Ice Breakers

I always start with Two Truths and a Lie, which students enjoy while choosing how open to be about themselves.  Four Corners give students a chance to share opinions appropriately and find someone with similar interests.  People Bingo, where students find a peer that fits each box's description, has been a favorite.

Some of the icebreakers I like to use for students to get to know each other and themselves are:

3 truths and a lie
Find someone who has...
Intrest bingo
4 corners with favorites
and 
Would you rather.

I love using two truths and a lie, or find the fib as a great ice breaker. It is an easy way for students to get to know you as you model it and each other when they are playing as well. 

Find someone who... is also a great ice breaker to get to know people!

I did a twist on the 2 truths and a fib. I had the students write three things about themselves on a piece of paper and put them inside a balloon. Throughout the first days we chose a balloon, popped it read the three things in side and had the students guess who wrote them. They loved it. It was fun to have the balloons in the room because it helped make the beginning of the school year seem like a celebration.

Find Someone Who...
I try to find as many variations of this activity as possible! The kids like finding friends who have done different things over the summer, like different things, or even "make a 10" with them in math! They usually have to autograph each other's papers because we can't write each other's names just yet.

Name Games
The camp counselor in me comes out and we do all sorts of name games. Introduce yourself with your name and an animal that starts with the same letter, adapt Brown Bear Brown Bear to include students' names, etc. 

Bio Author's Chair
At the beginning of the year we write lots of sentences like "I can ____", "I have ____", and "I like ___." Then students get to share these writing pieces with the class and learn who they have things in common with. 

Dots:  Each participant is given a colored dot that is placed on their forehead. Without talking, they have to find out what color their dot is and find others who have the same color dot.  the students stick together until their are 4 in the group.  They then introduce themselves and a new dot is placed on their forehead.  They repeat the activity.

Life Boats:  The group has to react as quickly as possible to the commands called out by the facilitator. The last to react is out of the game.  However, each team has 4 life preservers.  If a teammate is last they can give the person a life preserver and pull them back into the life boat.  At round 3, I have them complete a task as a team to work on team building.

Categories:  The facilitator calls out categories and participants have to arrange themselves according to that category.  I give students cards that follow the standards we are learning.  They may need to sequence themselves, solve math problems, etc.

Get to know you Jenga
I have a set of Jenga blocks that have get to know you questions taped to them (what's your favorite food, how many siblings do you have, what's your best memory, etc). When you pull a block out, you have to answer the question.

Emoji Bios
This has been our first week of school activity for a couple years. Students have to answer questions about themselves using only emojis (Hobbies, Favorite subject, Favorite animal, etc). We use it to learn about Seesaw, but it's also an engaging writing activity to learn about each other.

Would You Rather?
This is a fun and fast icebreaker when you don't have much time left. There are lots of websites with ideas (not all of them school appropriate).

On the first day of school we complete a KWL chart all about Ms. Roland. It is a fun activity. I'm always surprised by what they want to know.