When you are preparing for back-to-school after summer vacation, it’s the perfect time to pull out all your fun with new get to know you activities for elementary students or icebreakers for kids. Back-to-school icebreakers can go a long way in the early weeks of school to help your students feel more comfortable in the classroom.
Ice-breakers can help introduce familiarity, comfort, and trust within the classroom, making every kid feel like they truly belong. Kids of all backgrounds can get to know each other better when they participate in get-to-know activities. Icebreakers for kids can also be adapted to fit any classroom, allowing students to get a head start at the beginning of a new school year.
What Is an Icebreaker?
An ice-breaker is an activity, game or event that is used to welcome and warm up the conversation among participants. Icebreakers range from simple one-question answers to elaborate team games. All icebreakers are designed to help the participants get to know one another and build rapport, but that doesn’t mean they can’t also work and are results-focused.
Icebreakers are fun activities built around loosening students up, helping them “break the ice” so to speak with you and other classmates they might not know very well.
What is the Purpose of an Icebreaker?
Icebreakers are a great way to help kids overcome the initial hesitation of interacting with other kids. You can introduce ice-breakers to help every child feel like a part of the classroom while zipping past the initial awkward stages of getting to know each other.
They effectively keep introverted students engaged so that they feel like a part of a larger classroom environment. With greater engagement and a feeling of friendship within the classroom, kids can align themselves with different activities and initiatives quickly.
Get To Know You Activities for Elementary Students
It’s important that any icebreakers you use to help your students in the getting to know you phase aren’t requiring young kids to take social risks they aren’t ready for. This can do the opposite of what you’re hoping to do — forcing shy students back into their shells, rather than creating familiarity and comfort in the learning environment.
You’ll also want to steer clear of icebreakers for kids that are just too cheesy. Primary students may give you a pass, but those older kids — especially fourth grade on up — will let you know they’re just not into it!
Two Truths and a Lie
This game is a classic (and fairly addictive) icebreaker for kids that can be played as a whole class or in small groups.
- Each person in the class comes up with three statements about themselves. Two should be true statements, and one should be false. Depending on the age of your students, you might allow them to think up the statements and keep them in mind or to practice writing them down.
- Working your way down the class list, call on students one by one.
- When called on, each student should announce their 3 statements for the rest of the class to determine which statement they think is false.
M&Ms Icebreakers
You can hand out different colored M&Ms to your class, appoint a leader, and have them collect everyone holding the M&Ms of the same color. You can rotate the leaders around to ensure that everyone has a chance to take the lead.
Circle Up, If You
One of the fun ice-breaker games for kids is the circle-up exercise. You can make five different colored circles and prepare ten questions. You can start by saying, “Run to the red circle if you love dogs.” You can make two circles intersect and ask who loves dogs and has a younger brother. Those who fulfill both criteria will be in the intersecting portion of the two circles.
A Round of Whispers
You can have kids sit behind one another in a row and whisper a phrase to the student in the front. They can whisper the phrase along, with the last child saying the phrase out loud. This is one of those fun ice-breakers for kids that everyone can participate in equally.
Play a Back to School Scatter Game
This fun Scattegories-style icebreaker game will initiate classroom introductions and promote team building!
Here’s how to play:
- Provide students with a recording sheet and writing utensils. Students choose a partner and sit where neither can see the other’s recording sheet.
- Display the first topic slide and set a 60 second time limit. Each student must record as many items as possible relating to the prompt within the time allowed.
- When the timer is up, have pairs share their lists and give themselves a point for each matching response. The pair with the most matches will be the winners!
- After each round, students must find a different partner and repeat the process. At the end of the game, have each student share one fun fact they learned about a partner in class.
Match the Baby Picture
You can collect baby pictures of the students, print them out, and have your class guess whose picture belongs to whom. This is one of the most fun ice-breakers for kids, making every child feel special.
Personality Bingo
You can print out a Bingo sheet with different unique characteristics and personality traits and have kids interact with each other about their interests. They can strike off specific boxes if they find someone who loves apples, enjoys parks, or loves to draw.
Try Not to Laugh!
You can have your students sit in a circle for this activity and have each of them try to make the other one laugh. The other kids must stay silent as students use props, funny faces, silly dances, and goofy gestures to get them to laugh.
This or That
This is one of the most effective ice-breakers for kids, as it involves simply going from one side of the room to another. You can start by saying, “Dog lovers on the left, cat lovers on the right.” You can have them talk about why they like or dislike certain things and open up a dialogue.
Conclusion
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