Fun Icebreaker Ideas & Activities

Category: Active

Active icebreakers! These games will get people moving, whether it’s running around, jumping, dancing, hiding, dodging, or some other action. You’ll probably get a little bit of a workout after playing these kinds of icebreaker games! Some of these games may burn some serious calories. Either way, you are sure to have a great deal of fun!

  • Naming Animals

    Naming Animals is intended to be a simple game to memorize each other’s names. This game is best played in a medium to large group where enough people can participate to make it long. The point of the game is to match animals to the first letter in your name to help others memorize who you are.

    What You Need To Play

    What you will need to play Naming Animals:

    • Your Voice
    • A Quiet Area

    How To Set Up The Game

    To set up the game simply pick out a quiet area in your house or in town where everyone can hear each other.

    How To Play Naming Animals

    Start by gathering together in a circle and picking someone to start off. That person will then say the name they answer to and then an animal that starts with the first letter of their name. Afterward, the next person will do the same, but state the name of the person before them as well as their animal. As the game goes on each person must remember the animals and names of each person before them. If someone can’t correctly name both then they are out of the game.

    If you need to make the game longer or this is for a younger group only use animal memorization instead of both name and animals.

    Winning The Game

    The best way to win the Naming Animals game is to pay attention to the other players. The more names you remember the better off you will be in the long run. Just pay attention and repeat the name and animals in your head as they are said.

    Have fun!

  • Screaming Viking Game

    Screaming Viking Game

    Screaming Viking is a stationary/active/party game that is highly interactive and silly.  Players must correctly act out interesting things such as a “screaming viking,” a “chia pet,” “power rangers,” and other funny things.

    This game is good for children age 9 and up.  It’s an excellent game for parties and families.  The ideal number of players is about 12-15, making it a good medium and large group game.  No special materials are required to play.   You can play indoors or somewhere like a park.

    Screaming Viking

    Setup

    There is no special setup required for this game.  Have everyone sit in a large circle, with each person facing the middle.  The facilitator should teach everyone all the various motions for how to play.  More details will be given below.

    Instructions for Playing the Game

    The basic idea behind this game is simple: one person is in the middle and tries to get someone on the outside (seated within the circle) to make a mistake.  If a person makes a mistake, he or she becomes the new person in the middle.

    To get someone “out,” the person in the middle points to one person who is sitting on the outside and commands the action.  Typically, three people must then proceed to do a funny motion and make silly noises: the person who was pointed to, and the two people on the left and right, respectively.  The three people have ten seconds to do the action properly without making any mistakes.

    There are various actions that can be done.

    • the “Screaming Viking”: the person in the middle is the main viking, who forms two horns with their fingers on their forehead and screams loudly; the person to the left and right of that person must also make a fast rowing motion with their arms.
    • “Smurfs”: three people interlock their arms and sing the smurf song, “Laaa, la, la-la, la-la….”
    • “Chia Pet”:  One person in the middle is the plant, and the people to the left and right form the pot.  All three of them must sing loudly, “Ch-ch-ch-chia…”
    • “Jello”: the person selected in the middle must wobble like gelatin (jello), while the other two people form a bowl with their arms.

    The following video demonstrates how this game works:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejV9BzjxZiY

    If a mistake is made by any of the three people (the person selected and the people to the left and right of that person) within ten seconds, that person must go into the middle to be “it.”

    Have fun!

     

  • Truth or Dare Game

    Truth or Dare is a classic party game that can lead to some memorable fun.  A player chooses to answer a question truthfully or  to do a crazy dare in front of all the other players.

    Truth or Dare works best with medium sized groups.  Not many materials are required, although it can be helpful to have various household items laying around, such as toothpaste, interesting foods, etc.  This party game is often played at camp, during slumber parties, or simply when hanging out.

    Setup for Truth or Date

    There is no setup required for this party game, though it can be helpful to come prepared with some ideas in case people need help coming up with questions or dares.

    Instructions for How to Play Truth or Dare

    Each player takes a turn asking another player, “Truth or Dare?”  The player who is asked must choose to do a “truth” or a “dare.”  A truth is to answer a question truthfully, and a dare is to do something silly or crazy.  For example:

    Sample Truth Questions:

    • What is the craziest thing you have ever done?
    • What is your most embarrassing moment?
    • What is the grossest thing you’ve ever eaten?
    • If you had to marry someone in this room, who would it be?
    • What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you?
    • What is is the most important thing you look for when dating?
    • If you had to live with only one object what would it be?
    • What is the most attractive thing in a man/woman?

