Warm-up exercises or Ice-breakers by Ana Laura Bozzani

albozzani — 2020-06-01 22:30:46 UTC

Some ideas....

albozzani — 2020-06-01 22:31:29 UTC

2020-06-04 23:35:13 UTC

How many sounds can you hear?
Students write down every sound that they hear, then the students make a list and compare it with their partners' list,showing who has the longest list.
🤬 M
Time: two minutes.
Eg:

Curious Jenga

diazpilarludmila — 2020-06-10 03:26:32 UTC

You prepare a jenga with a number on each piece and when the student takes out the piece, he or she tells you the number and you read the correspondent question. It can take all the time you decide to give to the activity. You change the questions according to the topics, so you can re-use the jenga. It can be played individually or in groups. As an activity you can give a number to each student and ask them to come up with a question for the next class. There are a lot of possibilities.

Have fun!

marapasvi — 2020-06-11 00:46:53 UTC

School objects and actions

analaura19912008 — 2020-06-11 14:19:35 UTC

Firstly, you ask the students to work in pairs to recognize as many school objects as they can from the first animation (0:04-1:50), for example, pen, pencil, book, etc. Later, you make them write their answers on the blackboard, making sure they remember how the words are written (content from the previous class). Finally, you ask the students if they know what they can do using these objects, for instance, reading, writing, etc. (introducing the new content).

WARM UP School objects

brengiodiez — 2020-06-13 19:37:00 UTC

If you choose the topic that relates to what you have been teaching them and put your students into teams each team has to find a word for each alphabet. So, if you are using something like school objects or classroom objects these students would find things like crayon for c, pen, pencil for p and so the winner of the winning team that finds the most words for the alphabet.

olcesekarina — 2020-06-14 11:59:15 UTC

It is a very simple warm-up excercise and you can choose the words you consider more appropriate according to the level of English you are teaching.

Vocabulary!

nerinafranco18 — 2020-06-16 18:39:02 UTC

You have to write words according to each task, and the one who finishes first wins.

ninaribeiro2097 — 2020-06-17 14:52:06 UTC

it's a boardgame. Taking turns the students roll a dice and depending on which color's spot they fall into they have to use a tense to make sentences. The one that gets to the end first wins the game.

House of Cards (Challenge)

brengiodiez — 2020-06-17 16:13:37 UTC

First, place your students into groups of four or five and have them discuss their likes and dislikes. Then, give them each approximately 30 index cards.. Next, have them put the common cards together, . Challenge them to compete against the other groups in the classroom. You can even give the team with the most common cards a prize!

As teachers, we can use a technological resource, in this case, lucky wheel, which is an app about wheel where the name of each student is entered and then the wheel is turned and the student is chosen to participate in the activity.

vbrunner1 — 2020-06-17 17:31:49 UTC

This fun icebreaker game can be used to review vocabulary. This game works best with younger students. Give each student a piece of recycled paper and stick an image (something related with vocabulary you´ve seen) on the board. Next, divide the students into two or three teams. Tell the students to crumple their paper into a snowball. Explain that the teams are going to have a snowball fight. Explain students that they´ll have to throw the snowball if they listen to the object or action that appears on the board.Tell students to decide a name for their team and write it on the board. Students score one point for a correct (or close enough) answer. Write an 'X' next to their score if the answer is incorrect.

antonelladenoni19 — 2020-06-17 21:48:18 UTC

The Pizza Game

antonelabincani — 2020-06-18 01:12:43 UTC

Hello, everyone! I use this game very often to revise vocabulary. We need to print or draw pizza slices and hand out one pizza per group (if we are separating the class into groups). Then, we are going to show pictures or flashcards (or explain the object or action) with the vocabulary we want to revise, and, then, if the group answer correctly to what they see in the picture they keep the pizza slice, if they don't they lose one, the group that keeps all their pizza slices at the end of the game wins!.

