Five Fun Back to School Icebreaker Activities

Icebreakers are a great way to helps kids feel relaxed in stressful situations, such as at the beginning of a new school year where they find themselves with a different teacher, peers, and classroom. 
Below, I've collected five fun icebreakers that you could use during the first week back at school. I've chosen ones that also help particularly shy students feel comfortable too.  Some icebreakers can be daunting for some kids, and I think some activities create more anxiety for them instead of comfort (which is the overall goal of these activities).

1. Guess Who
Guess Who is a great game to kick start getting to know things about individuals without putting anyone in the spotlight straight away (those few who dread the straight up intros will be grateful). It also helps kids learn things about others in their classroom.

Pass out small pieces of paper to each student and tell them to write down the following things, without putting their names on it:

• Favorite color
• Favorite food
• Likes
• Dislikes
• A Special Fact (this could be anything special they want others to know about themselves)

Collect the papers into a box and mix them up. Then, similar to a raffle draw, each student blindly picks a random note from the box (if they get themselves, they have to put it back). Once everyone has a piece of paper, go around the classroom and ask each student to read out the information on the paper they have. The rest of the class has to try and guess who it is. You can set a limit to the number of tries before the person who the paper about reveals themselves to the rest of the class. If someone guesses correctly, the person the paper is about must let everyone know 'YES!'

Variation: Students write their name on the paper, but the person who gets it in the 'raffle' cannot announce who it is until guessed correctly. 

2. Would you rather . . . 
I love this one a because it gets everyone up and moving, and helps kids find common grounds with others. 

You will need to make enough space (move desks to the side or find an outdoor area). Using tape or chalk, make a long line down the middle of the classroom or area. 

Then, explain to students that you will be saying would you rather an option A or an option B. If they prefer the first option, they are to go to the right side, and if they prefer option B, they must stand on the left side. You will continue with different options, and students move to the side of their preference each time. 

If they don't like either side, they still must choose which they would prefer anyway. 

For example:
Would you rather A. eat chocolate or B. eat ice-cream.  I make a gesture to the side for each, and students then must run within 5 seconds to their preferred side. 

Few more examples:
- would you rather play X-Box or Playstation
- would you rather swim or run
- would you rather eat pizza or burgers
- would you rather go to the beach or the snow
- would you rather sing or dance

I usually do a few to get the game going, then invite students to take turns to ask the 'would you rather . . . ' questions.

3. 'What's going on?' Draw & Guess
Students who love to draw will particularly enjoy this one and get to show off their talents. 

Phase 1: Give students a piece of paper. Instruct them to draw something that tells of an event that happened to them during the summer break (or recently). They are not allowed to use any words, pictures only. They must draw silence because they cannot tell anyone what happened (otherwise it will ruin phase 2).

Phase 2: Depending on how much time you have to spend on this, do Phase 2 as a whole class or to save time, split students into groups. 
Each student has a turn to show the class (or group) their picture. They cannot say anything about the picture. Other students must try to figure out what happened by just looking at the picture. After a set number of guesses, if no one gets it correct, the artist can narrate the event to the class. 

4. Mirror Talk
I like this one because it encourages good listening skills as well as helps students get to know their classmates. It also gets students talking in front of the class but makes it easier because they will be talking about their partner. 

First, pair off students with a partner. Next, set a two-minute timer. One partner is to talk first, while the other is to listen first. During the first two minutes, the talker must tell the listener things about themselves, for example, hobbies, dreams, favorite subjects, etc. The listener is not to speak at all. Once the two minutes is up, it is time to swap roles. Set another two minutes on the timer, and the other partner gets a turn to talk while the other listens. 

Once both partners have spoken, it is time to go to the class. Each student has to tell the rest of the class at least three things they have discovered about their partner. Everyone gets to speak about their mirror partner, so the whole class gets to learn interesting things about each other. If a partner doesn't 'mirror' information correctly, then the other partner can chime in to correct the fact.  

You could turn this into a competition to see who can remember the most about their partner. 

5. Find someone who . . . 
Another fun (a bit noisy) one but will get your kids moving and also interact with each other. 

Have all students standing. Then explain when you say for example, 'Find someone who has the same favorite color as you,' they must go around the classroom to find someone who says they have the same favorite color as them. They can find more than one person, and it's fine if they don't find someone. The point of the game is for everyone to move around and start talking and learning about their classmates. You could ring a bell when it is time to say the next 'Find someone . . . ' to get their attention for the next thing. I like to keep it fast paced, so I don't leave each one for too long even if people are still looking. It keeps the action moving, kids don't need to start to stress about not finding someone, and the ones that find someone quickly don't get bored waiting. 

Mix it up between looking for someone with something in common, and then just looking for someone that meets the criteria given. 

Some examples you could use:

• Find someone who has the same favorite ice-cream flavor as you.
• Find someone who has the same color school bag as you.
• Find someone who has the same color clothes as you.
• Find someone who has a brother.
• Find someone who has a sister.
• Find someone who is the eldest.
• Find someone who likes football.
• Find someone who ate cereal for breakfast. 

So there are five easy to use Icebreakers that are fun to use during the first week back at school.

You may also like to ease your kids into math this year with a fun Math Quest. It has been designed for the start of the school year. Find out more below.

Back To School Math Quest: School Jungle Jam

Set the stage to engage with the VIDEO HOOK above.

This resource is available in different levels of difficulty. A fun video hook (provided above) can be used to introduce kids to the activity. 
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