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In partnerships, partners brainstorm interview questions for 3 minutes. Once the timer starts, Partner A interviews Partner B. Talk must continue for the entire 3 minutes. Partner A is ONLY able to listen and/or ask follow-up or following questions. Partner A cannot offer their own personal experiences. This exercise is about LISTENING. While Partner B answers, Partner A takes notes. Then, the roles reverse. After both partners complete their interviews, they have 30 seconds to introduce their partner to the class, presenting what they feel were the most relevant/representative parts of what their partner shared.

Sample Prompts:

-Tell me how you'd spend your perfect day.

-What's something you really care about?

-Who matters to you?

-What's something unique about you?

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In partnerships, students will brainstorm something they have in common with each other. It can be a physical trait or a common experience, or anything else. After talking for a few minutes, the partnerships will merge into small groups of four and share what they have in common with their partners. Then, the groups of 4 will find something they all have in common. Finally, students will come back as a whole class and share what they found. The more obscure and specific you can get, the better!

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Give the students 6 minutes to get up and walk around the room, looking through everything (desk, drawers, etc), and then write on the board their inferences about you.

Give a google form quiz with silly questions about yourself and see what the students have assumed about you while observing your environment)

I don't know how you'd do this for students getting to know each other, but I thought this was a good activity for the students to get to know you.

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Level: This is a Class-Building activity. Description: The class will go around and share a song they would call their 'theme song'. If they don't feel like they have a theme song, it can just be a song they really like or have been listening to a lot lately. Shows commonality between students who mare share music taste.

Example: My theme song right now would be Float on by Modest Mouse.

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In small teams, ask questions if they like "this" or "that". Present the questions on a slide and give 2-3 minutes to answer. Questions could be something like: cats or dogs, Christmas or Halloween, etc. There is potential for separation between students with their answers, so present things in a positive equal tone.

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Class-building, non-academic (but can be used to lead into a lesson depending on the questions asked)

The teacher will give the whole class two options that are related to each other (like Pepsi or Coke, the beach or the mountains, etc.) and assign one option to each side of the room. Students will move to the side of the room assigned to the option they prefer. The amount of time this takes can be adjusted depending on how many questions there are. Sometimes, specific questions/pairings can be used to lead into a lesson or another activity if desired.

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5-Minute Group Icebreaker

In a group you sit in a circle all facing towards the center. The question is asked what candy best describes you? The students are given 1 minute to reflect on the question. Once the timer is up we start going around the circle sharing what candy we are and there is an option to share why but it is not required. Once we go around the circle and hear everyones answer the icebreaker is then complete.

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As a class they'll go around and say their names, and just one other thing, what would you do if you had a million dollars?

After everyone has said what they'd do with that money they'd then split into groups of four and for about 3-5 minutes they'd discuss that prompt and just get to know each other better.

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10-minute - Group Bingo

Everybody gets a bingo card. There will be cards on there that say things like "Someone who has been out of the country" or "Someone who speaks two languages". Go around the room and find people who fill out these spots in your bingo card. Whoever gets bingo first gets a treat.

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As a teacher, start a story with a single word. Then, go around the room, with each student adding just one word to continue the narrative. The goal is to create a funny, bizarre, or unexpected story together.It's low-pressure, encourages quick thinking, and shows how everyone's individual contribution can build something bigger. The stories often become hilariously absurd, which helps break the ice and gets people laughing. If you wanted to for a writting class, try and map out the story on a whiteboard.

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Have the students introduce themselves in either partnerships or a small group with their names and their hot take. It would be helpful to give them a subject for their hot take like, what's your hot take on movies, or the subject of the class. Then give them and their group a minute or a bit longer to argue or agree.

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In partnerships, the students will be given a list of questions, and they will pick one to answer. It will only last 2 minutes (hence the name) so it's relatively laid back, and will be over quickly (this way, if a student is uncomfortable, it won't be for long). The partnerships will be a "turn to your left" type of thing, rather than them choosing their partner. This is to avoid them talking to someone they already know, as well as leaving students who aren't as outgoing to panic about who could be their partner. The questions could include, but are not limited to, favorite music genre, favorite food, something fun you did the past weekend, and other basic questions. Or more in-depth questions, such as if you had a day where you had no responsibilities, what would you choose to do? I like this question because it requires a little more thought/detail, but it is relatively disconnected from any insecurities that students could have. Idealy, we would do this every day for the first week (hence the "check in" part of the name, with different partners and different questions, so everyone can "break the ice" with each other.

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This is a very simple and effective ice breaker. Use questions such as "Would you rather have Cheeto hands forever or would you rather have a popcorn kernel stuck in the back of your throat for the rest of your life". This is a great way to ask some silly questions while allowing the kids to build camaraderie centered around agreeing or disagreeing.

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In small groups, have the students introduce themselves by saying their name and a movie they love that the general public considers bad, cheesy, or cringey (a guilty pleasure movie). Have each person talk for about a minute about this movie and why they love it. What memories surround it? How does it make them feel?

Have them talk one at a time, starting with the person with the longest hair and moving to the right.

Ex: I'm so and so, and I love the Twilight movies. They can be awkward and hard to watch at times, but they remind me of road trips with my sister. They're really nostalgic for me, and honestly, really funny and exciting when you don't take them too seriously.

(This could be a great icebreaker for a film class, as it would kind of incorporate the topics of class while being a fun way to learn about other people's tastes.)

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Students start by introducing themselves. Then they share their most favorite thing. It can be anything from their favorite food, color, smell, car, subject, book, person. Anything as long as it is their most favorite thing.

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Split into groups of four and have each person pick a fictional character (book, TV show, movie, magna, video game, ect.) to join their "team". Have each student say their name, their recruit, where their recruit is from, and why they choose them. (~3-4 minutes)

Then, have one person form each group pick a name (or two) from a jar of famous villains and give each group 5 ish minutes to think of a quick story of how their "team" would defeat, or fail to defeat said villain.

If there's time, or you want to (could be done a later day or maybe one group shares a day or something), have each group share their short story to the class.

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5 minute conversation:

Give them a list of things they can ask each other to get them started but open it up to let them ask each other their own questions. The goal of this would be to help them find out more about one of their peers and give them someone that they are more likely to be willing to talk to in class for discussions and potentially a friend. Automatically starts establishing connections in the class.

What did you over the summer?

Do you have siblings?

What would you rather be doing right now?

What is your current favorite thing you like doing?