Archive for the ‘Ice Breaker Articles’ Category

Many years ago when I was starting out in my career I worked for an adventure centre for children and young adults. The first evening was always given over to a session of Ice Breaker Games.

This was the first time I had ever come across such a concept, but since then, I have used ice breaker games to great effect in a myriad of jobs, places, meetings, training sessions, conferences, parties and corporate and social gatherings.

Ice breaker games are brilliant for breaking down barriers quickly and for helping people feel at ease with each other. Used correctly they can rapidly create an atmosphere of fun and expectation.

At the adventure centre, kids would often turn up to programs not knowing many people and some not knowing any at all. They could be anxious and excited; but some were also reluctant and detached. Our job was to ease them into the programme, allowing a sense of fun, trust and anticipation to build. We did this through the use of ice breaker games.

We started the evening seated in a circle and the instructors would always join in as equals. First we would start with a simple name game: “Hello my name is Sharon and I like tennis” and on it would go around the circle with everyone trying their best to remember people’s names. The ice breaker was simple and non-threatening and even the most reluctant could join in.

The next game might involve working in pairs spending a few minutes getting to know each other and then introducing each other to the group.

Gradually the group began to feel more at ease with each other, and began to trust us, the leaders.  From this point on, and sensing the mood in the group, we could start to include more physical and ambitious games.

The key is to start with simple, non-threatening ice breaker games and gradually build up the complexity or outrageousness as the group allows. Once the ice is broken the group will look forward readily to the main topic of the day.

There are literally thousands of ice breaker games and ideas that can help you get your next event off to a flying start; whether you are looking for a quick ice breaker to inject a bit of fun into a meeting before the more serious business begins or you are looking for a party ice breaker to transform your event into the next sizzling sizzling show stopper!

Check-out the ice breaker ideas web-site for more fun than you can handle!

New school? New term? New Students? The new school year is nearly upon us. How do you get those kids integrated and off to an enthusiastic flying start? By careful selection and use of back to school ice breaker games. Here’s a selection:

Balloon Game

Depending on their age the classic game with the balloons is an absolute favourite with younger kids;  it’s fun, inexpensive and physical and helps reduce anxieties. Have enough balloons on strings for every child to have 2 balloons. Tie each balloon to children’s ankles. Make sure the area is safe – lawn or grass is best in case they fall over their strings. Each child has to try and burst another child’s ballooon whilst protecting their own. The last child with a balloon remaining is the winner!

Yarn Game

This game is suitable for adults as well as children – just change the questions.

You will need a large ball of yarn and have the class sitting in a circle. Hold onto the end of the yarn and throw the ball to a student. You then ask them a getting to know you question like; where do you live or what is your favourite color, animal, toy, movie etc.  They answer the question and then hold the yarn and then throw the ball to another student and asks them a question. Make sure everyone hold onto the yarn and does not let go. At the end you will have a giant web of yarn that connects the whole class. Explain that whilst we are all individuals we are still connected in some way to each other.

Niceties

This is a great ice breaker for groups who know each other.

Tape a  piece of flip chart paper onto each person’s back. Each person writes something they like about the person who’s paper they are writing on. Even if they don’t know each other very well, they can find something nice to write on the paper…ie, nice hair, great smile, warm and friendly etc. When they read the nice comments they will be ecstatic and it teaches the importance of small niceties and how good it feels to give and receive compliments.

Ice breaker games have been continually used by professional trainers, teachers and group leaders for many years. They are one of the best and most fun ways of “breaking the ice”, opening up groups and preparing the group for the main part of any event. Sharon Naylor has been a proponent of ice breaker games for all her career; ever since she took part in an ice breaker! For more fantastic ice breaker ideas to speed up that getting to know you stage for back-to-school classes and any other groups check-out her ice breaker ideas web-site NOW

Here’s a couple more fantastic Back to School Ice Breaker Games. They are sure to set your new school term alight!

1.Make 2 circles – an inner and an outer circle where they are facing each other. Have students introduce themselves and say one thing they like to do. After these introductions rotate the inner circle by moving one seat to the left. The outer circle stays as it is. Repeat the process but this time have the outer circle move the opposite way .

2.Get each person to write down one thing that is true about themselves and 2 things that are false. Find a partner and swap facts. Each have to guess the true fact. After a few minutes swap partners.

Examples could be:

• I rode an ostrich
• I have a pet duck called Binky
• I have never been on an aeroplane

Make back to school days fun and exciting this year!  Don’t be boring this new school year – get your pupils hyped, excited and firing on all cylinders!  More fantastic back to school ice breakers, games and ideas can be found in our Ice Breaker Youth Collection – ready to go NOW!

Starting a new school year is probably the most important 

time of the school year. It’s when you meet new classes

and establish a firm relationship for the rest of the

school year. Start as you mean to go on; establish new

relationships quickly and get kids looking forward to the

rest of what’s on offer!

Here’s a simple back to school ice breaker:

 It’s a snowball fight! On the first day of school everyone writes three

facts about themselves on a piece of paper. Make sure they don’t write their

names and make sure every one is wearing a name tag! Crumple the paper into

balls and throw them around. Everyone grabs one. Each person reads one out

and guesses who wrote it. It’s fun and you get to know a bit more about each

other.

