Fun Icebreaker Ideas & Activities

Author: Blahman

  • Connecting Stories

    Connecting Stories is a fun team-building activity and get-to-know-you game that is all about finding common experiences or themes between people.  This activity works best in small groups of 6-8 people.

    Materials required: Pens and Post-it Notes.  Notecards or other small slips of paper will also work.

    Setup for Connecting Stories

    Have everyone divide into small groups of 6-8 people.  Ensure each table has several post-it notes and pens.  The goal of the game is to connect mini-stories in an interesting way.  Each person must share at least one item that connects to the other mini-stories.  The longer the chain of items that can be created, the better.  Write down a few words on a post-it note to keep track of each part of the story.

    The first player begins by sharing an interesting memory or experience that they have.  For example, one player can say: “One time, I accidentally locked myself out of the house.  So then I spent the entire day at a coffee shop.”

    Any other person can tell a related story that has any similar themes or elements to the previous story.  For example, the next person can say, “I am a total coffee addict.  Every day I drink 3 cups of coffee and it sometimes prevents me from being able to sleep at night.”

    The next player, based upon the previous story shared, can say something related, such as: “I don’t sleep much at night because I play lots of computer games until early morning.”

    Any person can then add to the story, by saying something like, “I also love computer games.”

    To help the group remember each part of the story, write a few words on a post-it note for each part of the story chain.  The more interesting or funny the story, the better.

    At the end of the game, the group with the longest connected chain of stories is the winner.  You may ask the group to share the entire story with the whole group.  This activity is a fun way to get people to share stories, while helping people learn similarities or common interests.

    You can get everything you need (materials and supplies) for Connecting Stories at our online store, powered by Amazon.

     

  • Story Starters Activity

    Story Starters is a good get-to-know-you icebreaker to help people share interesting stories about themselves.  It works in groups of all sizes.  For very large groups, simply have everyone split into smaller groups of 4-6 people.

    Setup for Story Starters

    Setup of this icebreaker is flexible.  Materials required: Oxford 5″x8″ notecards and plenty of ballpoint pens.

    The facilitator can prepare cards in advance, or the following could be written on a chalkboard/whiteboard/Powerpoint slide.

    Write the following sentences, one on each card:

    • “Once upon a time, I…”
    • “My favorite place I ever went to is…”
    • “The silliest thing I ever did was…”
    • “My ideal vacation is…”
    • “The craziest thing I ever did (that I’ll admit to) is…”
    • “If my life were a book, I would title it…”

    You can also come up with many more.

    Distribute these cards to each group (or show these on a chalkboard/whiteboard/Powerpoint on the front of the room).  Within each small group, each group member must choose one Story Starter and begin a story using one of these sentences as a starting point.

    Each group can vote on which story is the most interesting.  The most interesting stories can be shared to the larger group.

    Buy the materials for Story Starters at our online store, powered by Amazon.

  • Good Icebreaker Questions

    Good Icebreaker Questions is simply a list of 12 good questions that you can ask to help break the ice.  These questions are fun, and generally pretty easy and safe to answer.  You can use them as an icebreaker for meetings or classrooms, written on notecards and adapted for other games, or simply as a fun activity to help people get to know each other better.

    Instructions for Good Icebreaker Questions

    In terms of facilitation, a great way to help people get to know each other is to ask them fun questions that allow them to express their personality or interesting things about them.  Here is a list of fun, useful icebreaker questions to help break the ice:

    • If you were a comic strip character, who would you be and why?
    • What thought or message would you want to put in a fortune cookie?
    • If you had to give up a favorite food, which would be the most difficult to give up?
    • What is one food you’d never want to taste again?
    • If you won a lottery ticket and had a million dollars, what would you do with it?
    • You’ve been given access to a time machine.  Where and when would you travel to?
    • If you could be any superhero and have super powers, which one would you like to have and why?
    • Mount Rushmore honors four U.S. presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt.  If yuo could add any person to Mount Rushmore, who would you add and why?
    • What award would you love to win and for what achievement?
    • If you could transport yourself anywhere instantly, where would you go and why?
    • In your opinion, which animal is the best (or most beautiful) and why?
    • What is one item that you really should throw away, but probably never will?
    • Growing up, what were your favorite toys to play with as a child? 
  • Blanket Game

    Blanket Game

    The Blanket Game is a funny icebreaker to get to know other folks in the room.  A large blanket is held up between two groups, and one player from each team stands behind the blanket.  The goal of the game is to be the first to identify the other person behind the blanket.

