Ice Breakers Activities  More Resources 

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Memory Game Pick a subject like foods you would eat or crave. Lay them all in a tray for viewers to see and have participants pass tray around. Remove tray from sight and have participant’s list what was on tray. The person that lists the most objects is the winner. You can give extra points or break ties by asking specific questions like what flavor sucker and so on. Who Am I? Pre-make tags with each tag having one famous person on it, mainly divas that everyone would know. These tags will be placed on the back of each guest as they arrive. This is done without them knowing who they are. They are to go around the room asking questions as to who they might be. Questions like “am I a singer?” They can only ask one question and make only one guess as to Who they are with each person that they talk to, then they have to move on to another person. They can come visit previous players once they've visited another player. Knots The group clumps up tightly and each person takes two hands (cannot be of the same person). They then have to work themselves into a circle without breaking hands. R Laugesen http://tinyrock.com String Toss Set up small groups of 8–12 players and have them sit in a circle for this icebreaker. One person is given the ball of yarn and finds the end of it. They will toss the ball of yarn to anyone within the circle while they are still holding the end of the ball of yarn. Now ask the person that caught it one or two questions. If this is a new group that doesn’t know everyone they are to introduce themselves first before answering the questions at the beginning of the game. Here are some ideas as to what questions to ask; What is your favorite color, music group, the person that has influenced you the most, what are you afraid of, your favorite food, time of the year, or any other question to might pertain to this event. That person then holds part of the yarn and then tosses the ball of yarn to anyone that hasn’t received the ball yet. You repeat this until everyone has had the ball of yarn and you will notice that you have created a unique web that has connected all the players together in one way. You can pass the ball again to ask one – two more questions from each player. Rumor The first person from each team is to go out and make up a message together. This message will be used by all teams. Once signaled to start, the first person on each team is to whisper the Rumor to the next person on their team. They will whisper the Rumor to the next - and so on. The last person to receive the Rumor will run to the black board and write the message. The team that is the closest to the correct Rumor wins. R Laugesen http://tinyrock.com Shoe Pile A good way to have new people meet everybody. Everyone takes off one of their shoes and throw it into a big pile. Then each person picks up a different shoe from the pile and finds the person it belongs to. Works well for large groups. Counting Game Have everyone in your group pair up and face each other. Each person holds up zero to ten fingers behind their back. On the count of three, have them pull their hands from behind their backs. The first person to yell out the correct sum of all the fingers wins. Do best two of three. Then the winners play each other until you have a champion. The Math Game Competitors hold just one hand behind their back, revealing the number of fingers at the signal. Whoever yells out the sum of the fingers wins the first round. For Round 2, multiply the fingers. Round 3 is the difference between the two numbers. Rotate through as many rounds as you want, but or the championship round (between the two survivors) have them square the total of the two sets of fingers. For example, Person A shows three fingers, person B shows four, so the winning answer is 3+4 = 7 * 7=49 Paper Roll Don't tell anybody what is going to happen, but get a roll of toilet paper and tell all those playing not to take to much but to take however much they want. One all the players have taken the number of sheets they want each has to tell one thing about themselves for every sheet they have. R Laugesen http://tinyrock.com Line Up Game Get in groups of five to ten people each. First group that gets itself into order according to the category you name, wins. For example first letter of middle name, shoe size, height, birth date, etc. Just be sure to pick subjects that people can line up easily. Communicating Challenge Give everyone a number. They have to arrange themselves in numerical order communicating with each other without speaking or holding up fingers. They make up their own sub-language or sign-language and it often is pretty amusing. Round two. Have people arrange themselves in order of birth or in calendar months. References http://www.funattic.com/game_icebreaker.htm http://www.funandgames.org/Games_icebreakers.html http://www.lifeway.com/staff_r0005.asp R Laugesen http://tinyrock.com