Icebreakers & Warm-up activities

Activities compiled by Peace Ho

Pictures selected by Sophia Radlsbeck

Can you forget our TESOL course easily? We had good co-operation and
wonderful lessons with Mr. Ray and Mrs. Heather. Therefore, Id like to
share something with everybody, and I hope that everybody in our class
keeps this manual as a great memento.
Peace Ho
September 2005
TESOL COURSE

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Contents Page
Part One: Icebreakers
Two Day Icebreaker
Kindergarten Icebreaker
Talk to methis way
The Magic Wand
Finish the Sentence

.
.
.
.
.

pg. 4
pg. 5
pg. 6
pg. 7
pg. 8

Snowballs
Hot Potato
Marooned
The Twister Game

.
.
.
.

pg.9
pg.10
pg.11
pg.12

Part Two: Warm Ups

Splat!
.
Who wants to be a millionaire? .
Plus 1, 2, 3
.
A+ B = C
.
20 Questions
.
Quick Link
.
How do you like your neighbor? .
Hangman
.
Bobbity bop,bop,bop
.
Baby-What time is it?
.
Pantomime
.
Bean Bag
.
Categories
.
Here pussy,pussy
.
Who is it?
.
Cries of Animals
.

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pg.15
pg.16
pg.16
pg.17
pg.18
pg.18
pg.19
pg.20
pg.20
pg.21
pg.22
pg.23
pg.24
pg.24
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Part 1: Icebreakers

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Two day icebreaker

This is my ice-breaker for my summer lessons in 2000. The first day, I used a
deck of cards for my students to introduce themselves. On each students
turn, he or she had to take a card from a deck of playing cards. (I left the
joker cards in).
The instructions: Use the value of the card to determine how many things
to say about you. If you pick the ace, say one thing; two, say two things;
a Jack is 11, Queen is 12, King is 13. If the student got the Joker card, he or
she could ask me questions instead.
The follow up activity: I took notes on everything that everybody said, and
then made up a crossword puzzle of student names. (To make it harder,
you could use other information about the student, such as place of work
or native country). They completed this crossword the next time that they
had class.
This was a nice way to remind people of who their class members are and
gave them material to start conversations (Are you really from
Transylvania?). The activity goes more quickly if students have name tags
on. I think its better if they have to ask each other for information.
Caveats: Be sure to spell students names correctly when doing the
crossword! (My sign-in attendance sheet was helpful here). Make sure that
the clues you write about the students are accurate! Choose a boring
clue if youre not so sure if something is true.

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Kindergarten Ice Breaker Physical Humour

Ive found that the best ice breaker for kindergarten classes is a little bit of
Three Stooges style physical humour. Pretend you cant open the door
when you arrive on the first day, trip over your chair, drop your books and
cards as often as possible. Lose your marker in plain sight, bump your
head on something..
The kids will go nuts with laughter, they will relax, and youll have their
undivided attention. Ive successfully used this in a class in Korea where
of the class burst into tears when I walked in for the first time. (They had
never seen a foreigner).

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Talk to me. This way

This is a good activity to start the class. Before getting started, write
sentences on a post-it paper like Ask me questions, Laugh at me, Be
angry at me, Disagree with me, Ignore me, etc. according to the
number of students youve got. Stick the paper to the students back, so
he cant see what is written. They must stand up and go around the class
and talk in pairs. They must act according to whats written on their
partners back. If it says Tell me lies, they are supposed to tell lies. The
teacher can choose topics like holidays, dates, pets, etc. for them to talk
about. They need to change partners many times.
At the end they are supposed to tell how people acted while talking to
them, to see if they can guess whats written on their post it paper.

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The Magic Wand

You have just found a magic wand that allows you to change three work
related activities. You can change anything you want. How would you
change yourself, your job, your boss, co-workers, an important project,
etc.? Have them discuss why it is important to make the change. Another
variation is to have them discuss what they would change if they become
the boss for a month. This activity helps them to learn about others desires
and frustrations.

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Finish the sentence

Go around the room and have each person complete one of these
sentences (or something similar):
The best job I ever had was
The worst project I ever worked on was
The riskiest thing I ever did was
This is a good technique for moving on to a new topic or subject. For
example, when starting a class and you want everyone to introduce
themselves, you can have them complete I am in this class because
You can also move on to a new subject by asking a leading question. For
example if you are instructing time management, The one time I felt most
stressed because I did not have enough time has been

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Snowballs!

