8/20/2019 Ice Breaker Ideas for English Teachers

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ICE-BREAKER IDEAS

1.  “Find the Question” 

Write 10 things about yourself on the board. Try to write some easy ones like: 'Bob', '30', 'swimming',

etc... Write some more obscure ones like: 'Hamburger', 'Yes', '8/12/2005', etc...

Then get the students to guess the question to the answer that is on the board. So they would ask:

What’s your name?

 How old are you?

What’s your hobby?

What’s your dog's name?

 Are you married?

When did you get married?

After they have figured out the question for each answer, it's their turn. They write down 3-5 things about

themselves that their classmates don't know. Then they come up to the front of the class, write their info

on the board and the class guesses about the student.

2.  "Snowball Sentence"

The best way to do this activity is to make the students sit in a circle. Ask the person sitting on your right

to tell his/her name and his/her hobby. E.g. “Hi, I'm Ayşe and I like skiing". Then say, "This is Ayşe and

she likes skiing. I'm ....(your name) and I like drawing". And everybody take turns, each person

introducing everyone who has spoken on their right.

As a follow up you can have students write down either 3-5 sentences following the pattern: "NAME likes

HOBBY (ie. Karen likes drawing. Lucy likes skiing, etc).

OR

Snowball Fight 

Give everyone a white sheet of paper. Ask them to write one thing they are excited about, one thing they

are nervous about, and one thing they would like to learn, they can add any bit of information they want to

share. Tell them NOT to put their name on the paper. Next, have them crunch the paper into a ball. Have

them stand in a large circle around the room. Then allow them one full minute to have an all-out snowball

fight! When one minute is up, have them locate a “snowball” nearest to them, unfold it, r ead the

information, and try to guess who it is. This is great for getting to know each other and seeing what their

fears and expectations really are.

3.  “Adjective Game” 

Ask the students to think of an adjective that begins with the initial letter of their names, then ask the

students to take turns and tell their adjectives but not their names and guess the names. Don’t forget you

only have two chances.

4.  “Ball Game” 

Use a sponge ball or any ball made by soft material and get the students into a circle (depends on the class

size, bigger classes can stay in their seat or break into a few circles if you have space) and then throw the

 ball around. Have some easy target language for them to practice for example, since it's the first day, "I'mJohn. What's your name?" Then change it to include the last person's name, "His/her name is _______,

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my name is John. What's your name?" You can make it more and more interesting by introducing more

sponge balls or by having one person to remember all the other names.

5.  “Name Collection” 

Ask the students write their names, departments, ages, or home towns on a small piece of paper. Collect

the papers and put them in a box or a bowl. Then students take turns, pick a name from the box and give

it to its owner.

6.  “Toilet Paper Icebreaker” 

Teacher takes a toilet paper roll and takes several squares of toilet paper, then hands the roll of toilet

 paper to a student. The teacher tells the student to take some, more than three.

After everybody in the class has some paper, they count the squares they have, and then they have to tell

that many things about ourselves.

7. “Alphabet people icebreaker” 

Without leadership the group puts themselves in alphabetical order of their names, either in a circle or a

line.

The game can be continued using:

Place of birth

Mother’s name

Home town (if from different places)

Street you live in

Departments, etc.

8. “Balloon ice-breaker” 

The teacher needs a balloon. One balloon is thrown up…before someone hits it they must call out a word

from a vocabulary topic or absolute beginners any English word. The student who cannot hit the balloon

leaves the group, and the last student in the group wins.

9. “Lie Detector” 

This activity involves the teacher writing three sentences on the board about him/her: 2 are true, and 1

will be a lie. Depending on the level of the students, the students can then ask questions about the topicsof the three statements of the teacher to determine the lie. You can then set it up as a fun game, while

analysing the level of the students by getting them to write three sentences about them, with one of the

sentences being a lie. A good way to do this is the class versus the teacher, if the student can successfully

deceive the teacher, the class will get the point. If the teacher can successfully detect the lie, the teacher

will get the point.

10. “Number 7 ice-breaker” 

Students stand forming a circle, they have to say a number 1, 2 ,3 , 4, 5, 6 ... (clap) - tell them that they

must clap not saying numbers 7, 14, 21, 28, etc, neither 7, 17, 27. Any number that either HAS 7 or can

 be DIVIDE BY 7 - they should not say the number, but clap. If they make a mistake or hesitate too long,they sit. The last student standing is the winner!

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11. “Neighbours” 

Draw the table on the board and be sure that the Ss draw the

same table on a piece of paper, too.

Tell them this is an apartment block and they live there.

Divide the class in twos (or threes) and tell each partner they

live in e.g.1a / 1b..etc.

First they should know their home mates by asking their

names, city, department and hobbies and later on they stand up

and try to know their neighbors, too until they know everyone in the block.

After the exercise the teacher can fill in the apartment block on the board by asking the Ss who lives in

which flat.

12. “Birthday Line up” 

Students have to line-up around the classroom in order of their birth dates (Kelly, 2004). This activityforces students to move around and communicate with each other. According to the Stress and WellnessAssociates people learn better when they are actively involved.

13. “Fact or Fiction” 

Have everyone write down three surprising things about themselves, two of which are true, and one of

which is made up. Each person, in turn, reads their list and then the rest of the group votes on which "fact"

they feel is the "false" one. If the group does not correctly pick a person's made up "fact", then that person

wins. A group can have more than one winner. At the end, the whole group votes on which of the

"winners" of the final round, had the most deceiving "fact". This helps people get to know and remember

their colleagues.

14. “People Poems” 

Have each child use the letters in his or her name to create an acrostic poem. For example, Bill could

write

BigIntelligentLaughingLoving.

Tell students they must include words that tell something about themselves -- for example, something

they like to do or a personality or physical trait. Invite students to share their poems with the class. This

activity is a fun one that enables you to learn how your students view themselves. Allow older students to

use a dictionary or thesaurus. You might also vary the number of words for each letter, according to the

students' grade levels.

1a 1b

2a 2b

3a 3b

4a 4b

5a 5b