    Sample Dare Questions:

    • I dare you to prank call another person we know.
    • I dare you to eat 5 packets of ketchup.
    • I dare you to put toothpaste all over your face.
    • I dare you to dance and spell your name with your butt.
    • I dare you to smell someone’s bad breath for 2 minutes.
    • I dare you to put your hand into the toilet bowl.
    • I dare you to brush another person’s teeth with your toothbrush.

    Once a person is given a Truth or a Dare request, he or she can agree to do it, or he or she can switch to the other Truth or Dare.  Be creative!

    Note: This game can be hilarious but be sure to stay safe and not force someone to do something they do not want to do.  Icebreakers.ws does not accept any responsibility for dangerous or non-law abiding behavior!

     

  • King Elephant Game

    King Elephant (also known as Animal Kingdom Game) is well suited as a good party game or an icebreaker for meetings. It involves a little bit of silliness and is a lot of fun. The goal of the game is to become the King Elephant, the head of the circle.

    This active game works best if you have between 8 and 15 people. It is a good indoor game, and although it does require some movements (mainly making animal gestures), there is no running involved. No special props are required – it’s pretty simple to play! The recommended age is 10 and up.

    Setup for King Elephant Game

    Not much setup is required. Instruct all players to have a seat and arrange everyone in a circle, facing each other. Each seat in the circle will be a different animal, arranged in order from the top of the food chain (the King Elephant) down to the bottom of the food chain (a slimy worm). Designate one person to be the King Elephant and then assign the other animals in order. If you wish, you can let players choose their own animal and invent their own gesture for the animal. Otherwise, typical motions for the animals are:

    • King Elephant – hold one arm out, extended away from your nose, while the other arm wraps around and holds your nose.
    • Bird – join both of your thumbs together and flap your hands like a bird flying
    • Chicken – place your hands under armpits and flap your arms
    • Alligator – extend your arms out in front of you, with one hand facing up, and the other down, and clamp them both together like an alligator’s jaws
    • Bear – hold your two hands out like giant bear claws
    • Lion – connect your hands above your head like a circle, make a growling face like a lion’s roar
    • Snake – make a slithering snake movement with one of your arms
    • Fish – clasp both your hands together and imitate a fish swimming upstream
    • Monkey – puff cheeks, while pulling your ears out
    • Worm – wiggle one bent finger

    How to Play King Elephant

    King Elephant is a rhythm game in that you must successfully stay on beat. Depending on the chair you are currently seated in, each person adopts an animal gesture (as described above, or you may create a new one). The task is to correctly do your animal signal when called upon, and then to make another animal’s signal to try to get that person to make a mistake.

    The rhythm to maintain is set by the person who is King Elephant. He or she can alter the speed as desired. Everyone follows the rhythm of a 1-2-3-4 pattern, where 1 is a pat on the knee, 2 is a clap, 3 and 4 are left and right thumbs (or the signals). The person does his or her own signal (animal gesture and noise) first, followed by another animal’s signal. So for example, a round could look like this:

    King Elephant starts rhythm: knee pat, clap, elephant signal (his or her own signal),
    King Elephant signals a different player: knee pat, clap, bear signal (or anyone else’s signal),
    Bear continues: knee pat, clap, bear signal (his or her own signal),
    Bear signals another player: knee pat, clap, fish signal,
    Fish continues: knee pat, clap, fish signal (his or her own signal)..

    and so on. When people fail to keep the rhythm or make a mistake on their signal (e.g. do a signal when they aren’t supposed to) then they become the new worm and everyone else moves up by sliding up a seat. Those who change seats take on the role of a new animal. The goal is to try to be the King Elephant by knocking out anyone in front of you.

    Great fun! Be sure to get everyone to make funny animal sound effects when they do their signal too.

  • 3 Icebreaker Games That Use Drink Cans

    1. Tipsy

    Here’s a cool party trick: if you leave just the right amount of liquid in a tin can, you can balance that can diagonally, on its edge. We’re use that fact to play a quick relay race, one part drinking game and one part balancing act.

    You will need

    One unopened 330 ml drink can for each player.
    Tables or other surface in reach of all players. This is so they have somewhere to balance their drink.

