10 icebreakers for A-level students or young

adults
Last person standing. Ask students to stand up, and ask them a series of
questions. If they can answer ‘Yes’, they remain standing. If ‘No’, they sit
down. Questions can range from silly to sensible (‘Do you like bees?’, ‘Can
you juggle?’, ‘Are you scared of the dark?’) or even topical. Include students’
own questions in the second round! Last person standing wins.

Full house! Give each student a bingo card with nine squares. Each square
will have a characteristic, such as ‘Has been to another country’ or ‘Can’t
cook!’. Students move around the room trying to find someone to fit the
characteristics in every square. You could leave a couple of squares blank for
students to fill in with facts they have learnt about others. The first to fill all
nine squares wins. Bingo!

Desert island delights. Marooned on a desert island, what five things would
you bring with you? Students discuss in pairs, focusing on items to improve
their comfort and enjoyment, rather than survival items.

Genie in a bottle. If you had just three wishes, what would they be?

All around the world. In pairs or small groups, students ask each other:
• Where are you from?
• Where have you travelled to?
• Where would you most like to travel to next?
They then introduce a partner to the rest of the class.

Who’s who? Which actor would play you in the movie of your life? Which
animal do you most identify with? If you were a biscuit, what would you be?
Which TV character is most like you? Which fictional world would you most
like to visit? Students ask each other a series of silly questions to find out
more about each other.

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 ‘Me’ map. Give students a large sheet of (flipchart) paper. They should
create a pictogram map of their life — with any details they want to share
(favourite foods, books, holidays, places, music, films, hobbies and interests
etc.). Students could even add a timeline of their life if they wish. They can
then share their maps in groups.

Would you rather…? Eat pasta or pizza? Meet the Queen or Queen B
(Beyoncé)? Have Thor’s powers or Loki’s? Be thought of as intelligent or kind?
Have a cat or a dog? Travel through time or through space? Be able to talk to
animals or speak all foreign languages? Students ask each other a series of
hypothetical questions and then introduce their partner to the class!

A few of my favourite things… Just like The Sound of Music song,

encourage students to write a list of their favourite things (whiskers on
kittens will probably make it onto everyone’s list!). Older students can be a
bit self-conscious at times, so a prop might help, like writing their ‘favourite
things’ in a retro fortune-teller template or in an outline of their hand.

Challenge champs. Based on the silly timed games in the popular TV series
Taskmaster, invent a series of competitive games for students to challenge
each other to win. Challenge categories might include endurance (staring for
the longest without blinking), skill (spinning a coin for longest time) or
strength (holding arms out at your sides without them shaking!). Other
categories might include biggest (balloon to be blown up without it popping)
or tallest (tower of folded paper or card) or etc. The sillier the challenges,
the better. When students put themselves forward to compete in a round,
they should only know the category, not the task!

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