Happy end of July! How in the world has summer flown by so quickly? I feel like I’m just getting started, and I’m not ready to say goodbye. I’ve been enjoying the sweet sunshine, no schedule, and fewer responsibilities. I hope you’ve been enjoying yourself too, teacher friend. Because you have earned it. You took on a massive undertaking last year, kicked butt, and took names. We are all in awe of your strength, determination, and the way you took this last year in stride…even if you’re not in awe of yourself yet. As you’re gearing up for another school year, I wanted to compile a list of virtual icebreakers you can play in your class this year. But, if you are completely in person, don’t check out yet! These will work for face to face AND virtual, or the combination of both. I’m going to tell you some of my favorite ice breakers, and how you can tweak them to work virtually as well. I want to help make the start of the school year just a little easier for me, because, let’s face it, those procedural lessons take forever. Let’s get into it!
Here’s what to expect
Alright, alright teachers. How many of you have started planning for the start of the school year? Do you have your ice breakers covered? I know how much we all hate ice breakers as adults and professionals. They’re the worst. I always dreaded them in my college classes and then on professional development days before the official start of school. So, I won’t be playing them with you today. How could we do that through a podcast anyways? But, I will be trying my best to tie it to ice breakers you use in person and teach you different ways you can implement it virtually. My hope is that by the end of this podcast you will have an ice breaker idea and will have an idea of how you want to implement it on the first few days of school.
The Beach Ball Icebreaker
Our first icebreaker is a spin on one of my favorite ones to play in the classroom. It was always a fun way to tie in summer and allow my students some movement as well as a choice. It’s low stakes, cheap, and fun to play. I call this the Beach ball icebreaker. For the beach ball icebreaker, I bought the largest beach ball I could find, but a regular sized one would work as well. On each section of color, I wrote a get to know you question with a Sharpie. My students threw the beach ball to one another and answered one of the questions their hands landed on. Allowing them to choose between two questions helped them feel safe in their response, and allowed my students to get to know each other better. Isn’t that the whole point? It also allowed us to laugh and start building that classroom community.
So, how in the world are you supposed to implement this virtually? Fear not! There are a couple ways to do this for your classroom, and both are low cost, as I try to always keep it. The first way is one of those random spinners you can quickly find on Google. You will be able to write your question where the name usually goes. This option allows for unlimited options, so the sky’s the limit with this one. To implement this virtually you can just quickly click the button and the spinner will display one of your icebreaker questions. If you want to allow the same choice that comes with the beach ball, you can spin more than once and let them choose their favorite.
Don’t have a beach ball? Here’s a swap!
Another choice is to head to your closest dollar store. Here, I found large foam dice with dry erase stickers on each face. Instead of assigning each face a typical number, you can write your question on the sticker. This doesn’t allow for much room, but you can make it work! To implement this virtually, find a hard, flat surface. I like whiteboards or clipboards. Hold up your surface to your camera and roll the die. If you want to give them options, again, you can roll more than once and let them choose. Do I miss the beach ball? YES. It’s hard to replace the laughter and movement that comes along with it, but I still love this icebreaker, and I hope you do too.
2 Truths and a Lie
Let’s move on to option number 2! And what better game to play with option two than Two Truths and a Lie? This game is very common, so I won’t spend a ton of time explaining it. But, the gist is, each student will share two truths about themselves and one lie with the class. The goal of the game is to find the lie. This one implements flawlessly with your face to face and virtual learners. It’s so easy to bring the speaking student to a virtual, or in person stage to allow them the platform for both types of learners to listen. If you are teaching asynchronously, you can bring the student inside the classroom towards the camera. This way they are speaking to the face to face class and the virtual class. For your online learners, you can spotlight that student if you’re on Zoom and project their window to the class. To help build community, you can even turn the camera so your virtual students can see their in person classmates. This will help them feel like they are speaking to a real human and not the wall and will help them bring purpose to their moment to shine.
I really like this game because it helps your students get a taste of how your class will be run when you are teaching both types of learners at the same time. It’s a learning curve for both you as the teacher and the students, and this gives them a low stakes environment to get out all of the kinks and questions they may have.
The Bag Game
If you ever went to a make up, kitchen, jewelry, etc party, you may be familiar with my next icebreaker activity. During these parties, the host or hostess asked you to find something in your bag or on your person that started with a certain letter or was a particular color. The person with the most points at the end of the game won a raffle ticket. I call this The Bag Game. For this game, your students will collect their backpacks and all of their belongings and bring them to their seat. You will call out different colors or letters you want your students to find and hold up for the class to see. You can then give points for creativity, or just use it as a bonding moment to talk about their likes and interests.
