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Practices and games for the Riverside High junior varsity and varsity volleyball teams have been canceled through Monday, Nov. 23 after a student-athlete on one of the teams tested positive for COVID-19.

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Give kids certain situations and have them brainstorm solutions as groups!

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Ask questions and the students walk across the line if it applies to them.   One example may be - what is your favorite sport?

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Kids are given a list of supplies and have to work together to figure out how to survive. Each child is given a task to contribute to the community.

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Set of cards that you go through with the class on would you rather.

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Random pairs of students get to know each other & present each other to the class. Each shares a few tidbits about the other and the class can ask one or two questions to further get to know each student.

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Write 4 things about yourself - however, one of them isn't true! Let the class decide which is the lie.

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This or That

How to Play
This icebreaker has students informally debate on light topics such as "Which animal makes a better pet...dog or cat?" Students have to choose a position, then physically move to the side of the room that most closely represents their opinion-one side means dogs, the other side means cats-and then talk about

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Set up teams with 2-4 players on each team. One person on each team will be the mummy and each team will be given 2 rolls of toilet paper. They will have 5 minutes to complete the game. The team players are to circle around the mummy and pass the toilet paper to each other while wrapping the mummy in it. The leader of the group will be the judge and decide which team has created the best mummy design.

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My favorite is the Lifeboat Game, which you can also do with characters from a text or people from history.

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Students have time frame to black out their sheet by going around & getting initials of classmates to complete boxes. Can't have more than 1 initial from each student in class.

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Groups of students will be competing to see which can build the tallest 'tower' using a marshmallow, 2 feet of string, 20 uncooked spaghetti, and a foot of masking tape.

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Be sure that you share what you are thinking... a link, a resource, etc.

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Cult of Pedagogy

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SEE THE END OF THIS POST FOR INSTRUCTIONS ON DOING THESE ICEBREAKERS REMOTELY.
We're coming up fast on the beginning of another school year. That means a new batch of students to get to know, students who need to be made comfortable in your classroom, and who need to get to know each other. It's essential to start building relationships with your students right from the start.

And how to accomplish this? Icebreakers.

The Trouble with Most Icebreakers

I planned to create a nice big post with dozens of icebreaker ideas you could choose from. I would scour the Internet for the very best activities and games and store links to them here for your reference. The problem is that so many of the ones I've found are problematic for one of these reasons:

They require students to take massive social risks with people they barely know. So many of the icebreakers I found asked students to publicly share some kind of personal information. For the icebreaker to actually work, students would need to share something interesting and different about themselves, something that makes them stand out. But to most kids-especially once they get into the middle and high school range-being different is the worst thing you can be. So what many students ultimately do is share something safe and boring, something like "I like soccer," just so the game moves on to the next person. The result? No one really gets to know anyone.

They don't actually facilitate familiarity. Too many icebreakers consist of questions like this: "If you could be an animal, what animal would you be?" Unless you have a ridiculously deep and creative kid who is going to say something like, "I would be a mongoose, because a mongoose can kill venomous snakes, and I have a way of standing up to bullies even though I'm small," you're mostly going to get a lot of cat-cat-dog-dog-fish, et cetera. Unless of course you force creativity on them by insisting that no animals can be repeated, thereby making the poor kids try to come up with some stinking animal that somehow represents the least embarrassing aspect of their personality and isn't a repeat of anyone else's animal. I'm annoyed just writing about it, and I repeat: No one really gets to know anyone.

They are cheesy. The icebreaker I have been subjected to most often is the "Name Game," where you have to add a word to your name that starts with the same letter as your name AND tells something about you. Guh. Because my name starts with a J, I have always hated this game, because jazzy doesn't have anything to do with me. Neither does jelly or jalopy or joyful. Once you've chosen your word, people have to go around the circle repeating the newly enhanced names of the classmates who came before them in line. This means having to listen to Jammin' Jenn over and over, my eyes rolling, my grimace deepening. One year I just rebelled and picked a different letter; I think I called myself something like Indoor Jenn, due to my aversion to the outdoors. That felt better.

