Education World readers have come through again! This week, we introduce
the first of two new volumes of teacher-tested icebreaker activities for
the first days of school. Included: Fourteen icebreakers
from teachers around the globe!
Education World published its first volume of icebreaker activities
in 1997. Since then, readers such as you have perpetuated the icebreaker
series. Now a yearly tradition, our library of getting-to-know-you activities
has grown to more than 80!
In the past year, we received so many great new ideas that we are presenting
two brand-new volumes of teacher-tested icebreaker activities. We begin
this week with 14 new ideas. Each activity below was contributed by an
Education World reader who is identified alongside the activity.
IT'S IN THE BAG!
Over the years, teachers have pulled from their "bags of tricks" a handful
of activities employing the common paper bag!
Dawn Lasko, who teaches third grade at Cliffwood (New Jersey) Elementary
School, starts the year with a game that challenges her students to use
their sense of touch. Lasko hides a series of ten objects -- mostly such
classroom items as a piece of chalk, an eraser, or a marker -- in numbered
paper bags. Each kid prepares a sheet of paper numbered 1 to 10. The students
record their guesses about what each bag holds as they make their way
from bag to bag. They share their guesses, then open the bags to learn
who made the most correct guesses.
Share Your
Favorite Icebreakers
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Cheryl Lindo, a teacher at Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, uses
paper bags in one of her favorite icebreaker activities. In an activity
she calls Share Your Garbage, Lindo shares a bag filled with things that
tell about herself. Her bag might include a receipt from Barnes and Noble
(she loves to read), a wrapper from a chocolate bar (she is a self-confessed
chocoholic), an empty yeast jar (she enjoys baking bread), and a few crumpled
pieces of paper (she likes to write). She sends students home to pull together
their own garbage collections, which they share on the second day of school.
Jamie Ward gives a similar opening-day homework assignment to her students
at Clarendon (Texas) Junior High School. She challenges students to do
a little reflecting by limiting the bag to three items.
The first item must represent something the student loves to do.
The second item must represent something that makes the student especially
proud.
The last item must represent something that inspires the student.
Ward shares the three items in her own bag as an example before sending
kids home to think and search. The next day, students share their items
with the class. Everybody learns something new about the others in the class.
Yolanda Rangel, who teaches fifth grade at LeNoir Elementary School
in Donna, Texas, does a similar activity. Instead of using bags, however,
she has students decorate Me Boxes to share with their peers.
TEN MORE NEW ICEBREAKERS!
Cool Introductions
Have students write three things about themselves. They should not
put their names on their papers. Then have each student crush his or her
paper into a ball. Now you're ready for a getting-to-know-you "snowball
fight." Tell students they cannot begin until you say "go" and that they
must stop when you say "freeze." Remind students not to throw "snowballs"
at anyone's face. When you say "go," give students 30 seconds to a minute
to toss their "snowballs." When you say "freeze," every student should
pick up one snowball. Each student should open up the snowball and find
the student it belongs to. Students should chat with their partners about
the information on the sheets. Then students will be responsible for introducing
the students whose snowballs they "caught" to the rest of the class. Carly Sween, Randy Smith Middle
School, Fairbanks, Alaska
Penelope Cook, Chrisman (Illinois)
Grade School
Ticket to Kindergarten
Greet your students at the door. Hand each student a "ticket" that has
her or his name and a picture, a shape, a color, or some other symbol.
Tell students to find their names and the pictures or symbols on one of
the desks in the classroom. This activity provides practice in recognizing
names and matching -- two important kindergarten skills. Brenda J. Bustamantes, Fort Worth
(Texas) Independent School District
Getting to Know Ms. P.
This activity helps students get to know you. In advance, create a ten-question,
multiple-choice quiz about yourself. For example:
What kind of car does Ms. P drive?
Ford Escort
Volkswagen Beetle
Hummer
Cadillac
Students circle their best guess for each question. Before you begin the
quiz, ask students to predict the number of questions they will correctly
answer. You might follow up this activity by having students create five-
or ten-question quizzes about themselves; the questions should be about
things most of their peers would not know. Kara Perry, Accawmacke Elementary
School, Accomac, Virginia
The Giving Tree
Read aloud Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree and involve students
in a discussion of the types of gifts the tree gave the boy; none of those
gifts cost a thing! Then talk about the types of cost-free "gifts" the
students can contribute to the class. Prepare a bulletin board that has
the silhouette of a tree trunk and branches. Give each student a cutout
apple. Have students write on their apples the things they can "give"
to the class. Put the apples on the tree. This bulletin board makes a
nice display for open house. Lori Napoli
Shoe Fun
This fun first-day activity teaches the importance of using vivid details,
adjectives, and precise language in writing. Have each student take off
one shoe and put the shoe on his or her desk. Then have the students write
paragraphs in which they describe their shoes in detail. Collect the students'
descriptions. Later in the day, have students take off their shoes and
deposit them in the center of the room. Hand a description to each student.
(Make sure students do not get their own descriptions.) Students read
the description and try to find the shoe that best matches each description.
Is the description well written? Does it help a classmate find the correct
shoe, or does it need to be revised?
Options:
Students can create pictures to go with the paragraphs they wrote.
