These are excellent classroom icebreaker tips from: http://www.worksheetlibrary.com/teachingtips/icebreakers.html
"1. Self-Portrait.
Have your students draw themselves. After they have done this,
collect the papers and hang them up for the whole class to see.
Now have students try to guess who the artists was for each picture.
2. Letter Writing.
At the beginning of the year, write a short letter about yourself
as the teacher. Tell the students where you live, what your hobbies
are, and if you have any children, pets, etc. Hand out your letter
to each student in your class and ask them to write you back with
similar information about themselves.
3. The Mingle Game.
Give each student an index card. Have them write a question that
they would like to ask the other students in the class. Examples
might include, "What is your favorite song?" or "What is your
favorite sport?" Next, have the students get up and walk around
the room. When you say, "stop," students have to stand beside
the person closest to them and ask the question that is on their
own card. Both students have to answer the questions. Now have
them mingle again and meet a new person.
4. The "What Am I?" Game.
Have the students get into a circle. Give each student a post-it
note. Have each person write a noun on the post-it note. Then
stick the post-it on the forehead of the person standing to right
of them with the noun showing. Now have student take a turn to
ask the group a "yes/no" question that will help them guess the
noun on their forehead. If they do not guess correctly, the person
on their right gets to ask a question. Keep going until all of
the noun have been guessed, or your time limit has expired.
5. These are a few of my favorite things.
Pass around a sheet of paper and some pens. Ask the students
to write their name and their favorite TV shows (you can come
up with your own topic for favorite things). Collect the papers
and pens. Begin reading the answers, but have the class guess
who wrote the response.
6. Birthday Lineup.
Call out any month of the year and have all students born in
that month come up to the front of the room. It is up to the students
to decide who stands first, second, etc., so they are standing
from the first day of the month to the last day of the month.
Now call out another month (don't call the months in order), and
have those students try to position themselves correctly by day
and by where they should stand as an entire month. This is a great
way to get kids working together and knowing each other. Once
all of the kids have lined up, test them to see if they are correct.
7. Icebreaker Pictionary.
Have the students draw pictures about what they like to do, what
their favorite foods are, and what is their favorite subject in
school. Have each student come up and show their pictures to the
class. See if the students can guess what each student drew that
tells a little bit about themselves. For instance, if a student
draws a yellow M, can anyone guess that she likes McDonalds?
8. Show and Tell.
Don't forget about this old time favorite part of class. Instruct
students to bring in something that they cherish, or just want
to share with the class. Give each student a turn to come up and
tell about the item that they brought in. This way the class will
get to know each other and something that makes each student happy.
9. The Snowball Activity.
Have students write three things about themselves on a piece
of paper. Then have them crumble up the paper to resemble a snowball.
Let the students have a snowball fight for about one minute. Now
everyone grabs one of the snowballs and has to try and find the
person who wrote on it. Once they find their partner, they have
to bring that person up in front of the class and explain what
they learned about their new friend with the three facts written
on the piece of paper.
10. The Observation Game.
Line up the students in two lines facing each other. If there
is an odd number of students, you can play the game, too. Give
students 30 seconds to look each other over really good, paying
attention to all details about their partner. The students in
one line now turn facing the other way while the other line of
students changes something about themselves. For example, a girl
might take off a hair bow, or a boy might un-tuck his shirt. When
the kids in the first line turn back around, they have to guess
what their partner changed. Now switch and let the first line
make the change and the second line guess the difference."
