Introduction/ meeting fun activities and icebreakers

                        Introduction ideas

When you meet any other students in your class, sometimes we find it difficult to remember their names and so do students, particularly when they are mixed. Hence, I recommend the following icebreakers and fun activities, which I use in my classes and which are a good way to get to know the names of the students and some facts about themselves. Moreover, these techniques help both the teachers and students practise their memory for names, break the ice at the beginning of the lesson, enhance their practical listening and speaking skills and, finally, create a friendly atmosphere in a class.

1. Meeting. A chain game

Say your name and something you like doing or something that describes you. The next student repeats the previous student’s name and says his. To make it fun, a teacher can start this activity, handing in a ‘present’, for example, a chocolate, which should be handed over to the last student who is to repeat all the names and information from the very first student or teacher.

2. Meeting

Students greet each other, repeating the names of their neighbours. They can do it in pairs, turning to their partners on the left/ on the right and behind them.

  For instance, Nice to meet you, Kate. You, too. Nice to meet you, Svitlana. You, too

3. Describe yourself

Take down your name and introduce yourself, using adjectives of personality or appearance that start with the different letters of your name to describe yourself.

Example A - ambitious

                L - loyal

                E – easy-going

               eXtrovert

Give your students time to think of the adjectives and when they are set, they go around the class introducing themselves. For more advanced students, you can have them give as many words as they can according to the categories: verbs, adverbs, nouns or other adjectives of personality.

4. Introduce yourself

This activity works well with intermediate students and who are at an upper-beginning level. Introduce yourself with the help of the table where there different categories (the place of birth, the thing you are scared of, the things you love/hate doing, your role model, the person you admire, someone you are proud of,  your hobbies, your dream country etc). It is very important to create a positive friendly environment in which students can trust their teacher and get across with responsible attitude. They would like to get to know their teacher with whom they are going to cooperate in classes. Therefore, it is better for a teacher to introduce himself/herself first according to these categories. Students should listen attentively here and be ready to ask any questions which interest them.

For the following activity I advise teachers to set homework for students to introduce themselves using the table with categories.

5. How is it connected with my life?

On the board introduce your name and the words which can be somehow connected with your life. Students try to make a guess asking questions or giving ideas. I usually do this exercise after the previous activity ‘Introduce yourself’ to check whether they were good listeners.

 Example Open (open for new experience, new possibilities)

                 Lucky (the name of my pet)

          NyzHyn- (the city where I studied at university)

                 Ancient – (I am also a teacher of Latin, an ancient language)

6. Get on your chair

For this lively icebreaker, students need to be flexible and balanced. This activity can be done in small classes. Each student should have a chair and line all the chairs up in one line. Every student has to stand on the chair. The teacher asks them to stand in a certain order. For example, from the youngest to the oldest, from A to Z, from the tallest to the shortest, from light to dark, according to the moths of birth, according to the age, height etc. Every time the students have to change position and places without touching the ground and  without pushing someone off the chair.

 You can set a time limit or you can do this activity without chairs. All0 in all, it is fun and students get to know each other better in an interactive way.

7. Two Truths and One Lie

   Come up with two true things or facts about yourself and one lie. Students must ask you questions to find out which sentence is the lie. The teacher can limit the number of questions or put a time limit on asking questions or just let them ask questions until they find out where the lie is.  The next step is for students to try it out. They can work in pairs or in small groups questioning each other.

    This is a far more complicated activity which develops not only listening but also critical and deductive skills of students because they make guesses while thinking, comparing and analyzing.

8. True Or False?

On the first day after holidays a teacher gives his students information, partly of which is false. Students have to guess what is false. They can do it orally or discuss within a group and figure out what they think is true or false. After that, they can continue working in a group, writing about their holidays (4-5 sentences) They read out the information and the others try to guess what is true and what is false about their holidays or life.

 This icebreaker can be used in the class who already know each other but want to catch up on the things after long holidays. It is a fun way to get to know your students better, not just basic things but real stories.

9. Snowball Fight

Students write something interesting/funny/ strange/ shocking/ terrifying about themselves or about their holidays on 3 pieces of paper. If they do not know what to write or find it difficult, they can ask 3 questions. A teacher asks students to crumple the paper, making three ‘snowballs’ and  throwing them at each other like having a snowball fight. Then, everyone grabs the closest snowball, reads it to the class and tries to guess who it can be or answer the question. It is a great fun even for high students.

10.  Toilet Paper Roll

This is a fun speaking activity. It really helps your students get to know each other.

Give a roll of toilet paper to each student, asking them to tear off a certain number of pieces (if there is a small group at least 4 squares, for large groups at least 1 square). Do not tell them why they do it and for what. It seems rather intriguing for students and raises their curiosity. Once each of them has their paper, have them tell the class one thing about themselves/ or holidays for each square of paper that they have. For each sentence, they throw away or roll in one square until they are done.

11. Concentric Circles

I adore doing this activity when there is time for speaking. It is fun and also an active way to get to know lots of people in class in a short amount of time, speaking and sharing information with each other. It really provides an excellent practice for real communication with native speakers where each student has a possibility to speak with them.

The class should be divided into two equal groups with the same number of students. Make two circles: inner and outer, one inside the other so that  each person can face one partner.

Ask an icebreaker question to the class and give students a chance to answer. After some time (you can set a time limit, for example, one minute), call out “Rotate!’. The outer circle should move one step counterclockwise. Students now face a new partner. The inner circle should not move and should stay where they are. Call out another question (the topic of the questions can be different, depending on the material students learn) and give a minute to answer before rotating again. Keep going until the students come back to square one facing their first student or until you run out of questions.