Find more fantastic Back to School Ice Breakers, games and ideas in our

Youth Ice Breakers Collection. With more than 30 years of working with youth groups

you’re bound to find new and novel ways to get your kids inspired and

excited and eager to hear what you have to say next!

Take a look at our youth ice breaker collection and web-site Now!

Over 2 billion people around the world watched William and Kate get married! Who thought the monarchy was dead? Almost as many people in the US got up early to watch it on TV as in the UK and that was nearly 24 million! It was a fantastic spectacle and it is what Britain does best: pomp and pageantry and they didn’t let us down!

Away from the streets of London, the country too was awash with street parties and celebrations. The special bank holiday saw houses, pubs and clubs around the country decked out with Union Jack flags and bunting. For just for a few days the country was alive and buzzing; the mood had lifted, spirits were high and economic woes were forgotton.

Papers report the millions of pounds of additional income such an event brings to the country. Now I’m not suggesting that we have a royal wedding everyday but we should celebrate and come together a bit more often; impromptu parties and BBQs; picnics with family and friends; neighbourly fetes and events to get people together; fund-raising fairs and events for good causes. These are all things that bring people together and can have fun organising as well as taking part.

Should you be tempted in the next few months to take advantage of the weather and lay on a party or two don’t forget to check-out our ice breaker ideas web-site for fantastic party ice breakers , games and garden party ideas.

In less than 48 hours the wedding of the year will be upon us – Prince William will marry Kate Middleton in what is bound to be a brilliant spectacle of British pomp and pageantry.

How will you celebrate the royal wedding?

Here in Britain, we have traditionally celebrated a royal wedding with a street party. Roads are closed; tables and chairs form long lines in the middle of the road; bunting is flying high from one house to the next and tea is served with sandwiches and cakes. Today though it is as likely to be an informal BBQ with the friends and neighbours though more than 4000 applications for road closures have been applied for 4 weeks ago and many more are expected.

Here in Britain, street parties date back to the first world war when peace was proclaimmed and people came out into the streets to celebrate. Later street parties became the norm for royal weddings and jubilees; the silver jubilee of George V  and the coronation of George VI in 1937. Friday 29th April 2011 has been declared a national holiday for the UK.

After watching the 11am ceremony we will hot foot it over to the local pub for food and drinks in the garden and some sort of entertainment. This is likely to be games and music. Everyone will bring food and it will be a real community affair.

Why not celebrate with the happy couple  and plan your own street party, BBQ or picnic. There’s still time to get friends and family together.  And organise a fantastically entertaining game of “Mr and Mrs” for some good old-fashioned fun! Here’s how to play:

Mr and Mrs

Group size: 7+ (3 couples and the quiz master) Time: 30+ minutes

Equipment needed: Prepare a list of questions in advance such as: 

• Your best ever holiday
• Your favourite type of food
• The food you most hate
• Favourite pastime or sport
• Favourite film, book, artist 

You could have questions with a choice of answers such as: 

• Would you say your husband is an extrovert or introvert?
• Prefers take-off to landing?
• Would rather go on a beach holiday or active holiday?
• Wine or beer? 

Once you have your questions sorted out ask for a volunteer couple to come forward. Ask the wife to take the hot seat and send the husband out of earshot. Ask the wife the questions and record the answers. Now get the husband back and put him in the hot seat. Tell the husband the questions and ask for the answer he thinks his wife will have given. For every correct answer they will score 1 point. Keep a record of the scores and ask for the next couple. Ask a different set of questions. Have about 3 or 4 questions per couple. Keep going for as long as you have volunteers or for a few rounds. Remember people get bored when games go on too long. About 5 or 6 couples is probably about the maximum number. The couple with the most right answers is the winner and you may need to prepare tiebreaker questions and don’t forget the prizes too.

Sharon Naylor is passionate about games and ice breakers  for work, play, parties, meetings, groups and clubs. In fact anywhere people are connecting to others whether it be for the first time or even when familiar with each other. If you would like to find some great ideas for your street party visit the ice breaker ideas web-site for hundreds of amazing games and fun icebreakers and make your party sizzle….!

The Ripple Effect Ice Breaker

Here’s a great fun ice breaker suitable for teenagers or youth groups. It’s high energy and therefore suitable as a warm-up or wake-up exercise.

Get everyone to sit in a circle with one person standing in the middle. On command you will say to the group “move to the left” or “move to the right”. Everyone will move seats in unison and the job of the person in the middle is to get a seat. When they finally get a seat, the ousted person goes in the middle and they then repeat the process to try and get a seat.

It can be quite rowdy so careful adjudiaction is needed!

Get a shed load of ice breakers for teenagers on the ice-breaker-ideas web-site

Sharon Naylor is passionate about ice breaker games for work, play, parties, meetings, groups and clubs. Ice breaker games and energisers inject a sense of fun into gatherings, speed up that getting to know you stage and get people ready to face the rest of the event with high energy and expectation. For more brilliant ice breaker ideas that you can use with your own groups and teams visit the ice breaker ideas web-site.



