DEADLY CHOICES ICEBREAKERS
CONTENTS Introduction 3 The cold wind blows 4 Crows vs cranes 4 Zip-zap-boing 4 Untangle 4 Hand goggles 5 Numbers game 5 Bang 6 Two truths, one lie 6 Paper, scissors, rock 6 Gotcha 6 Chuboochuboo 7 Wink murder 7 Word link 7 Giants, wizards, and elves 7 Three questions 8 Ping pong 8 Ping pong ball and catch with cup 8 Reaction/electric current 9 Junk in your trunk 9 Edor 9 2
INTRODUCTION Icebreakers are facilitation exercises - games and activities - that help people get to know each other, work together, and start to feel comfortable in a group. They should: help break down social barriers create positivity within a group help people relax and motivate and energise. They start the process of individual members of a group coming together to form a team. Finding the right icebreaker to use in a group can be tricky, and will depend on the: size, age, and abilities of the group you re leading. Ideal icebreakers engage the whole group, need minimal or no equipment, involve some level of movement, and are quick to play. When choosing an icebreaker to use, think about the type of ice that needs to be broken. Have people in the group met before? Are they from different backgrounds, year groups, or schools? 3
THE COLD WIND BLOWS Get everyone to sit in a circle, and tell them that the cold wind blows for X. X could be people who walked to school, people who exercised today, people who ate breakfast today, people who are in a sporting team, or anything similar. If the person did the activity, they have to get up and swap seats with a person on the opposite side of the circle to them. CROWS VS CRANES Half of the players are crows and the other half are cranes. Each group will have their turn chasing each other trying to tag the opposing players to get them to join their team. Identify a point to which Crow or Crane has to get to, before the chaser catches them. Use the center line as a starting point. The Crows line up along one side of it, side-by-side, fingers meeting along the line full arm length, with the Cranes who line up on the other side. Call out either Crows or Cranes. If Cranes is called out, the Cranes chase the Crows to their side, trying to tag them. If Crows is called out, the Crows chase the Cranes to their side, trying to tag them. Players reset along middle, and call out a group again. Repeat as desired or until one team has all been caught and have no more players. ZIP-ZAP-BOING Have the group stand in a circle. There are three actions to the game: zip, zap, and boing Zip moves the action from the first person to the person on their left Zap moves the action from the first person to the person on their right Boing moves the action from the first person to anyone in the circle and skips the next person in the same direction of the game The first person says zip or zap to move the action around the circle. The next person says either zip (to continue the action moving to the left), zap (to send the action to the right), or boing (to send the action to somewhere else in the circle, skipping the person who would otherwise be next). Keep going around until someone messes up either by moving the action in the wrong direction, taking too long to make a decision, or taking the action when it s not their turn. When someone messes up, they sit out and the game starts again. The overall winner is the last person standing. UNTANGLE Have the group stand in a circle, facing each other if it s a big group, split them up into groups of 6-8. Get everyone to hold hands with someone on the other side of the circle to them each hand must hold hands with a different person. When everyone is holding hands with two people, get the group to try and untangle themselves, without talking. 4
HAND GOGGLES Similar to Zip-zap-boing, the group stand in a circle. Each player must make a circle with their index finger and thumb with both hand and then wear your hands as googles over your eyes. There are three actions to the game: Extend your left arm from your face and make a bird noise (cookcoo) and then the left person must act. Extend your right arm from your face and make a bird noise (cookcoo) and then the right person must act. Extend both arms and make a bird noise (cookcoo) and pass the next action to the person your pointing at, you can pass to anyone in the circle. Keep going around until someone messes up either by moving the action in the wrong direction, taking too long to make a decision, or taking the action when it s not their turn. When someone messes up, they sit out and the game starts again. The overall winner is the last person standing. NUMBERS GAME Put everyone into teams of 6. Hand each team a set of numbers and ask everyone to take a number. Have the team elect one person to be the leader of the team. The goal of the game is to be the first team to rearrange themselves to the number that you call. The leaders can help rearrange them to their appropriate positions. Once the team rearranges themselves, they have to raise their hands and stand in place. The first team to arrange themselves correctly receives one point. The team that reaches 10 points wins the game. 5
QUICK DRAW Get everyone to stand in a circle facing inwards. The leader in the middle of the circle points at someone in the circle. That person must duck down straight away and the two people either side of them must turn to face each other, hold their hands in the shape of a gun and say/yell bang. Whoever ends up getting shot is out. If the person who gets pointed at originally doesn t duck down quick enough, then they are out. TWO TRUTHS, ONE LIE This activity is for the whole group. Go around the circle with each participant and tell two truths and one lie about yourself. The rest of the group has to decide which the lie is and which are true. PAPER, SCISSORS, ROCK Students pair up and verse each other in paper, scissors, rock. The winner then goes onto verse another winner. The loser joins the person that they lost to and acts as a cheer squad. By the end of the game there should be two people playing off and a cheer squad for both players encouraging them. Optional change: have people form the shape with their bodies eg: make themselves a rock or scissors. Optional change: teams do it and the slowest team drops one off. GOTCHA Students stand in a circle and place their right hand out, pointing their finger down. The person next to them lays their left hand out flat. Students should now all copy and have their right finger pointing down onto the hand of the person next to them. The facilitator will then count down or say go and the students will try to pull away their finger while also using their left hand to grab the student s finger next to them. 6
