10 Fun and Engaging Ice-Breakers: 1) Name & Signature Movement

10 FUN AND ENGAGING ICE-BREAKERS
Another school year has just begun and everything is ready

once again! It is now time to get to know your new classes
and establish good rapport with all your students. The
activities below will help break the ice, boost their motivation
and, more importantly, engage students into a more active
learning mode.
1)NAME & SIGNATURE MOVEMENT
Students stand up in a circle. Each student says Hello. My
name is and then thinks of a step, a bow, a gesture that will
be used to identify him/her. This signature movement is a
simple action unique to them. Every students thinks of his/her
movement and sound. They must think of something simple
and unique for each student such as a hand clap, a funny
gesture, a spin, etc. You can lead the way by inventing your
own movement signature and then you can encourage the
rest of the group to think of something different.
As a follow -up task and, once each student in the class has
presented their unique movement signature, encourage the
group to try and remember their partners signature
movement signature, one by one.
2) THATS TRUE ABOUT ME!
Students fill in a card with true information about themselves.
They should not include their names on the card.(see a
sample card below).
Collect the cards and shuffle them. Take one at random and
read one of the lines on the card.
Students listen and they have to stand up and say Thats
true about me! if what you say is true about them.
Sample Card:
I love eating.
Every weekend I .
My favourite school subject is..
Remember to adapt the range of topics and structures to suit
the different levels of your new groups.
3)TWO THINGS IN COMMON
Students work in pairs. They have to find two things they
have in common.
Write a couple of topics on the board and students ask each
other questions about the topic in order to find the things
they both like, do, eat, play, etc.
Topics:
FOOD YOU EAT
SPORTS YOUR PLAY
GAMES YOU PLAY
TV PROGRAMMES YOU WATCH
Suggested questions
Do you like..?
Do you play.?
Do you watch.?
4)GUESS WHO!
Design a card which students have to complete with
information about themselves.
Collect all the cards, shuffle them. Take one card at random
and read all the information on the card.
Students listen attentively and think who that student is.
5) ALL ABOUT ME
Students choose a number a colour a city a name an
animal a school subject, etc that are special to them. They
write these words on the board on the board. The rest of the
class reads the words and has to guess why he/she has
chosen those words. For example, if students write JUAN for
the name, the class can ask:
Is Juan your dad?
Is Juan the name of your best friend?
Is Juan in this school, etc?
To add a tech tool, student may prepare the words as a word
cloud using www.wordle.net
Sample:
T
W
GEORGE
LONDON
O
BLACK
PIZZA
You can always present this activity for pair work too.
6)A PIC OF MY HOLIDAYS
Students choose a funny/crazy photo from a magazine and
stick their face onto one of the people in the photo or they
may also add their photo to the scene. Students use the
picture to describe their holidays: they say where they are,
who they are with, how they are feeling, what is happening,
etc. More advanced groups make up a simple story reviewing
the past tense.
To add a tech tool, students may choose a pic from google
images or from www.photofunia.com and invent their own
scenarios.
7)UNFINISHED SENTENCES
This activity is ideal to get to know your students and it is
100% adaptable to all levels and ages.
Students have to complete some sentences with true
information about themselves. Get students to read their
sentences to a partner first and then to the rest of the class.
As a follow-up you can conduct class surveys to check how
many students like a type of food, or play a certain sport, etc
Suggested sentence frames
My favourite computer game is
I hate .. because
I play..
My best friend.
I am always happy when..
I get nervous if .
8) CROSSWORD NAMES
Ask students to create a crossword puzzle with their
own names. They write their first name down the
centre of a piece of lined paper. Students then add
hobbies, colours, pets, personal traits to each letter of
their names.
To make it more challenging, students can create a
puzzle with their name + surname!
B A S E B A L L
N E A T
D O G
Y E L L O W
9) BACK TO SCHOOL BINGO
Use the Bingo Grid attached with other extra materials.
To review vocabulary, you can always start with a
brainstorming session. Give students two minutes to jot down
all the words they remember related to school. Topics may
include school life, teachers, parts in a school, people in
schools, school objects, etc.
Ask students to read their lists and write the words students
say on the board. Ask students to choose 9 words at random
and to copy those on their grids.
You can then choose 9 words one by one by drawing a
circle round each of them or you can always prepare slips of
paper with all the words and place them in a bag. Call
different students to draw slips out of the bag and it is Bingo
time!
10)
ACT THE SENTENCE
This activity is ideal to teach/review useful classroom

language expressions that students need every day.
Examples:
I need a blue pencil/ a ruler.
I dont understand.
Can you repeat that?

May I go to the toilette?
I cant find my
I have a headache.
Prepare slips of paper and put them on up on display on the
board. Encourage students to repeat each and mime the
action/expression.
Call a student to the front, whisper into his/her ear one of the
expressions on the board. The student act the sentence
without saying a word. The rest of the class has to guess
which expression he/she is miming.

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10 FUN AND ENGAGING ICE-BREAKERS

Another school year has just begun and everything is ready

ACT THE SENTENCE

This activity is ideal to teach/review useful classroom

Can you repeat that?

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