One of the best games I know for youth groups is the “waiting game”! It’s not really a game but is a really powerful tool to use with young people.

When you want to start an activity – and it helps here if you are seated in the same positions for most of the time – and your group is busily chatting to their friends – sit patiently and wait until they are silent. This may take a while to start with, but soon the group will become bored and realise that they are wasting time, and that there are much more interesting and fun things to get on with. Tell the group the game is called the “Waiting Game” and that you will not fight to gain their attention. That is a responsibility that they must take on themselves.

It may be tempting to start with to jump in and tell groups that you are waiting to begin, but stay seated and quiet. Soon the group will realise that that they must take responsibility for their own behaviour, and that it is not up to the leader to control the group. At all times when you are waiting you must be neutral and ignore all questions, comments until they are ready.

You must persevere with this, and gradually the time will lessen every time you meet.

For more amazing youth group icebreakers and games check-out the ice breaker ideas web-site for tons of fun ice breaker games to use with youth groups

Don’t you just love it when the kids go back to school and we are all returning to work after the long summer holidays and the Christmas offers start pouring in – Christmas cards and Xmas gifts; Christmas parties; Christmas travel; party venues; Christmas food (the supermarkets have already stocked up) etc. etc. In fact we have just bought chocolate coins for our treasure hunts from the local supermarket.

Uggh.. I find it really annoying.. corporate Christmas stuff has been coming through the post for months even before summer. Me, I want to linger with the fine summer days for as long as possible. I don’t want to think about Christmas now when there’s 3 months to go!

This year we’ve been innundated with corporate Christmas stuff well before the summer holidays: “Get your corporate parties booked before it’s too late.” “Limited space available – book your venues now!”

If you want to avoid the ostentatious corporate Christmas party scene you might consider running one yourself in your offices or local pub. Rope a few friends in to help you and have an evening of traditional party games and ice breakers. Nothing beats traditional games for good wholesome fun!

Develop team spirit by asking each person to bring an icebreaker game or party game so you don’t have to do it all yourself. Think:

• Pin the tail on the donkey
• Musical chairs
• Charades
• Pass the Parcel
• Secret Santa
• Christmas bingo
• The Chocolate Game
• Forfeits

Most people will know how to play these games – if not be sure to leave a comment and I’ll explain or you can go to our web-site ice breaker ideas  where we have hundreds of great ideas for party ice breakers and games. So don’t forget the party bags and run a party to remember!

This morning there was definitely more than a sniff of autumn in the air. The kids are back to school and our attention will turn to closing down the shutters and stocking up on firewood. The onslaught of winter slowly approaches…

This reminds me of one of the best parties I ever attended. I say attended, but actually we jointly threw the party, shared with another company in our dilapidated mansion house set of offices.

Some of you may know of Newton House, Dinefwr Park in Carmarthenshire, West Wales? It is currently in the hands of the National Trust, but not that many moons ago it was privately owned and rented out as offices to local firms. When we started our business 20 years ago it was the only place in the locality where we could find office space to rent. The room was shabby and damp, and the only saving grace was that it was huge and we had the run of the whole place. And as a bonus we had a turret as a storage room!

Reportedly the house had several ghosts. A maid apparently threw herself to her death from our office window ( high second floor) after the mistress of the house discovered her having an affair with her husband. Now the house is subject to many TV programmes and ghost hunts - but I can tell you in the 2 years we worked there when i was often on my own in the whole house – I never heard or saw a single thing. And this is an isolated building, surrounded by parkland and woods. At that time there were no outside lights and even the corridor lights were on a timer, so you would often find yourself feeling your way along the corridor, if you mistimed your trip to the loo!

Anyway back to the party… It was Christmas 1990 and we were chatting to the guy in the office next door one day and somehow agreed to share a Christmas party. With two disparate sets of people we had to come up with some ice breaker ideas to get this party to work.

Being in the events and team building business it didn’t take long to realise that our spooky, collapsing mansion would be the perfect setting for a murder mystery type ice breaker game. We had the run of the whole building, including dark, rotting cellars and star-gazing rooftop. We started to get excited about the possibilities.

Quickly we had drawn up a plan of the whole house and committed it to a big board, a bit like a Cluedo board. When guests arrived they were split into teams and we played the board game, shaking the dice and moving from room to room. Each time teams landed on a room they set off with flashlights to visit the room in the house. The house was in darkness and at its nighmarish best. Teams gingerly entered rooms to find hidden clues and chilling audio greetings added by our media friends next door.

What fun a hoot! Everyone absolutely loved this ice breaker game and didn’t want it to end. It was meant to be a party icebreaker to get people interacting and having fun, but it became the whole focus of the evening and has been talked about ever since. It was quite simply one of the best parties ever! And it’s a game we have since used for many of our corporate events and private parties ever since.

If this story has inspired you, you may want to visit our web-site to find more creative ice breaker ideas and games for your parties, events, reunions, team meetings and social and work functions. If you are also interested in running this game for yourself for Christmas or Halloween, or any other time please get in touch or leave me a comment.