The following ‘icebreakers’ are simple, fun activities to use for energising the group. They are useful both when you first start working with a new group, as well as at the beginning of a session.
 

It must be stressed that they are all intended to be light-hearted and fun, and they all aim to get participants working together, before moving on to other activities in the pack. These activities are, however, only suggestions. If you know of other such activities and wish to use them, please do so. You can find more in Compass (page 345).

If you are starting to use the pack with a new group, we suggest that after one or two icebreakers you try one of the activities which help build the group, and work with images, for example, ‘Dreams’, ‘Odd one out’, ‘Human Bingo’ or ‘One = One’.

Aims

• To encourage interaction and get the group warmed up
• To develop communication skills
• To encourage people to work co‑operatively

I bring a letter for... *

From www.humorthatworks.com

Time 5-10 minutes

Group size 20-30

Preparation / Materials

• Chairs, one less than the number of participants

Instructions

1. Arrange the chairs in a circle.
2. Ask the participants to sit on the chairs, and the person without one to stand in the middle.
3. Tell the person in the middle to say something like: “I bring a letter for those who ... wear glasses (... have taken a shower that morning / ... are wearing trousers / ... are wearing a watch / …”, or anything else they can imagine).
4. All those “wearing glasses” must swap places, while the person in the middle uses this opportunity to get a chair for themselves to sit on.
5. Tell whoever is left in the middle to “bring the next letter”.
6. Stop the game after 5 or 10 minutes, or when everyone has had a turn to call, and everybody has had to change place.

Stop Walk

Time 5 minutes

Group size  Any

Preparation / Materials

• Space to move about

Instructions

1. Ask participants to spread out in the room.
2. Explain that when you say “Walk!”, everyone must start walking, and when you say “Stop!”, everyone must immediately stop and stand still.
3. Give alternate orders to walk and stop, and let participants practise walking and stopping. Once they have got into the rhythm of it, you can change the tempo and you can also repeat the same order twice or three times to keep them alert!
4. After 30 seconds, tell participants that the rule has changed: when you say “Walk!” they must stop, and when you say “Stop!”, they must walk. Continue with the new orders until everyone is following correctly.
5. Round 3: Tell participants that there are now two additional rules. They have to clap when you say “Clap!”, and shout their name when you say “Name!”. At the same time, stop still means walk and walk still means stop.
6. Round 4: Walk means stop, stop means walk, name means name, clap means clap, and dance means dance, and jump means jump.
7. Round 5: Walk means stop, stop means walk, name means clap, clap means name, and dance means dance, and jump means jump.
8. Round 6: Walk means stop, stop means walk, name means clap, clap means name, dance means jump, and jump means dance.
9. Tips for the facilitators
10. Watch how the players are responding, and change the tempo to keep the game moving. Each round should last just long enough for participants to have got the hang of the rules. You can choose other actions, for instance, “rub your tummy and pat your head”, “sit down and stand up”, “nod or shake your head”, or make different noises.

Tips for the facilitators

Watch how the players are responding, and change the tempo to keep the game moving. Each round should last just long enough for participants to have got the hang of the rules. You can choose other actions, for instance, “rub your tummy and pat your head”, “sit down and stand up”, “nod or shake your head”, or make different noises.

Who started?

Time 10 to 15 minutes

Group size  10-15

Preparation / Materials

• An empty space
• A watch or timer

Instructions

1. Ask for a volunteer to leave the room.
2. Tell the rest of the group to stand in a circle.
3. Decide who is going to be the leader. Tell the leader to start an action (e.g. scratching their tummy, waving a hand, moving their head, simulating playing a musical instrument, etc.) and tell everybody else to copy.
4. Tell the leader to change the action frequently, and again everybody else must follow.
5. Call back the volunteer who left the room; invite them to stand in the middle of the circle and ask them to guess who the leader is. They can have two minutes and up to three guesses. If they do not succeed, they must pay a forfeit, for example, to do something funny, sing a song, or do a little dance.
6. If the person guesses correctly, the person who was the leader leaves the room and the group chooses a new leader.
7. Don’t let the game drag on. It may be that not everyone gets a turn to be the leader.

Tips for the facilitators

You will have to judge whether to include the aspect of paying a forfeit; make sure that participants don’t feel exposed or embarrassed.

4 UP**

Time 5-6 minutes

Group size  10+

Preparation / Materials

• Chairs, one per person

Instructions

1. Ask everyone to sit in a circle.
2. Explain that the rule of this game is that 4 people must be standing at any one moment, and that no player may stand for more than 10 seconds, although they may stand for less if they wish.
3. There should be no attempts to communicate between players, but everyone in the group has to watch what is happening and share the responsibility to make sure that four people – no more, no less – are standing at any one time.

Tips for the facilitators

It will take a few minutes for participants to get the hang of this game but once they do, they will get a good rhythm going of people standing up and sitting down and all working together.

You may like to ask players to say how they decided when to stand up.