    Materials required: One very large blanket (or curtain).

    This game works for small, medium, and large groups, although teams of 10 people probably work best.  For extremely large groups, pick about 20 volunteers to go to the front of the room to play.

    Setup for the Blanket Game

    There is not much setup involved for this activity.  Form two large teams, preferably about 5-10 people per team.  Have each team go to the front of the room.  Have two volunteers hold a blanket or curtain open between the two groups, so that each group cannot see behind the blanket.  If players do not know each other well, quickly have each player introduce their name to the room.

    Playing the Blanket Game

    blanket-game

    For each turn, each team chooses a volunteer to stand (or sit) behind the blanket.  The facilitator will count “1, 2, 3” and then drop the blanket.  The first player to correctly identify the name of the other player wins the round, earning one point.

    Repeat until one team reaches a desired number of points (or whenever time runs out).  This activity is a good way to learn names.  Have fun!

    To get supplies for the Blanket Name Game, shop our online store.

  • Candy Introductions Activity

    Candy Introductions Activity is a get-to-know-you game that helps people learn new facts about each other in an easy way.  They select various pieces of candy from a bag, and each candy variety is associated with a fact about themselves which they will introduce to the others. This game also goes by other names, including the M&M game, Candy Confessions, the Skittles Game, the Gum Drop game, among others.

    Candy Introductions can work with any group size.  The icebreaker game works best when the group size is limited to 12, so if you have more than 12, divide the larger group and run the icebreaker within the smaller sized groups.  This icebreaker works best indoors, and is well suited for classrooms or meeting rooms.  Materials required are: candy with about five different variations (color or candy type), and an optional chalkboard/whiteboard.

    Setup for Candy Introductions

    Purchase several variety packs of candy, enough for each person to be able to have at least five pieces.  They can be any candy type, but not too many choices (limit it to around five or six different varieties).  Alternatively, you can buy gummy bears, life savers, gum drops, skittles, m&ms, or any other candy that already has a variety of colors.

    Instructions for How to Play 

    Pass around the candy and tell each participant to choose anywhere from 1 to 5 pieces of anything that they want.  Instruct them not to eat it yet, though.  After they have chosen their candy, you will tell them what each candy type/color represents.

    If there is a whiteboard or chalkboard present, write on the board the following:

    • Red – Favorite hobbies
    • Green – Favorite place on earth
    • Blue – Favorite memory
    • Yellow -Dream job
    • Orange – Wildcard (tell us anything about yourself!)

    If you don’t have the above colors, change the above to match the candy types that you have.  Each person takes turns introducing himself or herself, beginning with their name and then saying one fact for each candy type that they have.  This easy introduction game should go relatively quickly (assuming they weren’t greedy and that they didn’t take too many pieces of candy!)

  • Fabulous Flags Game

    Fabulous Flags (also known as the Personal Flags Game) is a useful icebreaker activity to help people convey what represents them or what is important to them.  Each person draws a flag that contains some symbols or objects that symbolizes who they are or what they enjoy.

    This get-to-know-you activity is best done indoors.  Any number of people can participate.  The recommended age is 7 and up.  Materials required are: several sheets of paper, pens, and colored pencils/crayons/markers.

    Instructions for Fabulous Flags Activity

    Pass out a sheet of paper, pens, and colored pencils, crayons, and/or markers to each person.  Explain the activity: “We’re now going to draw flags that represent or symbolize us.  Please design your own flag of you – include some symbols or objects that symbolize who you are or what you find enjoyable or important.”  You can show your own sample flag if you like.  For example, you could draw:

    • a guitar (representing your passion for music)
    • a tennis racket (someone who enjoys sports)
    • a country like India (representing your affiliation with a country)
    • a cross and a heart (representing Jesus and His love for the world)

    Give everyone a set amount of time to draw (e.g. 15-20 minutes or so) and then reconvene.  Ask for volunteers to share their flags and explain the meaning of what they drew.  If it is a large group, you can divide everyone into smaller groups and ask them to share their flags with each other, or you can just ask a small number of volunteers to share.

