Friday, August 2, 2013

Favorite Back-to-School Icebreakers Linky

Pin It Now!

Icebreakers. For some, they are a fun way to share about themselves, and if they're truly listening, learn about others. For others, they are a tortuous exercise in introducing themselves to strangers by sharing banal facts about their lives. My husband loathes icebreakers. In an adult setting, I tolerate them and have learned to tailor my responses to each audience. 

As a teacher, I think icebreakers can be a fun way to break the anxiety and tension of the first days back and set the tone for a welcoming, warm classroom environment. It's a bit overwhelming to moderate a first-day icebreaker as a teacher simply because there are lots of a new faces and names, and it's challenging enough to have to do memorize those, let alone remember what 25 kids' favorite ice cream flavors are. 

If done purposefully, though, the information shared in icebreaker can be useful. For example, one of the best icebreakers I've ever participated in was one in which we simply focused on learning the names of other members in the group. At first, each person went around and said his or her first name. Our facilitator then divided us into two groups--peanut butter and jelly. The two groups were then separated by a sheet held by two people, one person on each end. One member from each group went up to the sheet, and the sheet was suddenly dropped. Whoever said the correct name of the person on the other side of the sheet first won a point for the team. We rotated in and out, all the while learning faces and names through repetition. It was great for so many reasons: (1) It was fun; (2) It was a low-pressure way to introduce ourselves to each other; and (3) I actually learned names through repeated exposure to faces.


Do you have a favorite icebreaker activity to share? Add the Favorite Back-to-School Icebreakers button to your blog post, and link up below!

Get the button!

aspire to inspire blog
<center><a href="http://www.aspiretoinspireblog.com/2013/08/favorite-back-to-school-icebreakers.html" target="_self"><img src="http://i1362.photobucket.com/albums/r692/aspiretoinspirestore/639f66a2-6523-4da6-98d4-6f29bfaab900_zps2f9384f9.jpg"; alt="Aspire to Inspire Blog" width="125" height="125" /></a></center>

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...