Greetings

Time 15 minutes

Group size  10+

Preparation / Materials

• Make copies of the sheet, cut round the boxes and put the slips of paper in a hat.
• You will need one “greeting” per person.

Instructions

1. Ask each participant to take one slip of paper, and then to mingle in the middle of the room and greet each other by saying their own name and using the action described on their piece of paper.

• As you greet the other person, keep a distance of about 1metre between you, and shake hands, but only with a very light grip.
• Greet the other person by bumping elbows.
• Greet the other person by embracing and kissing them twice on alternate cheeks.
• Greet the other person by embracing them and kissing them four times on alternate cheeks.
• Greet the other person by placing your hands together in prayer position, and bow forward.
• Greet the other person by rubbing noses.
• Greet the other person very warmly with a big hug.
• Greet the other person with a very strong, firm handshake.

Tips for the facilitators

This is meant to be a light-hearted icebreaker to use with a group of people who don’t know each other. We stress most strongly that it is not intended to reinforce stereotyping. A short discussion about people’s reactions should counter any tendency to stereotype, and could be a useful step into the next activity. You could ask:

• Can you guess where the different ways of greeting come from?
• To what extent are they stereotypes? e.g. do all Germans have a strong hand grip?
• Which greetings did you feel comfortable / uncomfortable with, and why?
• Have you ever been in the embarrassing situation when, in another country, someone greeted you warmly with three kisses and you fumbled and stepped back after two because you didn’t know the correct social code?

Then move on to an activity which explores stereotypes, such as ‘First impressions’.

Note: Players will ask where the different customs come from. Ask them to guess; otherwise, suggested answers are:

• As you greet the other person, keep a distance of about 2 feet (c. 60cm) between you, and shake hands, but only with a very light grip. (England)
• Greet the other person by bumping elbows. (everywhere in Covid19 times)
• Greet the other person by embracing them and kissing them twice on alternate cheeks. (Portugal / Spain)
• Greet the other person by embracing them and kissing them four times on alternate cheeks. (Paris
• Greet the other person by placing your hands together in prayer position and bow forward. (Japan)
• Greet the other person by rubbing noses. (Inuit)
• Greet the other person very warmly with a big hug. (Russia / Palestine)
• Greet the other person with a very strong, firm handshake. (Germany)

Rub and pat

Time 5 minutes

Group size  Any

Preparation / Materials  None

Instructions

1. Ask participants how good they think their co-ordination is. They are about to find out!
2. Ask participants to rub their tummies in a circular motion with their right hand, and at the same time to pat the top of their head with their left.
3. When everyone has managed to do this, ask them now to pat their tummies with their right hand and to rub the top of their heads with their left.
4. When everyone has more or less succeeded, ask them to swap so that they now rub their tummies with their left hand, and pat the top of their head with their right.
5. When everyone has more or less succeeded, change the instructions again. Now they must pat their tummies with their left hand, and rub their heads with their right.

Tips for the facilitators

To make the instructions clear, you should lead the group and demonstrate at each step. In this way, you also reinforce the idea of equality within the group.

The story behind

Time 15 minutes if played with 15 people

Group size  Any

Preparation / Materials 

• Space to move around in
• A bell

Instructions

1. Ask each participant to choose a personal item that they won’t mind being passed around the group; it could be their mobile phone, their watch, a shoe or any other personal item that has a story or special meaning for them, so that they can say, for instance, “this hair clip was bought in a market in Stockholm”, or “in these trainers I ran 5km in 30 minutes”.
2. Give participants two or three minutes to find the item they will contribute.
3. Ask participants to find a partner; they should show each other their item and explain the significance of it to their lives.
4. When the bell rings, they swap items so they each now have an item that is not their own. They say “goodbye” and find someone else to pair up with.
5. The new pairs show each other the items and state their significance (but not who owns them or who they got them from).
6. Ring the bell every two minutes to keep the momentum going.
7. The game ends when each person has got their own item back again.

Tips for the facilitators

The items are passed on anonymously; it is just the information about the item’s meaning and value that passes on together with the item.

If you are using this game with people who don’t know each other, then they should say their names before going on to talk about the items. Having something to talk about other than basic personal information can be a welcome change from many “meet-and-greet” activities. It also promotes curiosity and opens up opportunities for participants to share information about a wide range of topics and interests.

At the end, when all the items have been returned to their owners, you can have a short discussion. Ask:

• What sorts of items were chosen and why were they valued?
• What did the items represent? Material or personal achievements, hopes, fears?
• How is our identity reflected in the things we own?

You may like to go on to run an activity that is about exploring identity, such as ‘One = One’.

Line up

Time 15 minutes

Group size  Any

Preparation / Materials 

• Space for participants to move about and line up

Instructions

1. Ask participants to stand up in the middle of the room and to mingle.
2. Then ask them to line up in order of height, but without talking. No words are allowed, only non-verbal communication, and no touching.
3. Round 2: Ask participants to line up according to the day and month of the year that they were born.
4. Round 3: Ask participants to line up like a rainbow based on the colour of their shirts or sweaters.