English Farm Dice

diegomartincuesta — 2020-06-18 13:03:11 UTC

Hi ! This is a warmer to be used with beginners or Young learners, for teaching vocabulary. Students roll the animal dice and add animals to their farms according to the pictures. If they get a "fox", the fox steals an animal from their farm and they have to put one back. the three dice can be used all at once, or separately.

vickysalarallan — 2020-06-18 15:08:41 UTC

In this ice-breaker, the students are divided into two groups, each forming a line. Each group has to ask an easy question to their partners and answer it as fast as they can (in this case, it's "what is your favourite food?"). The first member who finishes answering the question has to raise his hand, and the group wins.
Once you have finished, you can also repeat it, but this time from the back to the front.

The alphabet game

42lorerodriguez — 2020-06-18 15:19:43 UTC

Choose the topic that relates to what you´ve been teaching. Put your students into teams. Each team has to find a word for each letter of the alphabet So if you are going to use the topic food, these students would find things like apple for a, butter for b, cake for c and so on.
The winning team is the team that finds the most words for the alphabet. Ideally the whole alphabet.

Hedbanz game!

daianatomasellotb — 2020-06-18 15:52:14 UTC

"Hedbanz" is a guessing game which is easy to play. In this ice-breaker teachers can choose one or more topics from last lessons. For example: food vocabulary, parts of the body, clothes, verbs, etc. Students must be divided into two groups. One member of each group picks up a card and places it on his forehead so everyone else apart of him can see it. Then, each group starts to give clues but they can't say the exactly word so that the person with the card in his head makes and efort to figure it out. The group with more hits wins.

The jumping game

42lorerodriguez — 2020-06-18 15:54:20 UTC

Write yes on one side of the board and no on the other part of the board.Then get your students to line up in front of the board. Ask your students comprehension questions about the last lesson or about a little clip of a film shared together. After the questions you ask, they have to jump for yes if the answer is yes or no if the answer is no.

Lucky Dip

ailenvignes43 — 2020-06-18 18:49:08 UTC

The teacher places different objects in a bag. Students are invited to come up and feel one of the objects, describing what it feels like. The rest of the class tries to guess what the object is based on the adjectives used.

2020-06-18 18:58:10 UTC

"WHO IS WHO?" is a guessing game that can serve as an ice-breaker too. The teacher shows students different pictures and describes one for them to guess it.
It can be used with monsters and body parts (it has got..), with physical appearance (s/he has got...) and clothing (s/he is wearing...) as well.
I think it can be useful for practising and revising vocabulary.

How to describe how many animals there are.. and play "Animal Charades"

siestragiuliana — 2020-06-18 19:43:28 UTC

The teacher draws three chicks on the board and, below, numbers 3,5 ,and 8. The teacher points to the chicks and ask how many chicks are there? Then she asks children to count along with her. She invites a child to the front and circle the correct number. Then she repeats the action with other children ,varying the animals and the numbers.
The teacher invites a child to come to the front. She whispers the name of an animal and asks students to pretend to be that animal. Other students guess the animal. Whoever guesses correctly comes to the front to do the next charade.

2020-06-18 19:53:34 UTC

Shark & fish.
It's a very funny warm-up idea to teach verbs to little children.
The fish follows the shark around and must imitate all the shark does. The teacher commands the shark with verbs such us swim, jump, sit, dance, etc. If the teacher says Fish attack, the shark gets freeze for 30 seconds. If the shark moves, it becomes a fish and the fish wins.

Board game: ¨¨Electric conection´´

dairro88 — 2020-06-18 20:02:46 UTC

Hi Everyone! This is a boardgame to be used for young learners in order to revise vocabulary. It contains some pictures with different vocabulary and a kind of tweezers.The teacher takes one picture and touches with the tweezer a word and the student has to find the correct image. When he/she touches the correct image with the tweezer, a light will come on. The students love this game because they learn having fun.

