Resources for Site Leaders: Ice Breakers
November 2011
Name Games
Name Tag Switch: All in group choose a partner to introduce themselves to, and share
three facts about themselves. At the end of this round of introductions, they switch
name tags - and then introduce themselves to someone else as the person whose name
tag they have. Continue name tag switching & introductions for at least three rounds,
then gather and all introduce themselves as the person whose name tag they’re
currently holding. Sort of like a weird version of telephone, and a good way to get to
know others’ quirks!
Blanket Drop: Divide the group into two teams. Each team crouches down on either
side of a sheet held up by two people. Each team chooses one person to warily
approach the sheet. On the count of three, the sheet is dropped and the first person to
say the name of the other person wins.
“I’m So-And-So and I like to Dance!”: Each participant says “I’m (name) and I like
(activity)”. With the statement of the activity the participant must act out the activity;
for example someone who likes to dance must do a dance. The group responds, “Hi
(name) who likes to (activity)” and does the motion. The next person in the circle says
his/her name and activity: then the group responds and also says the previous person’s
name and activity. Play continues until the group is saying and acting each person’s
name and activity.
Get to know you Games
Flash: Start in a circle. One person asked a question that can be answered in one word
(or a few) and everyone answers very quickly. Then the next person asks a question.
Example: If you could travel to one country right now where would you go?
What’s going good?: Everyone says what’s the best part of their day.
Touch Games
Human Knot: Start in a circle. Everyone extends their right hand, and finds another
hand to hold other then your neighbors. Repeat the same with the left hand. Then try
to “untangle” yourselves, using communication, skill, and teamwork!
Electric Orange: Split group into two teams. Have teams sit in a line, back to back with
each other. Two people stand up, one on each end as the start and end point. Team
members close their eyes. The “start” point squeezes then hands of the two people on
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Resources for Site Leaders: Ice Breakers
November 2011
the ends. The teams race to pass the squeeze. When the person on the end receives
the squeeze they open their eyes and run to grab the “orange”. The team to grab it first
gets a point, and the person on the end moves to the front to become the starter.
Continue play and tally up points.
Challenge Games
Birdie on a Perch: Everyone finds a partner: one partner is the “birdie”, and the other is
the “perch”. Establish a person who calls out the commands (moderator, if you will).
The moderator tells everyone to walk around, eyes on the ground, and no peaking to
see where their partner is. When the moderator calls “birdie on a perch!”, the
participants must find their partner, and the birdie must be on the perch, which means
no limbs touching the ground (be creative). The last birdie touching the ground is
eliminated, and the game continues until only one pair remains. Moderator - spice
things up by calling “perch on a birdie”.
Navigator/ Pilot: One chosen team member is seated in a chair facing one direction,
while another team member is blind-folded. The rest of the team stands in front of the
seated person. Some object is then hidden. The standing team members must silently
instruct the seated person where to tell the blindfolded person to look for the hidden
object. Only the seated individual may talk. The blindfolded person must heed the
instructions of the seated person (who is in turn silently being given instructions by the
standing team) until the object is located. The object must be hidden out of sigh of the
seated individual.
River Crossing: Create a river by marking two river banks with the rope. Make the river
wide enough to be a challenge for the group to get from one side to the other (look at
about 15 – 25 ft.). Distribute the cardboard squares – 1 piece for every 2 people. The
object of the activity is to get all members of the group safely across the river. They
must go as one big group, not multiple smaller ones. Also stress that everyone must be
on the river before anyone can get off the river, forcing the entire group to be engaged
at once. Participants cannot touch the water (floor/grass) and therefore must use rafts
(cardboard squares) to cross. The water is filled with piranhas. Therefore if someone
loses their balance and touches a hand in the water it gets eaten(put behind the back).
