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Ice Breakers​

Games designed to help teachers and students get to know each other.

5 Questions

Age: 

2nd grade and up

Materials:

Paper and pencil for each student

Preparation:

Prepare 5 questions that you can ask the students. Here are some sample questions:  What is your favorite dessert, favorite subject, favorite game, favorite restaurant, What do you want to be when you grow up? 

Game:

  1. Pass out the paper and pencils and instruct each child to write their name on the paper.

  2. Read the questions one at a time but tell them not to let anyone see their answers.

  3. When you finish asking the questions, collect the papers.

  4. Read one of the papers to the group, but do not tell them whose paper it is.

  5. Let them guess whose answers you are reading.

Helpful Information:

  1. As they write their answers, tell them not to worry about spelling everything correctly. Otherwise, you will spend a lot of time helping to spell words and they would be giving their answers away to the other students.

  2. Tell the children ahead of time that you will be reading their answers to the group. If there is something on their paper they don't want read aloud, they should put an X on it, so you know not to share it.

  3. If you don't have time to read everyone's answers, save them till the following week and read them then. This game could actually continue for a couple of weeks if you have a lot of students.

Mix and Match
 

IMG_1259.JPG

Age: 

Any age

Materials:

Colored paper

Pencil 

Scissors

Preparation:

  1. Cut paper into seasonal shapes. For example, for Christmas, you could use Christmas trees or bells. For fall, you could use apples or pumpkins, leaves, etc. (See the first illustration above.)

  2. Cut each shape in half using various designs. (See the second illustration.)

Game:

  1. Place all the shapes in a bag or a basket.

  2. Have each child reach in (without looking) and pull out half a shape.

  3. When you give the signal, they should go around and look for the person who has the shape that fits theirs to make the design complete. (See the third illustration above.)

  4. That person will be their partner for the next few minutes.

  5. They should find out their partner's name and one other piece of information  ie. favorite breakfast food, favorite color, favorite activity, etc.

  6. After they have all had time to do that, go around the room and ask each child to tell the group what his partner's answer was.

Helpful Information:

  1. Ahead of time, you should count how many children so you know how many shapes should go in the bag. Make sure each child will have a partner. If there is an odd number of children, one of the teachers can play so everyone has a partner.

  2. If you don't have time to cut out shapes, use seasonal paper plates and cut them in half just as you would do with a shape. (See the illustrations below.)

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