This is a fun way to get students relaxed while at the same time getting to
know the students a little better. It also helps show them that learning (as
theyll be learning about each other in this activity) can be lots of fun.
And its really easy:
1. Have the students write down at least 3 facts about themselves (or
as many as you want to have them write down).
2. Instruct the students to crumple up the papers on which they have
just written their facts on.
3. Then shock them by telling them that now, they get to have a one
minute snowball fight and let them stand up and throw the
crumpled fact papers at each other for a minute.
4. At the end of the minute, students grab whichever snowball is
closest to them. Reconvene the class and then you can either:
a) have the students read the facts on the snowball they have
and guess which student in the class the snowball belongs to
b) or have the students read aloud the facts on the snowball
they have and whoever wrote those facts has to tell the class
its theirs, rather than having the students guess.

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Ive used this game as an ice breaker for 11th and 12th graders and they
LOVE it because its so completely different from what a teacher would
normally let them do (i.e., go wild for a minute) and it gets them relaxed
and laughing.

Hot potato!

Equipment: Potatoes or tennis balls, music

Description: Firstly you divide the class into groups of four or more. Then
give each group a potato. The activity works by passing the potato
clockwise around the group until the music stops. Once the music stops
the person left holding the potato stands up and is asked to do an action
i.e. cluck like a chicken!
Once they have done this task they can sit back down and the music
starts again, they continue passing the potato. The catch is that the
person who has been given the action must stand up and perform this
action every time they get hold of the potato.
The result is that you have a group all doing different actions while passing
a potato along to an up to date piece of music. This has never failed to
break the ice!

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Marooned

You are marooned on an island. What five items would you have brought
with you if you knew there was a chance that you might be stranded?
Instructions: Divide the class into teams. In their teams the group
members come up with their list of 5 items. Note that they are only
allowed five items per team, not per person. (You can use a different
number, such as seven, depending upon size of each team.) You can
have them write their items on a flip chart and discuss and defend their
choices with the whole group.
This activity helps them to learn about others values and problem solving
styles and promotes teamwork.

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The Twister Game (Great for big groups of people)

This game is best to be played in a large group. Divide the people into
groups of 3. However, 1 or 2 people must not be in a group, they are
extras. In each group, 2 persons will stand and face each other while
holding each other hands. The 3rd person in the group will squat/kneel in
between the 2 people. So basically the 2 people whore standing up are
called the House, while the person kneeling in between is a Human.
The host of the game can shout any 1 of the 3 commands at 1 time:
1. Fire: Fire burns down the house. So people who are the house
must change partners to form new houses they cannot remain
being a house with their existing partners. The people who are
human must not move. They must remain in their existing place so
that the people who are the houses can form new houses over
them.
2. Flood: Flood causes humans to drown. Therefore, the human must
change to other houses. They cannot remain in the same existing
house. The people who are the houses do not move this time.
3. Twister: Everybody has to change their position. For the people who
are the houses, they can either change partners, or they can
kneel down to become humans themselves. For the people who
are the human, they can either change to other houses, or they
can stand up and partner with someone to become a house.
When the host shouts any 1 of the commands, the 1 or 2 people who are
extras must move quickly so that can compete with the original players by
partnering up with someone to become houses, or by becoming
humans and occupying the houses.
Note: To enhance the excitement, the host shouldnt wait too long to
shout another now command. Also the host can shout 2 or 3 new
commands continuously so that players will feel extra nervous when
changing position.

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Icebreakers & Warm-up Activities

Part 2: Warm-up activities

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Splat!

Here is a fun game for all.

The group stands in a circle, facing the middle, with one person in the
centre of the circle. The person in the middle then spins around, and
points to a person at random, shouting SPLAT! That person must then duck
down, and the two people either side must point at each other and shout
SPLAT!
If the first person doesnt duck in time, they get SPLATTED and are out. If
they do, the last person to say SPLAT on either side is out.
Quite confusing at first, but good fun once you get the gang of it!!!

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Icebreakers & Warm-up Activities

Who wants to be a millionaire?