Classroom language

juligorosito1 — 2020-06-18 20:47:28 UTC

Hi everyone! This is a warm up I created for my students using "wordwall" (it is an online page where yo can create activities for free or you can use the ones that are already in there). In this activity, the students have to look at the picture and match them with the correct phrase.

Guessing Game

juligorosito1 — 2020-06-18 20:55:50 UTC

This warm up is quite easy. The students have to look at the pictures from the power point , the teacher asks them "What is it?" and they have to answer "It`s .....(the school subject`s name )" . Once the students answer, the teacher clicks to go to the following slide where they have the answer.

Correction/Proofreading

santialibay — 2020-06-18 21:33:55 UTC

Hello everyone!
This is a warm-up activity that is used to reinforce English punctuation and capitalization rules. The idea is to write some sentences on the board containing various mistakes and allow the students to volunteer or call some of them to stand up to write the sentences correctly.

You can give your students a variety of errors to correct: word choice, word order, punctuation, capitalization, etc.
Students can work individually or you can also have them working together in pairs to complete this activity, which is very effective if they’re beginners.

velam031 — 2020-06-18 22:21:20 UTC

Hello everyone...

etaskatasun — 2020-06-18 22:57:21 UTC

I like to use games as warm up activities, such as crosswords, alphabet soup, or "tutti frutti". I started by divinding the students in two teams, which will be maintained throughout the year. I make the first two games, using keywords from the main ideas. In the case of "tutti frutti", I choose a letter and the teams have to write the most amount of words related to what was seen in the previous class, and explain their choice.

YES/NO activity

lailagaloppo — 2020-06-19 00:02:31 UTC

Hello everyone!
This is a warm up activity that can be done at school, both in the yard or in some hall (not inside the classroom).
The idea is to draw a line with tape on the floor and on one side of the line stick a YES sign and on the other side of the line stick a NO sign.
The main question will be "Do you like ...?"
The teacher begins the activity by showing a flashcard with a very clear image, for example of a chocolate.
Then the teacher asks "Do you like chocolate?" and there the students should be placed on one side of the line or the other depending on whether they like it or not.
This way you can work with different types of food. The idea is that students only think about their answer and stand on one side of the line or the other.
This can be a good activity to break the ice and start working on types of food vocabulary, for example.
At the same time, the fact of not doing the activity in the classroom makes the students feel motivated and attracted to do something new.

ice breakers or warm up activities: Sofia Rodriguez.

2020-07-08 22:26:09 UTC

-Classes can sometimes fail because of what we bring to them, and concentration. If the class feel stress, especially about the class itself, then tension will dominate the agenda. Reduce stress by opening the class with a mindfulness icebreaker. Start with three minutes of silent, and then have everyone write down what is stressing them out. When everyone finishes writing, tell them to rip up their stress dancing for 2 minutes, and put all the papers together in a bowl on the table.
-
The "What Am I?" Game its my favourite. Students get into a circle and I give each student a post-it note. Have each student 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.

2020-07-18 01:13:54 UTC

I think a great option for warm up activities are games, as pictonary ( I've played that game at school in English lessons many times) .
But also I think another one of my imagination called :
Guess the time
Students have to choose a couple or group and make sentences and then pass it to another group and they have to identify the correct time (or tense, depending on the level) the one that identifies more wins.
Caffaro.

Two truths and a lie

2020-11-09 03:20:27 UTC

I used this game with 3rd form and after that day they wanted to play it every single lesson. So, you write three sentences about yourself on the board. Two of them must be true and one false. Then, in pairs students discuss which sentence they think might be a lie and they explain why. Once they finish, you can ask them to write two truths and a lie about themselves and altogether guess which one is the lie.
Examples “1) I have two cats 2) My mom is an astronaut 3) My favourite food is pizza”

Reviewing vocabulary with memes!