CHUBOOCHUBOO The aim is for students to work together and keep an object off the ground. Students stand in a circle and see how long they can keep the object (like a balloon) off the ground for. Students will need to work together and use each other s names to ensure the object doesn t fall to the ground. WINK MURDER Ask the group to sit in a circle. The facilitator will choose a person to be the murderer and the rest of the group are potential victims. The game begins quietly with players sitting looking at each other. When someone catches the eye of the killer and is winked at, they are killed, and can die in any manner they choose (i.e. fold their arms). The object is to identify the murderer while trying not to be killed in the process. An incorrect guess results in instant death! WORD LINK This is a word association game. Ask the group to sit in a circle. The first person starts with any word they wish (i.e. red). The next person repeats the first word and adds another word which links to the first (i.e. tomato). The next person repeats the previous word and add another word link (i.e. soup, and so on). To keep this moving, only allow five seconds for each word link. GIANTS, WIZARDS, AND ELVES This game involves two teams who will act as one of three characters: giants, wizards, or elves. When a player acts out a character, he/she does the specific hand motions and also makes the noise associated with the character: Giants: stand on your tippy toes, raise your arms like a giant, say Rarrr! Wizards: crouch slightly, wave your fingers as though you re casting a magical spell, and say Shaazaam! Elves: crouch down very low, cup your hands around your ears, and make a high pitched elf noise: Eeeee! Who wins: Giants squash elves, elves outsmart wizards and wizards zap giants. Split everyone into two teams and divide them into separate sides of the room. For each round, both teams huddle and choose to become a giant, wizard, or elf. Both teams then line up and stand facing each other, two metres apart. At the start of each round, the facilitator says Three, two, one, go!! At this point, each team acts out the character they chose (giant, wizard, or elf). The loser tries to retreat back to their own side to be safe for that round and the winners try at tag the losers to join their team. If both teams show the same character, no one wins. Rounds keep repeating until one team wins (the other team is completely captured). 7
THREE QUESTIONS Participants answer three questions (relevant to program) on post-it notes and everyone puts their notes into the hat. Draw the answers out of the hat and participant guess who the answer relates to. PING PONG Played in teams of two. Each team takes turns throwing a ping pong ball into the other team s cups. These cups are placed in front of the other team. Once a ball lands in a cup, either on the full or on the bounce, the cup is taken away. First team to take away all the other teams cups wins. PING PONG BALL AND CATCH WITH CUP Get participants in groups of two. One person throws the ping pong ball and the other person tries to catch the ball with the plastic cup. 8
REACTION / ELECTRIC PULSE Form two teams and have the teams in two lines facing each other. Instruct the teams to hold hands forming two long human chains. At the end of the two lines, place a small object on the floor (eg. maker). The facilitator stands at the other end of the lines. Tell everyone in the lines to close their eyes and bow their heads downward. The facilitator then squeezes the hand of each line. Each person, whose hand is squeezed, squeezes the person s hand next to him or her. The goal is to be the team with the electric pulse passing all away along the line first. The last person must pick up the object on the floor first after their hand has been squeezed to win. JUNK IN YOUR TRUNK You will need an empty rectangular tissue box, about 10 ping pong balls and a piece of ribbon or string for each contestant. Fill the tissue box with the ping pong balls and attach a piece of string or ribbon to go around each of the participant s waists. Once participant is wearing a tissue box, put on a song and the participant must dance and shake until all of the ping pong balls are out. The winner is the participant who emptied the box the fastest. EDOR Edor can be played by large groups. Divided players into two teams. Players decide on the teams, the goals, the direction in which teams will run and who will start. The facilitator will select a player as the Edor and this player is given five seconds before he/she takes off, running towards the goal. A player who is the Edor attempts to reach his/her designated goal at the end of the playing field. The player attempts to do this without being tagged (touched) by a player from the opposing team. To become the Edor, a player of the defending team tags the player who was the Edor. This player then runs towards his/her designated goal at the other end of the playing area. The direction of the game changes each time a tag is made on the Edor. The game continues until a player is successfully able to reach the goal. When a player reaches the goal his/her team wins the round and all players meet in the center of the field to start a new game. Players are not allowed to interfere with each other or to stand in front of or near the goal to stop the Edor. These actions are not seen to be in keeping with the intention of the game. If necessary, a 5 15 metre semi-circle can be marked in front of the goal to keep players out of that area. 9