So I have scrapped my plan to curate good icebreakers from the Internet. Instead, I'm going to share my three favorites with you.

Three Icebreakers that Don't Suck

In my own classrooms, with middle school, high school, and college students, I have played all three of these games with great success. What I like about all of them is that they get students talking, but require very little social risk. Each activity supplies students with real topics to talk about, topics that actually help students get to know each other, without forcing anyone to reveal anything too personal.

Each of these will likely sound familiar to you, although the names may not be exactly what you've known them as. I should add that I take no credit for inventing these games. I have no idea where I picked them up, but they are not original to me.

Blobs and Lines

In this icebreaker, students are prompted to either line up in some particular order (by birthday, for example) or gather in "blobs" based on something they have in common (similar shoes, for example). What's great about this game is that it helps students quickly discover things they have in common. It's also ridiculously easy: Students don't have to come up with anything clever, and they can respond to every question without thinking too hard about it. This game keeps students moving and talking, and it builds a sense of belonging and community in your classroom.

Here are some sample prompts you can use for this game:

Line up in alphabetical order by your first names.

Line up in alphabetical order by your last names.

Gather with people who have the same favorite video game as you.

Line up in order of your birthdays, from January 1 through December 31.

Line up in order of how many languages you speak.

Gather with people who have the same favorite season as you.

Concentric Circles

This icebreaker has students arrange themselves in an inside circle and an outside circle, the inside facing out, forming pairs. Pairs discuss their answers to a getting-to-know-you question, then rotate for the next question, forming a new partnership. This game gives students the chance to have lots of one-on-one conversations with many of their classmates and helps them quickly feel more at home in your class.

The possibilities for questions in this kind of configuration are endless; be sure to use more open-ended questions that can get students talking, rather than those that simply ask for a yes or no answer. Here are some sample questions:

Do you play any sports? If so, which ones?

Do you consider yourself shy or outgoing? Why?

What was the last movie you saw? Did you like it?

Describe your perfect dinner.

What is one thing you're good at?

This or That

This icebreaker has students informally debate on light topics such as "Which animal makes a better pet...dog or cat?" Students have to choose a position, then physically move to the side of the room that most closely represents their opinion-one side means dogs, the other side means cats-and then talk about why they chose that spot. This game has always been a HUGE hit with any group I've ever taught: It builds student confidence with talking in front of their peers, it helps students quickly find kindred spirits, and it's also just a lot of fun.

Sample questions for This or That:

Would you rather live in the country or the city?

Would you rather be indoors or outdoors?

Which is better: Playing sports or watching sports?

Would you rather travel every single day or never leave home?

Want These Games Ready-Made?

I have created beautiful, animated PowerPoint versions of each of these games, plus a bundle of all three. The files work on Windows, Mac, and Google Slides, and they are all editable, so you can add or change questions anytime you like.

What About Remote Learning?

These instructions outline how to play these games using PowerPoint or Google Slides for the questions and Zoom for videoconferencing. If you are using different software you can probably still adapt the process to your own platforms.

IF YOU ARE TEACHING IN PERSON, students will likely have to be socially distanced and can't play these games as they would pre-COVID. My recommendation is that you create an Avatar Classroom on a Google Slide, then have students "move" around with their Avatars, but still talk from their desks. You could also just follow the remote instructions above and have everyone plugged into devices so they could talk in breakout rooms, etc. It may seem to defeat the purpose of being in school together, but students can still look across the room at each other while participating - I think it would be pretty fun.

Come back for more.
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Too many icebreakers require students to take massive social risks with people they barely know. Or they don't really help students get to know each other. Or they are just plain cheesy. Here are three that are actually good.

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VARK Questionnaire version 8.01
Choose the answer which best explains your preference and click the box next to it. Please click more than one if a single answer does not match your perception. Leave blank any question that does not apply.

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VARK Questionnaire: How do you learn best?

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Fill in the VARK questionnaire to find out your learning style - do you prefer to use Visual, Aural, Read/write or Kinesthetic learning strategies, or a combination?