    Set-Up

    1. Split the room into two teams.
    2. Have each team arranged into a rough line, so they know what order they will play in.
    3. Give all players an unopened drink.
    4. For both teams tell the players at one end of the line that they will be the starting players.

    Rules

    The starting players open their can, drink approximately three quarters of the contents, and then attempt to balance the can on it’s edge, as quickly as they can.

    As soon as a player has successfully balanced their can, the next player in their team can proceed to open their own can and attempt the challenge. This makes this game into a sort of relay race.

    The first team to get from the start of their line to the end, with the last player having successfully balanced their can wins!

    Now that you’ve got lot’s of empty cans, we can use them for the following games!:

    2. Sliding Towers

    Do you think you could slide an empty can across a table… using only your head? Race others for the title of fastest moving face.

    You will need

    • Six empty cans per player.
      Your noggin.
      An empty table.

    Set-up

    Place an empty can near the corner of the table. If two people play simultaneously, also put a can in the opposite corner. Each player will start in one of these corners.
    Nearby, but out of the way, place the other cans so you have stacks of two and stacks of three.

    Rules

    Each player must push the single can from their end of the table to the other end using only their head and face. They cannot touch the can with their hands, shoulders neck etc. or they must take the can back to the starting position and try again.

    When a player has successfully pushed their can to end of the table, they immediately pick up a stack of two cans, put them in their starting corner, and go again with the larger stack.

    After the stack of two, players progress onto the stack of three. If at any time the stack falls over, it is immediately moved back to the starting position and the player can try again.

    This game is a race! The first player to get the third stack of cans to the end of the table wins.

    3. Candelier

    Become an architect of dangerous structures in this game, where you build a large, structurally unsound inverse pyramid out of cans and paper plates.

    You will need

    • 15 Empty Cans Per player
      5 Paper Plates per player

    (If you don’t have enough cans to play with multiple players at the same time, do this game one player at a time, and time the results. The fastest player wins)

    Set-up

    Put the cans and paper plates in reach of the players.

    Rules

    • The challenge is to build the following structure:
      One can as the foundation.
      A paper plate on top of each level of cans.
      One extra can per level of top of the plates.
      Until you end with five cans on the top level, and a final plate on top.
      This creates a sort of wonky pyramid shape, with increasing numbers of cans alternating with paper plates.

    The structure may topple, but the players can always continue on from whatever is left. The first player to finish their “candelier” wins!

  • Tilt A Cup Game

    Build and hold onto an upright swinging tower of cups and balls. As the game progresses, this tower will become increasingly unwieldy, swinging unpredictably. You’ll have to use a steady hand to keep control of the tower.  Tilt that cup!  Catch the bouncing ping pong balls to win.

    This games uses elements of games like Moving On Up and Bouncer. You can play it as a solitaire challenge, as a competitive race, or in teams.

    You will need

    • 8 plastic cups per player
    • 8 ping pong balls per player

    Set up

    For each player:

    1. Put all cups together, one inside another, to create a compressed stack.
    2. The player takes hold of the stack of cups from the bottom.
    3. Put the 8 ping pong balls within easy reach.

    Rules

    Players create a tower of cups and balls by the following process:

    • They first bounce a ping pong ball on the ground, then catch that ping pong ball in their stack of cups.
    • When the ball is caught — the top cup in a stack now has a ping pong ball in it — the player takes the cup from the bottom of the stack and places it at the top. The new top cup is now sitting on a ping pong ball and has some freedom to move around.
    • Repeat this process. Bounce another ping pong ball and catch it in the top cup of the stack. Then move the bottom cup the top, adding to an increasingly wobbly tower of alternating cups and ping pong balls.

    Once a player has caught all ping pong balls, creating a tower where every cup is separated by a ping pong ball, with one final ping pong ball in the top cup, they have finished!

    This is a great game for challenging your coordination. You not only have to bound the ball with one hand and catch it using the cups in the other, but the top cup will get increasingly further away from the hand that it trying to keep it under control. If you move the tower of cups around too quickly, or hold it at the wrong angle, it might fall apart completely, forcing you to start again.

    Variants

    To play this as a race, simply give every player a stack and their own ping pong balls. The first player to finish the challenge wins!

    The team variant has one player taking control of the stack of cups and another starting with all the ping pong balls. The player with the balls will be standing several feet away and throwing the balls to the player holding the cups. All other rules are the same.

  • 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.