How it works…
For example, you can say “Show me something that starts with the letter Nn.” A lot of your students might hold up their spiral notebook. This is a fun opportunity to talk about favorite colors or characters that are on the notebooks. You can say “Show me something that starts with the letter Ss.” Students might hold up their shoe, their spiral notebook again, their sock, or so much more. The sky’s the limit with this game and it’s so fun to watch students get creative with their responses. It really allows students to shine in their own unique way, and lets them have fun while showing off their new school supplies. An added bonus? This is low cost and low prep for you! You don’t need to buy anything extra! All you would need to prepare is a list of questions you want to ask your students ahead of time, and determine whether you want there to be a winner and what their prize will be.
I am poem
This one is one of my newer icebreakers, but it quickly became one of my favorites. If you’re like me and like to get started with content right away, this is a great place to start that will serve a dual purpose in your classroom. You will be able to start on aspects of poetry, and you can continue learning all about your students. There are tons of already prepared I am poems for you on Teachers Pay Teachers or you can create your own. One of my favorites also incorporates the 5 senses. When I teach this inside the classroom, I usually just print out the guide for my students. However, this podcast is all about virtual icebreakers, so let’s make this virtual! One of the simplest ways to virtual-ify this lesson is using Google Forms again. You can start the beginning of the statement in the question area and the students can finish in the blank space. For example you will type “I am” and in the blank space your students can answer with (a student, a son, a daughter, a soccer player…) and so on.
Want to take it up a notch?
If you really want to round this out so your students can see each student reading their poem, you can create a safe space on Flipgrid for your students. Here they can upload themselves reading their poem. They can also watch and respond to their classmates. I have an entire podcast episode about how to use flipgrid so we won’t get into this today. If you’re interested check out Episode 7: Online Teaching Tool Swap 5.0 – Bring Student Centered Discussions to your Virtual Lessons with Flipgrid. You can also read my blogpost about it here! Ok teachers, let’s move into our last virtual icebreaker.
Questionnaire
Last but not least, let’s talk about the questionnaire. I know, I know, you want to check out on me. And, I don’t blame you, because it’s the least interesting of the options. But, it has its merits! I still like to give questionnaires to my students because it’s a safe place for them to talk to me. This is a one on one conversation between myself and the student, without their peers watching on. I like to ask light hearted questions, as well as deeper, more personal questions. I used to print these out and hand them out to my students, but now I place all the questions inside of a Google Form. If you still like the hard copies, you can print these out once all your students have finished. If you’re not familiar with Google Forms, it’s a place to ask your students all types of questions from multiple choice, short answer, and longer answers. You can have it grade for you or leave upgraded, but the how-to is for another episode.
Setup
When I am setting up the Google Form for my questionnaire, I make sure I check the box that requires my students to answer each question before they can submit it. Some light hearted questions I ask may be “Who do you consider to be your best friend?” “What is your favorite TV show?” “Where do you like to do your homework?” These are easy to come answer. Some of the more personal questions I like to ask to really understand my student are “Is there anything you want to tell me that will help you this year?” “Is there a person at this school you would like to avoid?” “Do you have anything else you want to share or tell me?” This last question lets my students share anything on their mind from the light hearted to the heavily personal. When students truly open up, it gives me a much better understanding of them as a person and as a student. Because of this, I’m better able to cater each lesson to them and their learning. And finally, I like to do mental health checks to check in with my students. This lets me know their feelings about school in general, as well as their feelings for the day.
Before we begin…
Before I let my students start on this assignment, I like to preface it with a few things. First, I tell them that this is between me and them. Nobody else will be reading this. This is to help me get to know them a little better. I also tell them that there is no pressure to answer some of the questions, like the medical one above. Students have their right to privacy. I do require students answer each question within Google Forms, so if they don’t want to answer, I instruct them to write a simple “no”. I also like to share mine with them so they can get to know me too! After all, the goal is to become one large family. How are we supposed to become a family when I don’t allow them to get to know me as well?
What’s your favorite?
Do you have a favorite icebreaker? How do you plan to incorporate it virtually? Let others know in the comments so we can use this space to brainstorm together. I can’t wait to hear all about your beginning of the year preparations. I hope you are excited for the space and family you will be developing with your young learners soon. Finally, I hope you’re enjoying the last few rays of summertime and are recharged for the new school year. Don’t forget to take care of yourself, teacher friend. See you next week!