I used a modified version of the popular game show with an intermediate

adult class, but Im sure it could be used with almost any level or age
group. The game was originally used as a wrap-up for lessons about
holidays.
Preparation: I made overheads of questions about holidays. I put about
ten questions on each page. Many of the questions were taken directly
from a book called Talk about Trivia by Irene Schoenburg, AddisonWesley. Each question had three possible answers.
The rules: The class is divided into two teams. One team begins by
volunteering the first person to sit in the hot seat, which was placed
between the two teams. The first question and multiple-choice answers
are revealed. The teacher reads them to the players.
The player in the chair has as much time as he/she needs to answer. The
teammates may tell the hot seat player what they believe the correct
answer is. Eventually the player must choose one final answer to submit.
If the answer is correct, the team receives a point. If the answer is not
correct, no points are given. In either case, the other team sends a person
to the hot seat next. It should go back and forth like this until the
questions, or the students, are exhausted. Each team member should
have opportunities to sit in the hot seat.
At the end of the game, the team with the most points may be given
some sort of real or silly prize. I made a giant cheque for a million dollars
signed by me. (The game was a tie, so I gave each team half of the
cheque!)
These rules keep everyone involved. Being able to rely on teammates for
answers also relieves individual pressure to get a question right.
Other ideas: I used this with trivia about American holidays. I imagine it
could also be used with other content areas, or even grammar,
depending on the level of the students.
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Icebreakers & Warm-up Activities

Plus one, two, three

The first student says Yesterday I went to the store and I bought
[something]. The next person adds to the first by saying Yesterday I went
to the store and I bought [something] and [something else]. Keep it simple
for the lower levels. For higher levels any student can add up to three
individual items at a time.

A+B=C
Students are given two letters of the alphabet and they must come up
with words that include both of those letters. If the letters were l and l
for example, the student would say T plus L = and then finish with a
word like towel. The next person then has to do the same in a short
amount of time. Keep going around the class until someone stumbles. The
letters can be used in order or reversed, and the word can be any length,
but must be one single word. Words cannot be said twice in one game.

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Icebreakers & Warm-up Activities

20 Questions

Here is an old favorite I play very often with my high school students. The
students have to guess what thing the person is thinking of by asking him
or her 20 yes/no questions. If no one guesses the answer after 20 tries, the
answer is revealed. A yes answer earns the questioner another chance
to ask, a no passes the asking on to the next player.
Maybe your students are advanced enough to ask appropriate questions
on their own, in my case to facilitate my weak ones I hand out a print I
made with examples of questions. The first question on my print is, Are
you animal?/vegetable?/mineral?. Then below that I have written three
categories of questions: animal, vegetable and mineral. Under the animal
heading my first question is Are you human? Then I have written
questions like, Are you famous? Are you in this school? Are you a
man/woman? Are you Japanese? In case the animal is not human I
have, Can I eat you? Can I ride you? Are you bigger than a _____?
etc.
Under the vegetable heading I wrote questions like Can I eat you? Are
you delicious? Are you in Japan? etc. And finally under the mineral
headline I wrote, Are you metal/ plastic/ stone/ wood? Are you
[blue]? Do I have you? Are you in the classroom? Can I see you?
By using the print my students get a feel for asking questions in English and
I have found many no longer need to refer to the paper.
I hope you have good luck playing this great word game.

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Icebreakers & Warm-up Activities

Quick Link

Size of Group: 10 to?

Focus: energizer, socialization, fun
Description: As the group leader shouts out get into groups of fours,
everyone quickly joins a group of four. At any time, even before the group
of four is formed, the leader shouts out another instruction.
Examples: everyone with the same colour shoes, everyone with the same
colour eyes, group of five people born in the same month, people with
the same Zodiac sign, form a letter Z with a group of 3 people.
Expected Outcome: group cohesion, laughter and feelings

How do you like your neighbour?

Equipment: A circle of chairs for all involved except for one person.
Description: One person stands in the middle of the circle of chairs and
announces I like my neighbour who. eg. is wearing sneakers has
brown hair, etc. Everyone who fits the statement must move (run) to
another chair.
The object is for the person in the middle to find an empty chair. This is a
lot of fun and can be played for a long time. Remember to use your
imagination.

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Icebreakers & Warm-up Activities

Hangman

All ages, all classes, all levels

This is basically a hangman variation, using a full sentence.
Instructions: Put the empty spaces of all words in the sentence on the
blackboard. Divide the class into two or more teams, and explain that
they have to first guess and later on deduce the words that make up the
sentence. In turns, they can say individual letters, and get as many points
as there are letters of that type in the whole sentence, or they can
venture a guess at one complete word. If they get it right, the total
number of letters in the word) even previously entered individual letters in
that word) gives them the number of points they get for that turn, AND
they get ONE extra turn (either a letter or a word), and then its the other
teams turn.
Notes: Ive found that if you let them continue until they make a mistake; it
takes too long for the other team to get their turn. When all the words are
completed, the game finishes. Be careful to differentiate between letters
that have been entered as individual letters during a teams turn, and
letters that are entered as part of a word, because in that case there
could still be more of that kind of letter in the rest of the sentence.
This not only practices spelling, as hangman does, but also syntax, tenses
etc., as students will start speculating on what type of word can go in the
empty spaces once they have some information to work with.