  • Picture Whispers Game

    The Picture Whispers game is sort of like Pictionary mixed with the Telephone Game. Picture Whispers actually has some advantages over Pictionary. First, all players get to draw at the same time, and then get to guess at the same time, in phases, which means more game for everyone involved. Second, the game concludes with each player revealing sequentially all stage of drawings and guesses in their notepad, sharing with the group a short, absurd story of misunderstanding, non-sequitur, and debatable artistic merit. This reveal is similar in effect to — and has all the hilarity of — popular group storytelling game Consequences, or this collaborative drawing game.

    Play Picture Whispers with at least four players, and up to as many as you like, though as the game gets longer for every additional person in the chain, so if you have many more than ten it may be best to end the game after a certain number of passes (say, ten) rather than play all the way to the end of the circle. You could also split a large group into two smaller circles.

    Set-up:

    • All players sit in a circle, or around a table.
    • All players are given:
      • A small notebook or several small sheets of paper
      • A writing utensil.
      • Optional: Some item to be used as a bookmark, to mark which the current page is in case the notepad is closed, would also be useful.

    Rules:

    Each player will choose a word or phrase to write on the first page of their notebook. This could be an object, a person, a place, a concept, the title of a book or movie, or pretty much anything. Players are free to write something as sober, silly or lewd as they want — paying all respect to the company they are in, of course. Remember that some words are harder to express in pictures that others.

    Each player writes that word on the first page of their notebook, and passes their notebook to the player on their left. Be sure that nobody but the player on your left sees your notebook. Also be sure that nobody looks back through the notebook to see what was written or drawn by previous players.

    Now each player turns to the next page of their notebook, and draws an interpretation of the word they were passed. If the word on the first page of the notebook was “fairy”, you should now turn the page and draw a fairy, as best you can.

    Each player passes their notebook to the left again, looks at the drawing on the notebook they have just been passed from their right, and guesses what the word that inspired that drawing might be. Hopefully, the player who has just been passed a picture of a fairy writes “fairy”… but maybe that picture looks more like an “angel”, or “Tinkerbell”, or “Doctor Octopus”.

    Play proceeds in this manner, with every player alternately drawing a picture based on a work, or guessing a word based on a picture, until each notebook is passed back to its original owner (ie. the player that wrote the word on the first page).

    Now, in turn, each player reveals to the rest of the table, from the first page with the original word to the last used page, the contents of their notebook.

  • Line Up Game

    Line Up! is a fun icebreaker that can be useful for camps, workplace bonding, or other large group events.  Work together as a team to arrange yourselves in a line based on a quality you have that is not obviously apparent. Examples of qualities to arrange to are alphabetically by middle name, chronologically according to birth date, or house number. Younger children could try something easier, such as arranging by height, because they may not all be able to recite the months of the year. This icebreaker starts as chaos, and ends with order as all participants work together to discover the facts they need and arrange themselves accordingly.

    Line Up works best in a large open space where participants can move around freely. This is an icebreaker that is ideal for very large groups because the leadership required scales appropriately with the number of players.  Smaller groups can still use this icebreaker, but the game is not as difficult with under 10 participants. Line Up is an engaging activity that can help group facilitators pinpoint natural leaders that emerge as the game is played, although every participant is an important part of the game.

    Materials

    To play the Line Up icebreaker, you will need:

    • A large open space for participants to move around
    • A list of qualities for the players to line up according to

    How To Play

    1. Call the group to order. Explain the rules of the game and explain the quality that they will line up according to. For example, line up in the order of your birthdays, with January 1 being the furthest to the left and December 31 being the furthest to the right.
    2. Do not help the group or give them hints as to how to organize themselves. Participants may use any objects available in the room to help them if they request them.
    3. When the group believes that the line up is correct, they will start at one end and call off their birthdays. Down the line, every participant will name off their date. The game is won if the line is correct.
    4. If the line is incorrect, give the players another quality to line up to and allow them to try again.

    Tips and Notes

    The tricky part of this game is getting a group of people who don’t know each other to establish leadership. If no one steps forward and starts to make leadership decisions, it will be very difficult for the players to line up. If too many people step forward with opposing leadership strategies, it will be difficult to find cohesion as each leader struggles to get buy in from the rest of the group.

    Line Up works particularly well with groups of people who don’t know each other. In a group that is more familiar with one another, it won’t take long for them to decide the leaders because they have previous experience with each other’s leadership skills.