    Variations

    After everyone has finished sharing the individual flags, as a big group you can ask everyone to brainstorm ideas on what to draw for a large class-wide flag.  Proceed to delegate individuals to draw certain parts of the class-wide flag.  Alternatively, you can collect the individual flags and paste them onto a board to create a “quilt” of individual flags, representing unity.

    (credits: thanks Eunice!)

  • Newspaper Towers Game

    Compete against other teams to see who can build the largest tower using only one ingredient – newspaper!  Newspaper Towers (also known as Build the Tower) is a great teambuilding activity involves creativity, coordination, and teamwork!

    This activity works best for people ages 8 and up.  It works great for groups of six to fifteen people.

    Materials needed

    • A lot of newspapers — be sure to recycle them!
    • A timer or stopwatch
    • Rolls of scotch tape
    • Measuring tape

    How to set up Newspaper Towers

    Collect as many newspapers as possible in advance and separate them into equal piles. If you know how many people will be there, create 1 pile for each team you will have, but if you don’t know the group size just create equal piles of newspapers with some left over as spares.

    How to play Newspaper Towers

    1. Divide the main group up into teams. Ideal size for each team is between 2 – 4 people. If you are doing this as a team-building exercise, you might consider larger teams to promote healthy communication and interactions, otherwise 4 should be your maximum group size.
    2. Give each group an equal pile of newspaper and a roll of tape. Ensure that you have some spare newspapers in case one team ends up needing them for any reason.
    3. Set your timer for around 5-10 minutes or prepare your stopwatch. On your signal, all teams should go to their newspaper piles and begin working. The goal of the game is to build the largest tower out of only newspapers. Teams can use any sort of design methods they would like as long as only the newspaper is being used and no assistance is given by glue, tape, staples, or anything else.
    4. Once the designated amount of time expires, all teams must immediately stop working on their towers – and hope they stay up! Go around and inspect the towers, being sure to measure each tower to find out which one is the tallest of them all. Also check that only newspaper was used with no other supplies. Any tower that falls over before its height is judged cannot be repaired or built again.

    Winning the game

    The winner of this game is the team that successfully builds the tallest tower using only newspaper and tape. Any tower design is acceptable as well as any building method, as long as the teams are only using the provided supplies of newspaper.  For a harder game, use less (or no) tape.

    Alternatively, you could judge based on a point system that give credit for artistic designs and creativity as well as the height of the tower.

  • Extreme Rock, Paper, Scissors Game

    Battle it out to see who is the rock, paper, scissors champion of the group — as the losers of each mini-round cheer the remaining winners on!

    This game works best for ages 12 and up.  It’s recommended for large or extra large groups of 15+ people.

    Setup for Extreme Rock, Paper, Scissors

    No special materials are required to play this game, making it convenient and free to play.

    How to play Extreme Rock, Paper, Scissors

    1. Have each member of the group pair up for the first round of rock, paper, scissors. If there is an odd number, add the odd person out to another pair and have them do a quick knock-out match to form a pair. Alternatively, you can ask for a volunteer to participate as a referee with you.
    2. Everyone should be in pairs. Ask them to play 3 games, and the best 2 out of 3 will be the winner. You should act as a referee during this time in case there are any disputes or confusions.
    3. Instruct the losers of the first match to start cheering the name of the person who beat them and following that person around to their next game.
    4. Have all the winners pair up and face off against each other while the ones they beat are cheering for them. When one winner beats the other, all the people behind the losing player should start cheering for the winning player.
    5. Repeat this process in elimination, tournament style, until there are only two players left. Each should have a large group of people cheering them on from their previous wins. Let them play the final match. The game is over after one player wins the final match.
    6. (Optional): If you have an odd number of people and you want to reset the game and play again, have the winner of the last game stand aside as a referee with you to give another player the chance to win instead.