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Icebreakers & Warm-up Activities

Boppity bop bop bop

Equipment: None
Description: Get the group to stand in a circle. Everyone remains standing
and there is one person in the middle. The person in the middle will go to
someone and point saying zip or zap. Zip means left and Zap means
right. When the person in the middle says Zip the person to whom they
are pointing must say the name of the person on their left before the
person in the middle says Boppity bop bop bop. If the person who is in
the circle cannot do this, then they change places with the person who is
it in the middle.
This activity is great with older kids (14-19yrs)

Baby! What time is it?!

When teaching basic time-telling skills I devised this game. Its good for
beginners/children, but wears out after one or two uses, yet is quite
effective and fun.
Draw two blank clock faces on your white/black board and divide the
class evenly (or even into thirds, etc.). Have one student from each group
come to the board and have them race to draw the big and little hands
properly when you tell them the time. This is a great way to install the
concepts of quarter to and after, half past, five of, almost, on-the-dot,
straight up, noon/midnight etc. Prizes arent necessary if you can drum
some team spirit, but chocolate never hurts for the winners.

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Icebreakers & Warm-up Activities

Pantomime

The actors will work in groups of 4-6 and are instructed to pantomime a
single general activity (examples: Playing different sports at school,
performing with an orchestra, circus acts, hospital work, etc.)
To communicate the idea of a GENERAL activity, each actor must
pantomime a SPECIFIC one
For example: Office works
One actor mimes being a typist, another delivers the mail, another is
a boss at a desk (perhaps on the phone), a client visits the office
to see the boss, etc.
The audience then guesses the general activity and then talks
about the specific ones.
Make sure the actors understand they cannot speak only mime
with their bodies, facial expressions, etc.

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Icebreakers & Warm-up Activities

Bean Bag
This exercise demonstrates to the children how important it is to project
their voices.
Place three bean bags in front of a row of children. One about 10 feet
away from them the second about 20 feet away, the third about 35-40
feet away (this can obviously be changed to suit the physical
environment of the class).
1. Ask each child to look directly at the first bean bag, say their name
and the name of their favorite animal.
2. Instruct him to say the exact same things to the second bean bag
3. Would he speak with the same volume? Of course not the
person is further away
4. When asked to address the third bean bag, he obviously should be
projecting his voice as loud as he can.
After all the class has addressed the bean bags, let them know were really
acting in a play just then reaching the first three rows, the middle rows,
and the back rows of the theatre!

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Icebreakers & Warm-up Activities

Categories
Students are given five categories (animals, fruits & vegetables, persons
name, work-related words, countries) and one letter of the alphabet (s, b,
w, r, and m). In a limited period of time, they must come up with as many
examples of each category that start with that letter. When the first letter
is done, check everyones answers. If the student has a word that no one
else has, that student gets a point. Then move on to the next letter.

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Icebreakers & Warm-up Activities

Here Pussy Pussy

Equipment: None
Description: Get the group to sit in a circle. Put a random number in a
bowl or something of that sort. Get each individual to pick a number. The
one with number 1 goes in the middle of the circle, and gets down on
his/her all fours and acts like a cat. The person with the number 2 then has
to tap the person on the head and say here pussy pussy without smiling
or laughing. Its up to the group to decide whether the person should go
into the middle.
I have played this game a few times with various groups. It is always a
good laugh especially with a group just starting up.

Who is it?
Equipment: None
Description: A chosen guesser goes out room. A leader is then picked
from the group. Whatever the leader does the group must copy. When
the guesser enters, they must try and see who the leader is by trying to
work out who is starting the new actions off (tell the group not to all look
at the leader as it makes it harder). This is a really fun game and is good to
keep a small group occupied for short time.
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Icebreakers & Warm-up Activities

Cries of animals

The game is filled with laughter and fun with the intention of forming the
participants into groups of 4 10.
Preparation: Before one could conduct this game, he or she needs to
write the names of animals (cow, cat, pig, etc.) on to pieces of paper or
card.
Once the group is ready to play, distribute these written slips of paper to
all. Let the participants not show their slip to another person as this needs
to be top secret. Then tell the group to make the sound of the animal that
they have on the slip and form a family of the same animal (in one corner
of the room) The group carefully listens to the similar sounds from the
others. In this way, it would be easy to form the participants into groups.

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Bibliography
www.berkeleyprep.org/lower/fourth/writing/warm_up_activities.htrm
www.classroomtools.com/warm-ups.htm
www.eslcafe.com
www.recreationtherapy.com/tx/txwarmup.htm

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