Fun Icebreaker Ideas & Activities

Category: Small Group

Icebreakers for small groups. Have a small group of 3-5 people? These games will work especially well.

  • Icebreaker Questions

    Icebreaker Questions is our list of over 20 great questions that you can ask people to help them feel more included — part of a group or team.  These questions are fun and non-threatening. You can use them as an icebreaker activity 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. These are actually a great way to build initial trust and eventually even intimacy — for example, on a first date!

    Instructions for Icebreaker Questions

    A great way to help people open up is to ask them fun questions that allow them to express their personality or interesting things about them.  Here is a list of twenty safe, useful icebreaker questions to help break the ice:

    1. If you could have an endless supply of any food, what would you get?
    2. If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
    3. What is one goal you’d like to accomplish during your lifetime?
    4. When you were little, who was your favorite super hero and why?
    5. Who is your hero? (a parent, a celebrity, an influential person in one’s life)
    6. What’s your favorite thing to do in the summer?
    7. If they made a movie of your life, what would it be about and which actor would you want to play you?
    8. If you were an ice cream flavor, which one would you be and why?
    9. What’s your favorite cartoon character, and why?
    10.  If you could visit any place in the world, where would you choose to go and why
    11. What’s the ideal dream job for you?
    12. Are you a morning or night person?
    13. What are your favorite hobbies?
    14. What are your pet peeves or interesting things about you that you dislike?
    15. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?
    16. Name one of your favorite things about someone in your family.
    17. Tell us about a unique or quirky habit of yours.
    18. If you had to describe yourself using three words, it would be…
    19. If someone made a movie of your life would it be a drama, a comedy, a romantic-comedy, action film, or science fiction?
    20. If I could be anybody besides myself, I would be…

    Also check out How Do You Play for Icebreaker Questions. Or, for sillier and more hilarious questions, check out our Funny Icebreaker Questions.

  • Telephone Pictionary Game

    Telephone Pictionary is a hilarious blend between the telephone game and the dictionary drawing game. Phrases need to be drawn, and other players try to draw them. As the books continue to be passed along the line, the message starts to get lost! There will be guaranteed laughs as everyone tries to guess and draw in the booklets.

    The game is a party game / stationary game. There is a bit of setup required, but no special materials are required to play, besides a lot of standard 8.5″ x 11″ paper and pens. You can also use larger paper if you wish, but this is not especially required.

    Instructions for Telephone Pictionary 

    Setup: Prepare the picture booklets by giving each player a stack of X sheets of paper, where “X” is equal to the number of players who are playing the game. Think of each stack as a “flip book” for each player. Cut each stack of paper down the middle and then fold them in half.  Staple the books if you like. Make sure each player has their own book.

    Have all players sit in a circle. Give each player their own blank picture booklet and a pen.

    1.  On the first page, have each person write down a funny or interesting phrase. This phrase can depict a scene, or perhaps a quote or song lyric, or basically any phrase that might be interesting to draw. Some examples can include (feel free to be creative with these):

    • Elvis playing basketball
    • A cow in the desert
    • Ice, Ice Baby
    • Chicken dance
    • Hot dog eating contest
    • Hitting a home run
    • Crying over spilled milk
    • Who let the dogs out
    • The dog ate my homework
    • It’s raining cats and dogs
    • Dance party

    2.  Next, everyone should pass their booklet clockwise to the person on their right. This person read the phrase that was written, turn to the next blank page, and then draw a picture of their interpretation of what they read.

    Instruct everyone to pass their booklet clockwise to the next player, making sure that their drawing is open and visible. The next person will look only at most recently drawn picture, turn to the next page, and write a phrase that tries to interpret the image that they saw. Then, everyone passes their booklets clockwise to the next player.

    3. This player sees a phrase, turns the page, and draws an image based upon this new phrase. He or she then passes this book to the next player.

    This pattern of writing phrases, then drawing pictures, then writing phrases, then drawing pictures continues until the booklets return to their original owner.

    The game ends, and each player shows all the other players their hilarious picture and phrase books and how they evolve over time.

