Icebreakers are often "once and done" by nature. However, what if we could use icebreakers to create an experience that sets the tone for our classroom interactions and creates more lasting connections to others?Icebreakers are a necessary beginning of the year activity for students throughout the grade levels. The challenge as teachers is to make them engaging without being embarrassing those who aren't quite ready to step out of their comfort zone (as Jennifer Gonzalez of Cult of Pedagogy blog has wonderfully pointed out on her list of terrific icebreakers). After all, it is only the first days of middle school for our sixth graders and that can be really scary for many of us. We all want to make a good impression while warming up to the group. When discussing ideas for this year with my teaching partners, I remembered an icebreaker from years ago used by Naturebridge while at a teacher camp in Marin Headlands. Outdoor instructors really are THE best at this sort of interactive game. We classroom teachers can learn so much from them, but I digress. . .
With all these things in mind, my teaching partners and I collaborated and came up with a very cool icebreaker that is engaging having students up and talking to each other while setting up peer pairs (a new spin on the handy "Classroom Appointments" many teachers use). Classroom appointments is a strategy in which students pair up with several different students so that no two are working together all of the time throughout the year. It normally utilizes a clock motif that teachers call out to indicate which partner to join up with (For example, "Ok, class, now it's time to meet with your 10 o'clock appointment partner to read your drafts.") It enables teachers to quickly mix up the class and students to have a chance to work with many more people than they otherwise would while streamlining the whole find a partner process for the year. Check out the link in this paragraph for more information on this terrific strategy from another teacher blogger.
So, enter our Icebreaker 2.0 that mixes in the classroom appoints concept with a mingle style icebreaker. For our middle school students, we are referring to it as "Mingle Buddies." We'll instruct students to get up and find a new person in the room in each of the four rounds below (image at right is the slip they will each take with them to record). We're planning on breaking our mingling into three days to spread out the fun.
DAY ONE
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| [Student Sheet to record and store for use throughout the year.] |
Round 2: Find one person who was born in the same birth month. It must be a new person--not the same as round 1 person. Make up a secret handshake that includes a fist bump with him/her. Introduce yourselves if you don't know each other already. Talk out/write down the question "What's your fist bump buddy's favorite sport?" responses.
DAY TWO
*Warm-up: Give your high five buddy and quick high five and say hello using his/her name. Then greet your fist bump buddy using the secret handshake you made up together yesterday. Make sure to say hello and greet each other by name. Now back to finish the game.
Round 3: Find someone you didn't choose from yesterday that is of the opposite gender. Introduce yourselves if don't already know each other. This is your dab buddy. Ask the question on the sheet: What is one thing that not many people know about you? Talk out/write down the question responses.
DAY THREE
On the final day, use the information the buddies collected to introduce each student to the group. To do this, have one student at a time raise his or her hand. When it is that student's turn, each of his or her buddies each should say something about the student learned in previous days. For example, Karisa raises her hand. Her high five buddy tells the group she loves science and technology. Her fist bump buddy adds that she likes watching water polo and her dab buddy tells the class she's a vegetarian. Finally, her nudge buddy tells everyone that her family loves learning new things on trips and reading. By the end, we're starting to get a sense of our class as individuals and laying the foundation of a classroom community.
Now here's another really great part--an added bonus if you will. Students are to keep these "Mingle Buddies" slips in their notebooks to use throughout the year. We teachers will occasionally announce, "Go find your high five (or dab, nudge buddy, fist bump buddy, etc.) and those students will meet up again to discuss topics as a pair. We envision using this at least a couple of times a week especially early in the year to get students up and moving as well as working with others that they wouldn't normally for a fresh perspective.
Icebreaker 2.0 fine-tuning tips:
*We're going to make sure that students end up with four different partners for each round.
*We've tried to scaffold the questions in the rounds from most easily approachable to a little more personal to build as comfort levels hopefully do.
*If there is an odd number of students in the class, then we as teachers will add in to balance it out (I kind of hope there is because I want my own high five, dab, fist bump, and nudge buddies myself!)
* For during the mingling part of the icebreaker, I've created a "Mingle Buddy" Youtube playlist to quietly play as background music in the class.
*We'd like to encourage students to use their special greeting when they see each other in the hallway and other classes. It would be so awesome to see secret handshakes and friendly nudges happening naturally throughout campus.
*We'd like to encourage students to use their special greeting when they see each other in the hallway and other classes. It would be so awesome to see secret handshakes and friendly nudges happening naturally throughout campus.