2021-06-23 22:21:11 UTC

I was inspired by a meme that I have seen many times as it was invented and shared by students who seek to make a difficult topic humorous. Having access to Internet language jokes, I thought it would be fun to take them out of their "cyber habitat" and use them to break the ice and introduce a complex topic. Here, we are dealing with the words "thought, taught, through, though, tough, thorough and throughout", so it’s for upper-intermediate/advanced students, but we can use it with numerous kinds of words (qualifying adjectives, common nouns, any item of vocabulary that belongs to a "family word", or with verb tenses like "have had, had had, etc."). The idea is for students to see the picture, ask them if they know it, and then ask them if they can recognize the words and their differences. In this case, it would be useful to remember homonyms and homophones, since, in this case, the words don’t fall into any of those classifications, which can confuse students. Also, we can discuss the meanings of each word and the contexts where they are used. So, we can use this joke to review many different things!

Simon Says game

koppelkaren7 — 2021-06-24 14:59:49 UTC

As an ice breaker or warm-up activity I think it would be interesting to use the game "Simon says" to exercise vocabulary and also having fun while learning. It's an ideal game to play with the whole class with the teacher as Simon or in groups allowing children to give instructions to their partners.

I went to the market and bought...

rigolonagustina — 2021-06-24 19:23:57 UTC

Another example of a warm-up activity for children (level A1) can be “I went to the market and bought...”, after covering vocabulary of food and a little of the simple past.

This way we as teachers can introduce the irregular verbs in the simple past tense in a fun way. It also can be the kick-start to cover the different shops and places of the city.

Explanation of the game:

It starts by saying ' went to the market and bought... (food). Each student has to repeat the sequence adding one more word, creating a word chain. The game continues until someone can’t remember all the items or can’t think of the next letter. So, they use their memory and we keep them engaged, connecting previous knowledge and expanding on new content. The students can be chosen randomly by mentioning their names after the sequence. e.g:

Sofía says: "I went to the market and bought bread… Agustín!"

Agustín says: "I went to the market and bought bread and apples… Florencia!"

Florencia says: "I went to the market and bought bread, apples and cheese"

https://www.realplaycoalition.com/activities-for-kids/i-went-to-market/

Warm up

cinthiappierini — 2021-06-25 05:34:23 UTC

This ice breaker that I am trying to show is based on the video with transportation sounds that are on the link, but I thought that it was interesting to connect it with the previous class and what should be taught after the warm-up. For kids, sounds are very engaging and it helps to catch their attention.

Marooned

valeriamelluso01011979 — 2021-06-28 00:43:12 UTC

Establish a collaborative, cooperative learning environment on the first day of school with Marooned. Place students into groups of five and tell them that they are stranded on a deserted island. Explain that they must select five items from their personal belongings to help them survive and that each member of their group must contribute one thing. Give them about ten minutes to dig through their book bags, purses, or pockets to select necessary items. Then, have each group stand and explain what they selected and how each object is essential to their survival.

Word Chain

camilambarrios12 — 2021-06-28 17:55:20 UTC

I like to use the game "word chain" as a warm-up for teenagers. It is simple but it needs students to be focused in the listening to their partners.
There's different ways to play this game. One way is saying a word with the last letter of the word said before you. One way is saying a word with the last letter of the word said before you. Another way (easier for kids) is to say words that fit in the same category without repeating. Example: Vegetables. Everyone has to say a different vegetable without repeating

Write the most words

camilachiesa95 — 2021-06-30 18:20:20 UTC

The objective is to divide students in pairs and then we show them a picture like the one below.
They have to write nouns, adjectives and verbs.

In the following link there is a complementary activity to work on verbs :
https://es.liveworksheets.com/worksheets/en/English_as_a_Second_Language_(ESL)/Present_continuous/What_are_they_doing$_gr933370ts

Fede Palavecino

2021-07-07 07:30:17 UTC

Personally, I enjoy by using two specific warm-up activities:

The first one, more useful for the 1^st class, is “What does your name mean?”, using a dictionary, google or any other resource, students find and write down an appropriate adjective that begins with each letter of their first name. For example: Flirtatious, Relaxed, Extrovert, Desirable.

