the two groups so each group cannot see the other. Each group will need to silently choose one of its members to sit in the chair. Once the participants are in place, count to three and drop the blanket. The object is for the participant to say the name of the person sitting in the chair from the other team before that person can say his/her name. The participant who fails to say the others first moves to the other team. Hold the blanket up again and have the teams choose a new person. Continue until all the players are on one team or the game has run its course.

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: Have everyone write down two truths and one lie about themselves.

Then have everyone read their three things out loud. The rest of the group should guess which one is a lie. Alternate version: 2 truths and a goal. Say 3 accomplishments in your life, 2 of which you have done, and one which you would like to do.

MAKE A DATE:Give each participant a paper plate.Have them draw the face of a clock on their plate with a line next to each number (no digitals!).Then have participants walk around a find a date for each hour, writing their name by the hour.The catch is, no one can make a date with more than one person per hour.After everyone has made their dates, speed up time and allow 1-3 minutes for each hour.The facilitator then asks a question for discussion on each date.The pairs will have a chance to get to know one another.

THINK FAST:Have group stand and form a circle.When the group is in position, the leader explains that they will be playing a game that requires them to think quickly.A volunteer is asked to stand in the middle of the circle.The volunteer is to close his/her eyes and keep them closed throughout their entire time in the center.A person standing in the circle is then given a small object.When the center person says, Start!, the object is to be passed around the circle counterclockwise from one participant to the next.The center person can call out Stop! at any time.The center person then quickly says a letter of the alphabet and the person holding the object must QUICKLY say three nouns that begin with the specified letter.If the participant says three words within five seconds, the game continues with the same leader.If the person cannot think of three nouns in that amount of time, he/she becomes the leader.Game continues until peak fun is reached.

CONCENTRATION:The rhythm for the game is slap, slap (on the knees), snap, snap (one on each hand (right, then left).Group sits in a circle.One person is designated as the leader, and he/she sets the pace.The object of the game is to get to the leaders spot.The leader begins the rhythm, and on one set of snaps says his/her name on the first, and someone elses on the second (the names MUST always be said on the two snaps).The person whos name is said must respond on the next set of slaps and snaps by saying his/her own name and then someone elses.If the player does it correctly, the game continues.If the player does not do it quickly enough, that player must move to the seat to the right of the leader, and the rest of the group moves up a seat (toward the leaders spot) to fill in the seats.Game continues until group has learned names well.The pace can be as fast as desired.

WHOMP EM:One person is the Whomp Em Master.That individual stands in th