Posts Tagged ‘icebreakers’

Here's a great little ice breaker that is a variation on a game we used to play as kids. The game was called "Similarities".

The games master instructs the group to break into smaller groups according to birthdays. Once in the birthday groups the group members introduce themselves to each other, and the largest group of same birthday scored 1 point for each group member.

Next the gamesmaster might call date of birthday and ask people to reform groups according to dates. You might want to introduce a 2 day either-side of date for this for smaller groups. If a person has a choice of two groups they get to choose which group to be a part of. Again the largest group scores 1 point per person.

Continue in this line asking groups to form and re-form according to your criteria. Each time, the group members introduce themselves to each other, and  the largest group wins a point per person. Finally, when groups have had enough and enough introductions are made, the winners are the ones with the most points at the end.

Other criteria could be:

• Pets
• Number of siblings
• Make up of siblings eg. 2 sisters or 1 sister and 2 brothers
• Place of birth
• Type of car or transport
• Age within 2 either side
• Name begins with...

I hope you have fun with this brilliant little quick ice breaker. Tons more ideas can be downloaded from my ice breaker ideas web-site. Make your meetings rock!

Here's a great game I recently came across though it is more for an established group than a new group.

 Split your group into teams - you will need at least 2 teams. Allocate every team to another team and than ask each team to write a story about the other team using their talents and positive attributes.

• First, get teams to make a list of the team members they are portraying as characters for their story.
• Make sure teams can't hear each other during the writing.
• Allow about 20 minutes to write the story.
• When everyone is ready get each team in turn to read out the story.

Ask groups for feedback and question what it was like to hear themselves being described as part of a story.

Were people surprised at their chosen attributes and talents ? Do they see themselves as others do?

You can use this game as a corporate ice breaker or a group game for teams that know each other fairly well

Check-out the Incredible Ice Breaker Games and Ideas web-site for more group games and ice breaker ideas.

Here's a great seasonal quick ice breaker game for you to try. It's so simple  and easy!

Snowballs:

•  Get everyone to sit in a circle and give everyone a pen and a sheet of paper.
• Ask people to write an interesting thing about themselves on the paper.
• Ask them to screw up the paper and throw the “snowball” into the middle
• Mix all the snowballs up and ask each person to take a snowball
• Taking turns, each person introduces themselves and then reads out what is  contained in the snowball.
•  They then have 3 guesses to try and work out who the owner is.
• Continue round the circle until all snowballs have been matched to owners.

It's a really simple way of finding out a bit more about each other.

For a more advanced and riskier version ask participants to write down the most interesting thing about themselves!

For more easy, simple and quick icebreakers visit the ice breaker ideas web-site

How Well do you Know Your Colleagues?

Here's a fantastic ice breaker game to start off a training or team building program where the attendees know each other fairly well, or so they think!

Write down a list of qualities on a flipchart and get each person to fill in their qualities on a piece of paper. Qualities could be things like:

This person likes...

This person dislikes....

This person values....

Major achievements of this person......

Major goals of this person..........etc. etc.

Gather all the papers in and then call out the qualities. See if the rest of the team can guess who the person is. There might be some surprises and it will certainly give people some insights no matter how well they might think they know each other.

For tons more great ice breaker games and ideas to make your meetings and events sizzle, check-out our ice breaker ideas web-site

Many team building programs start by asking people to introduce themselves. This helps people to relax and to get to know each other quickly and many more meetings, group sessions, training programs and social functions would be much more engaging and enjoyable for the participant if they too were able to experience the magic of a simple ice breaker at the beginning of an event.

• the place where they were born
• their favourite holiday destination
• if you had a $million what would you spend it on?
• favourite food
• hobby

And a bit more daring you could ask people to describe:

• their favourite joke
• if they were an animal what would it be?

These simple techniques bring a bit of fun to the group and allow people to get to know others in a non-threatening way. They give people some basic and interesting information about others in the group, making it easier to make connections and talk together.

It's easy to make up your own ice breakers too! But for tons of ice breaker ideas for your next meeting, training program, social activity or party check-out our ice breaker ideas web-site for instantly downloadable ice breaker games.

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

Everybody can use ice breaker games!

Games can become a way of life! Once you play ice breaker games with your groups and see them work their magic - they'll be with you forever and will be an indispensible tool to call upon for all occasions. It's so useful to be able to play these games, not just for work situations in meetings and for training programs, helping people relax and get to know each other quickly, but in social situations, for parties, youth groups, committee meetings etc.

Who learns how to use and gain the benefits from an ice breaker game? Everyone - business groups, spots clubs, business leaders, conference organisers,college groups, school teachers, guide and scout leaders, social and youth workers, party organisers, church group leaders, families, vouluntary groups etc. etc. The list is endless...

Planning your Christmas party for home, office or club? Then you should think about including an ice breaker game or two. Check-out our ice breaker ideas web-site for tons of fabulous ideas to make your Christmas festivities a time to remember

I attended a very good training program last week. The program ended with a little closer that was so simple but so effective. Seated in a circle all participants were given a few post-it notes and asked to write down:

1.           1.Their most memorable moment
2.           2.The main learning point they will take away

In turn the participants were asked to come forward and place their 2 post-it notes on the 2 flipcharts which were headed with the above statements whilst explaining their choices.

Everyone listened intently for funny and meaningful moments on the program; some were moved to tears with some of the insights and thoughtfulness of others. It was a nice way to say thank you publicly to some people and above all it was a very simple exercise that worked very well.

At the end of the closer the tutors had a record of all that was said, ready to take away and record if necessary.

For tons more magical icebreakers, energizers and openers and closers for training and meetings  download our Incredible Ice Breaker Games & Ideas collection for corporate groups. Based on 20 years experience of running excellent team building, training and corporate events - you can't be without it!

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One of the best party games for kids is the memory tray game - so why not turn it into a Halloween party game. All you need to do is find a load of scary objects - these could be plastic spiders, bats, skulls, etc. the sort of things you can buy cheaply in a dollar store. Around 20 items is ideal.

Put them on a tray and then cover them with a cloth. Give every child a peice of paper and a pen and then give them a minute to view the objects. Cover the objects up and then give them 2 minutes to write down all the items they remember. The child with the most correct answers is the winner.

Or we enjoy playing in teams best!

For more great Halloween ideas visit our ice-breaker-ideas web-site and pick-up our FREE download our "5 Best Halloween Games & Icebreakers"

Just got back from doing an experiential leadership program at the local university. I really enjoyed it and it was great to be on the other side of the fence - the receiving end for a change.

 To kick-start the program we did an icebreaker outside. It was a version of our "Ball Toss" icebreaker... Everyone stood in a circle and the leader holding a ball, introduced herself. As she threw the ball to someone she asked for their name and on catching it they replied "thanks .....(name) " and then asked someone else for their name and on it went until everyone had been introduced.

After a full round of introductions we were asked to do it again exactly as we had done before - no prompts this time. As we were going around the circle the leader introduced ball after ball, cuddly toys etc. All you had to do was concentrate on the person who was throwing to you but soon it was chaos and nobody did anything about it. This was the first lesson ....to take responsibility!

The icebreaker worked - everyone had fun and suddenly the tension had disappeared.

For more instantly downloadable icebreaker games and ideas visit the ice-breaker-ideas web-site