The other one is simply called “Quick questions”, here you have to write a list of two or three questions on the board which introduce the theme of the lesson. For example, if you are going to talk about books, you could write: What’s your favourite book? What was the last book you read? What kind of books do you prefer? etc. Give the students 5-10 minutes to discuss the questions and then have students report back to the class.

'Name Five'

kratzeramarena — 2024-06-03 14:53:40 UTC

Divide your class in different groups (3 or 4 groups, depending on how many students you have).

They will choose the name for their group and each of them will have to answer - one group at the time- the 'Name Five' warm up activity.

The one than has more points is the winner.

examples: Group 1, name five school objects. Group 2, name five animals...

You have 1 minute to name five...

-colours

-animals

-transports

-school objects

-places in town

-jobs

-farm animals

-letters from the alphabet

-numbers

-feelings

-fruits

-vegetables

-food

-sports

-routines

-verbs/actions

Hangman

arnalnarel — 2024-06-04 16:35:02 UTC

To practice the alphabet and review past knowledge, divide the class into two groups and assign a topic for both of them (e.g. colors and toys).

One member of each group has to go to the front and choose a word according to the topic they were given. They have to write blanck spaces on the board so that their partners guess which word it is.

Each member of the groups will take turns to say a letter they think is part of the word, and the first group to guess, wins.

At least 3 members of each group should go to the front.

Charades

2024-06-04 18:43:23 UTC

To practice previous knowledge about past simple, regular and irregular verbs, students will play charades. Dividing them in groups of two, one volunteer of each group will go to the front and grab from a jar different sentences to mimic to their classmates, they won't be able to write or to talk, just the use of their gestures to communicate. Students will have one minute to discover what their partner is trying to say. This will be repeated until one of the groups wins, by having more than five sentences correct.

Procaccini Eugenia

Story Circle!

paulinaramirez11204 — 2024-06-05 03:21:41 UTC

"Story Circle" activity. Sit the children in a circle and start a story with a simple sentence. Each child adds a sentence to continue the story, building on what the previous person said. This encourages creativity, collaboration, and imagination. You can even record the story and play it back for everyone to enjoy!

Mystery Box! 📦

alfoongaitan — 2024-06-05 03:32:45 UTC

In the Mystery Box game, kids reach into a box without looking and touch a surprise object inside, like a pencil, an apple, or a small ball. Then, they describe how it feels to the group. Others guess what it is based on their description. It's a fun way for kids to explore objects and practice describing things!

2024-06-05 03:45:00 UTC

Divide the students in two groups. The teacher writes two words on the board,one for each group which refers to the las topic seen in class. Then,one member of each group have to go to the front and writes at least five words about the topic. All the group must help him/her. They have only one minute. The one that has more words is the winner.

'Who Is It?' 🕵️

julietafalcon98 — 2024-06-12 02:53:17 UTC

This warm-up activity is called 'Who Is It?' and young learners love it.

This game consists of choosing one participant (who will be guessing) who can't see the rest of the class. You show the rest of the class a flashcard, an object, or you write a word. Then, you choose one student to say it aloud with a FUNNY VOICE. The guesser needs to find out who is talking.

Random concept: give each of your students a piece of paper. Tell them to write a random concept already seen in class. Now, you ask them to stand up, flip their piece of paper up side down and make a circle. Everybody will give their piece of paper to the person they have next to. Now, everyone will read the concept they've been handed in and will explain it to the rest of the people in the circle.

agustavobenjamin — 2024-06-12 03:43:01 UTC

Student: Robledo Ailen Describe the picture:

2025-06-03 05:26:36 UTC

This warm-up activity is for young students.

The teacher divides the students in two groups and gives each group a different picture (she sticks it on the board). The students have to describe the picture using the vocabulary already seen in previous classes (vocabulary of physical appearance, sports, places, clothes).