Same goes for a foot. If a person completely comes off the raft they are gone and since
this is a team exercise everyone must start over. I recommend using this motto with
the group, "start as a team end as a team." You can also be creative and add
challenges in as the group crosses. For instance you can say a fish jumped up and tail
slapped someone in the eyes so now they cannot see(blindfolded). Tell them the river is
acidic and when two people share a raft it tipped and now their legs are fused
together(tie ankles together). Use these tools to help take away the natural leaders or
more outspoken participants and it forces the others to step up and take on more
substantial roles. No scooting or sliding on the squares. This can be a safety issue and it
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Resources for Site Leaders: Ice Breakers
November 2011
emphasizes individual work versus teamwork. Rafts must be in contact with a human at
all times or they will be swept away with the current. Once the group has started the
process, your role is to take cardboard squares that are “swept away by the current”
and to watch for safety issues. Use this to your advantage as well. The participants will
invariably slip up and leave some rafts here or there with no one contacting them,
those you should steal. When the first group members get to the other side
immediately start to encourage them to hurry and get off the river. Nearly every time
the first few people will rush off the rafts leaving them unattended for you to steal and
stranding some of their team-mates. Work this into your debrief, when working with a
team you can't forget about your mates. just because you have made it to the finish
line someone else may not have.
*Disclaimer: This takes a long time
Purely for Fun
Knights and Dragons: Everyone selects someone to be their “knight” and someone to
be their “dragon “ BUT THEY DO NOT DIVULGE THIS INFORMATION. When the
facilitator says to go, everyone runs around keeping their knight always between
themselves and their dragon. When the facilitator calls time if their knight isn’t between
themselves and their dragon, they’re out and play continues.
Jedi-Knight Training: There are chairs in a circle (one less than the amount of people
playing) with everyone sitting in one chair except for one person. The people in the
circle need to keep looking from one person to another and when they make eye
contact with one person they need to switch seats. The person in the middle is trying to
get their seat. You could add music and when it stops (like music chairs) the person
standing is out.
Mafia: The objective of the game is to either lynch the mafia, if you are the towns
person, the doctor(or nurse) or the detective, or if you are the mafia, your goal is to
lynch and destroy all of the other users, the towns people, the doctor, and the
detective, and not let anyone know you are the mafia, for fear of being lynched. The
positions are as follows, the Towns person, a typical person who sleep during the night,
when the mafia are out, and who then upon finding a dead person or a nearly injured
person they vote as to who they think is the mafia, the person with the most Detective
votes is then lynched. the doctor(or nurse) wakes up in the night, and decides who they
wish to heal, they then pick from a list of people who they think the mafia attacked and
if they are right, the person the mafia attacked is healed and able to survive the night,
whereas if the doctor chooses the wrong person, the person the mafia picked gets
killed anyways. The Detective wakes up in the night and selects a person they wish to
accuse, they then find out, either from the computer or a narrator, whether they were
right or not, both the Doctor and the Detective join in voting along with the towns
people. The Mafia, wakes up in the night and selects who they wish to kill, upon doing
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Resources for Site Leaders: Ice Breakers
November 2011
the deed they then sleep and pretend to be a normal towns person. It is essential that
no one knows who you are, even if they are your friend, they still could destroy you if
they found out who you are!
Ninja: Players stand in a circle. On the count of three, players strike a ninja pose. Play
goes clockwise around the circle. Players must try to get each other out by tapping
each others’ hands with their hands, moving in one fluid motion.
Energizers
Count down: Everyone counts down: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and shakes their R hand, L hand, R
leg, L leg, and then “booty”? Someone help with with this description
Ride Ride Ride that Pony: Everyone stands in a circle and one person (or a few are in
the middle) and they start galloping around the circle until they stop in front of
someone. Song goes something like this: Ride Ride Ride that Pony, Ride Ride Ride that
Pony, front to front to front, back to back to back, side to side to side, this is how we
ride that pony. Repeat.
For additional resources, see Teampedia.org.
http://www.teampedia.net/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
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