Students might use the descriptions to draw pictures of the shoes
described in the paragraph before they see the shoes. How closely
do the pictures match the actual shoe?
Jude Connick, John F. Kennedy Middle
School, Enfield, Connecticut
Opening Day Sing-Along
Are you familiar with the song Getting
to Know You, from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical The King and
I? Write the lyrics to the song on chart paper and hang it on an easel.
Talk about the meaning of the lyrics and some of the vocabulary that might
be unfamiliar. What does it mean to get to know someone? to get acquainted?
What does it take to get to know someone and let that person get to know
you? What does it mean to get someone to like you and how do you go about
that? Then introduce the tune, by playing it on a piano or sharing a recording.
Finally, sing the song together during the daily class meeting for the
first week or so of school. Joanne Jackson, East Hills Middle
School, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Scissor Game
Organize yourself and the students on chairs in a large circle. You hold
a pair of scissors. When the activity is about to begin, stare at the
scissors as if you are studying them hard, to distract and confuse students.
Then pass the scissors to the student seated in the next chair. As you
pass the scissors, simply say the word crossed or uncrossed.
Because the students saw you intently studying the scissors, they will
probably assume that the words crossed and uncrossed have
something to do with the scissors. The word really refers to the position
of your legs when you passed the scissors. You said crossed if
your legs were crossed or uncrossed if your legs were uncrossed.
After you pass the scissors, tell that student to study the scissors and
say the correct word while passing them safely to the student in
the next chair. Give no other clues about the activity; the students must
work it out! As each student passes the scissors, tell the student whether
he or she got it right. See how many rounds it takes before each student
has figured it out. If most of the students have not figured out the game
by the end of a few rounds, you can start to make it more obvious by changing
the position of your legs just before passing the scissors. Instruct students
not to say anything as they figure out what is going on. To keep students
from revealing the secret of the game, you might let them tell some of
their peers whether they are correct as the scissors are passed. Lucy Phipps, Pinehurst College,
Auckland, New Zealand
ME-WE Cutouts
Each student cuts the word ME from an 8 1/2- by 11-inch sheet of
paper. The right leg (vertical line) of the M and the vertical
line of the E connect the two letters so the word ME is
in one piece. You might provide a tracing pattern for younger students.
Have each student write on his or her ME cutout ten things about himself
or herself. Then organize students into pairs. Each person uses the facts
on the ME cutout to introduce himself or herself to the other person.
When the two introductions are complete, students talk about what they
have in common. Then they flip the ME cutouts up so they spell WE. The
students write the things they have in common on the WE cutout. Students
might then transfer the information they learn to a simple Venn
diagram.) Finally, students use the ME cutouts to introduce themselves
to the rest of the class. After each pair finishes the introduction, the
students share those things they found they have in common. Deborah Hercsek, Lee Eaton School,
Northfield, Ohio
Grouping for Introductions
Note: Before preparing or distributing any food in the
classroom, make sure you are aware of children's allergies or dietary
restrictions, and caution children about choking hazards.
Hand out a gummy bear or lifesaver to each student, making sure nobody
sees which color each person gets. When each student has a candy, instruct
the students to put their candies on their tongues. Then the students
must find others who have the same color candy. They cannot make any noise
-- no uh-uhs! -- as they organize themselves into groups. Once the students
are grouped, they can begin their introductions or whatever other group
activity you have planned. Jo Hendricks, Limestone Creek Elementary
School, Jupiter, Florida
KWL the Teacher
This activity will help students get to know you. Students in small groups
could use it to get to know one another. Begin the activity by drawing
a three-column (KWL) chart on the board. Students help fill in the chart
with information about you. They write things they Know about you
in the K column. Then, in the column labeled W (Want to Know),
they list things they would like to know about you. For now, leave the
last column blank.
For the next step, you will need to prepare in advance a list of interesting
facts about yourself. Write ten of those facts on slips of paper; then
fold each slip of paper and put it in a jar or another container. Tape
a large sheet of butcher paper to a board. Your name should appear in
a circle in the center of the paper. (This is an opportunity to introduce
a concept mapping activity -- an activity you may use frequently during
the school year.)
Ask for a volunteer to come up, pull a fact from the container, read
it to herself or himself, and then illustrate that fact on the paper.
Other students guess the fact that goes with the illustration. The student
who guesses the fact gets to select and illustrate the next fact. At the
end of the period, the class has produced a free-form map of you!
The next day, present students with a 20-question, multiple-choice quiz
about you. Students will use the free-form map to help them respond to
questions. The students might groan at the idea of taking a quiz on the
second day, but they will be rewarded on the third day: that's when you
return their graded quizzes with a coupon attached! For every question
they got right in excess of teen, they earn a coupon worth that many extra-credit
points on a real quiz!
Finally, on the third day, go back to the original KWL chart and have
students complete the L column with things they Learned about you.
Now the mysterious teacher at the front of the class seems to be more
like a real person to them, and they are ready for the third night's homework
assignment. Students create free-form concept maps about themselves; the
map should include seven to ten illustrated facts. The students' concept
maps would make a great bulletin board for an open house! Nicole Honour, Keystone Heights
(Florida) Junior/Senior High School
Icebreakers:
Volume 7