For example: the picture of a boy playing football. Students may describe his physical appearance (tall- curly hair- brown eyes), what he is wearing, where he is and what he is doing)

The groups have to take turns to talk. Each student has to say something about the picture given. (Example: a student from group A talks about his/her picture then It's the turn of a student of group B to describe his/her picture).

The group that gives more information about its picture will win.

The rhythm game | Zurzolo Camila

cxmila03 — 2025-06-04 01:58:57 UTC

The students must play a beat with their hands (see the attached video) which will progressively get faster as the game goes on. The first student will say a word and a number that indicates the amount of times the word must be said by the next student. If they manage to keep up with the rhythm then that person will do the same thing that the previous classmate did (stating a word + a number), but, if not then they are out of the game.

T divides students in two groups. Then,T makes three columns on the board(nouns, adjectives,verbs). T gives them a bag with papers which are written with a noun,a verb or an adjective. One student have to introduce his/her hand inside the bag and take a paper,read it, identify it and write the word in the correct column. The first group that complete the columns correctly is the winner.

melinaboss54 — 2025-06-04 03:46:59 UTC

Two lies, one truth

2025-06-05 03:12:54 UTC

This warm-up activity is for teaching body parts in an advanced class with young learners:

The T will stick (1) picture of a monster on the board. Now, the T will write three sentences right next to it. Two of those sentences will be false and one of them will be true. The sentence that the T will use are: 1) “I’ve got a really big red body.” 2) “I’ve got two small red arms.” 3) “I’ve got three hands.” Now, the T will do a repetition drill (e.g. “I’ve got…” → “I’ve got…” → “three hands…” → “three hands…”). While doing this, the T will be constantly using body language to help SS understand.

Warm-up: Vocabulary Match-Up with Intruders

reginabarga — 2025-06-05 23:18:40 UTC

T hands out slips of paper to the students. Some slips contain vocabulary words, and others contain definitions. A few slips are intruders and do not have a matching pair.

Students walk around the classroom to read and compare their slips with their classmates. Their task is to find the matching word or definition. If a student cannot find a partner, they may have an intruder. In that case, they must think about why their word or definition doesn’t fit with the rest.

Once all pairs are formed, T asks each pair to read their word and definition aloud. Then, students with intruders explain why their word or definition is different.

I thought about this activity because it helps students to review vocabulary, speak in English, and use critical thinking in a fun way.

Warm Up Activity: "Teacher Says..."👩‍🏫

2026-05-27 03:42:59 UTC

It's a fun warm-up activity for young learners that helps Ss practice listening comprehension, speaking, and vocabulary from the previous class. The activity takes about 5–10 minutes and doesn't require any materials, so it's easy to use at the beginning of the lesson.

T stands at the front of the classroom and gives commands using familiar vocabulary. Ss should only do the action if the instruction begins with “Teacher says…”. For example, T can say, “Teacher says touch your head” or “Teacher says act like a cat.” If T gives a command without saying “Teacher says” or shows an action that doesn't match she/he is saying and Ss still do the action, they are out of the game and must sit down. The last S standing wins.

This activity creates a fun and energetic atmosphere while helping Ss remember vocabulary in a natural way. It also encourages Ss to listen carefully and stay focused during the game😁.

A Chain of Feelings

2026-05-28 18:52:31 UTC

A Teacher starts asking "How do you feel today, class?" and then choose one student randomly, to answer. After that, the student chooses another student to answer, and then the next student choose other, building a chain activity. We are woking with T-SS interaction, T-S interaction, in the context of a intra and inter personal intelligence.

Oscar.

Save the bomb ( warm up )

nashabello60 — 2026-05-31 22:07:13 UTC

First divide the class into teams, then show a flashcard ( you decide the topic ). Team members must answer correctly to “defuse” the bomb ( Timer of 2 minutes )

Questions:

What’s this?
How do you spell it?
What color is it?
Can you make a sentence?

Each correct answer earns a point.

Music Fun - Warm up activity

tatamarina118 — 2026-06-04 02:26:52 UTC