    You can order supplies for Telephone Charades at our online store.

  • Icebreakers for Families

    Icebreakers for Families

    Tired of video games for family game night? Need some good icebreakers for family time? Sometimes a good face-to-face activity can bring parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and siblings closer together through bonding or memorable experiences. Best of all, these group games are free, with absolutely no expensive equipment or technology required!

    Icebreakers for Families and Family Gatherings

    The following icebreakers are especially good if your family size is between three to six people. If your family gathering happens to be bigger, no sweat! You can usually play the same game as a larger group by subdividing into smaller groups or teams.

    The following are various icebreakers for families organized by category. Click on a guide below for step by step instructions on how to play.

    Drawing Oriented Games – These games involve some drawing and basic artistic aspects – a lot of fun even if folks don’t have the best art skills!

    Get to Know Each Other Better / Sharing Games – These games can help people open up about their deeper thoughts and opinions, getting family members to know each other better!

    Word/Guessing/Spelling Games – These games are about words, guessing or telling stories.

    Fast Paced Games – These active games tend to be fast paced and involve quick reflexes or some other actions!

    Trust Oriented Games – Try these games for building trust and camaraderie within your family.

    Please share this page with your friends and family so they can also enjoy these activities! Have more excellent games that work well for family time (game night)? Let us know!

  • Four Corners Game

    Here’s another good icebreaker for the beginning of a school semester or as a fun way for people to get to know each other better. Four Corners (also known as Four Squares) is a simple activity in which students share who they are through the use of handdrawn pictures. This icebreaker is for all ages, and works well with small and medium groups. It usually takes about 15 minutes, depending on how much time you want to allow for sharing the pictures. You’ll need sheets of paper and writing utensils. Don’t worry, no artistic skills are required for this icebreaker activity — just have fun and encourage everyone to enjoy being creative while illustrating who they are!

    Setup for Four Corners

    Distribute a pen and sheet of paper for each player. Each person divides the sheet into four boxes/squares either by folding the paper in half twice (vertically and horizontally) or simply by drawing a horizontal and vertical line that crosses in the middle. For each square, each person will describe themselves in the form of drawings. Choose these four topics in advance. For example, in the top left square, everyone could draw “favorite hobbies,” while in the top right, people could illustrate “favorite place on earth for vacation,” the bottom left could be something like “if you were an animal, which one would you be?” and the bottom right could be something like “what are the most important things in your life?” Feel free to be as creative, hypothetical, or deep as you like.

    Allow five to ten minutes to draw. When everyone is finished, gather them together and share the drawings as a group. This icebreaker is an excellent way for students to show-and-tell what makes them unique!

  • Ghost Game

    Ghost is a word game in which players try to add a letter to a growing word fragment — without ever actually spelling a word.  If they accidentally spell a valid word, they lose the round.  If they add a letter but a word is no longer possible to be made using those combination of letters, another player can “challenge” them.

    Ghost can be played with two or more players.  No materials are required, making it a convenient game for long car rides, etc.

    Setup for the Ghost Game

    There is no setup required.  Players must simply understand the rules of the game.

    Playing the Ghost Game

    The rules of ghost are relatively simple: each player takes turns adding a letter to an ever-growing word fragment.  Try not to spell a word (of length 4 letters or more).  Try to force another player to spell a word, or else try to get a player to say a letter that makes it impossible to form a word.

    Choose any player to start the game.  He or she may say any letter of the alphabet.  Each player then takes a turn to add a single letter to this fragment.  Instead of adding a letter, a player can “challenge” the last player who added a letter, if he or she thinks a word does not exist that starts with that fragment.  If a challenge occurs, the last player must try to say a word that begins with that fragment.  If the player who was challenged is able to spell a word, the challenger loses a point.   If the player who was challenged cannot spell a word, the challenger earns a point.  If a player accidentally spells a word, he or she also loses a point.  The round ends.

    After a round ends, play usually starts with the player who won the previous round.

     

  • 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? 

  • 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!)