    Winning the game:

    The last person standing in this tournament is the winner. They must not lose against any player from the beginning to the end of the game. At the end, the winning player should have all the other players cheering for them. A small prize can be awarded to the winner if you choose, otherwise you can reset the game and play again.

  • Psychiatrist Game

    Confuse the designated psychiatrist by acting like other people in the group.  The psychiatrist must guess who is who and why!

    This game works best for ages 13+.  It works great with medium to large sized groups of 6+ people.  Nothing is needed except a timer or stopwatch.  Indoors is the ideal setting.

    How to set up the Psychiatrist Game

    There is no required setup.  Players should be seated in a circle.  The “psychiatrist” will be in the center of the circle.

    How to play:

    1. Organize the group so that one person is chosen as the “psychiatrist” while the others are the “patients.” The psychiatrist can be a volunteer or selected based on criteria of your choice such as who has the nearest birthday.
    2. Have the psychiatrist leave the room and wait to be fetched by one of the patients or yourself. While they’re out of the room, the patients should all talk amongst themselves and discuss who is going to act like whom. This must be based on a specific pattern that will not change. For example: Patients can decide that they will each act like the person to their immediate left. No matter if they move around or switch places with each other, the pattern will stay the same.
    3. Bring the psychiatrist back into the room and line up the patients. Start the timer for a certain amount of time (recommended to be at least 5 minutes). The psychiatrist must question people and try to figure out who is acting like whom while the patients are acting like others based on their secret pattern. If the psychiatrist asks a question and the patient answers incorrectly, the person they are pretending to be must yell out “psychiatrist!” and everyone will get up and rearrange themselves.
    4. Even when everyone is rearranged, the pattern of who is acting like whom will stay the same. The game ends when the psychiatrist guesses the pattern correctly or when the designated time runs out. When the game is over the last person to have spoken to the psychiatrist will become the new psychiatrist if you are playing for another round.

    Winning the game

    If the psychiatrist can correctly guess the pattern that the patients came up with, they will be the winners of the game. If the time runs out and the psychiatrist cannot guess the pattern within the set amount of time than they will lose the game and the patients will be the winners.  Have fun!

  • Giants, Wizards, Elves Game

    Giants, Wizards, and Elves is an icebreaker that is similar to Rock, Paper, Scissors — except more hilarious!  It’s also a versatile game — it works in groups of all sizes, including large groups of 50 or above. 

    This icebreaker game involves to teams and requires no special materials to play.  It works both indoors and outdoors, so go ahead and have fun!

    Setup for Giants, Wizards, and Elves

    This game involves two teams who will act as one of 3 characters: giants, wizards, and elves. When a player acts out a character, he or she does the specific hand motions and also makes the noise associated with the character.

    • Giants.  Stand on your tippy toes, raise your arms like a giant, and make a menacing growling noise: “Rarrr!”  
    • Wizards.  Crouch slightly, as wizards are a bit shorter.  Wave your fingers as though you’re casting a magical spell, and make a magical noise: “Shaazaam!”
    • Elves.  Crouch down very low, cup your hands around your ears, and make a high pitched elf noise: “Eeeee!”

    Make sure everyone knows the motions and sounds.  Feel free to practice until everyone knows how to become each character.  Split everyone into two teams and divide them into separate sides of the room. For each round, both teams huddle and choose to become a giant, wizard, or elf.  When ready, both teams then line up and stand facing each other, about five or six feet apart.  At the start of each round, the leader says “Three, two, one, go!!”

    At this point, each team acts out the character they chose (giant, wizard, or elf).  As soon as they do this, the winner tries to grab the loser — as many people over to their side as they can.  The loser tries to retreat back to their own side to be safe for that round.  If captured, a person now belongs to the other team.  The following determines who beats who:

    Giants beat elves, because giants are able to “squash” elves.  Elves beat wizards because they outsmart them.  Elves chew at their legs.  Wizards beat giants because they are able to zap them with a magic spell.  If both teams show the same character, no one wins.  Rounds keep repeating until one team wins (the other team is completely captured).