1. Self-Portrait.
Have your students draw themselves. After they have done this, collect the papers and hang them up for the whole
class to see. Now have students try to guess who the artists was for each picture.
2. Letter Writing.
At the beginning of the year, write a short letter about
yourself as the teacher. Tell the students where you live, what
your hobbies are, and if you have any children, pets, etc.
Hand out your letter to each student in your class and ask
them to write you back with similar information about
themselves.
3. The Mingle Game.
Give each student an index card. Have them write a question
that they would like to ask the other students in the class.
Examples might include, "What is your favorite song?" or
"What is your favorite sport?" Next, have the students get up
and walk around the room. When you say, "stop," students
have to stand beside the person closest to them and ask the
question that is on their own card. Both students have to
answer the questions. Now have them mingle again and meet
a new person.
4. The "What Am I?" Game.
Have the students get into a circle. Give each student a post-it
note. Have each person write a noun on the post-it note. Then
stick the post-it on the forehead of the person standing to right
of them with the noun showing. Now have student take a turn
to ask the group a "yes/no" question that will help them guess the noun on their forehead. If they do not guess
correctly, the person on their right gets to ask a question. Keep going until all of the noun have been guessed, or
your time limit has expired.
5. These are a few of my favorite things.
Pass around a sheet of paper and some pens. Ask the students to write their name and their favorite TV shows (you
can come up with your own topic for favorite things). Collect the papers and pens. Begin reading the answers, but
have the class guess who wrote the response.
6. Birthday Lineup.
Call out any month of the year and have all students born in that month
come up to the front of the room. It is up to the students to decide who
stands first, second, etc., so they are standing from the first day of the
month to the last day of the month. Now call out another month (don't call
the months in order), and have those students try to position themselves
correctly by day and by where they should stand as an entire month. This
is a great way to get kids working together and knowing each other. Once
all of the kids have lined up, test them to see if they are correct.
7. Icebreaker Pictionary.
Have the students draw pictures about what they
like to do, what their favorite foods are, and what
is their favorite subject in school. Have each
student come up and show their pictures to the
class. See if the students can guess what each
student drew that tells a little bit about
themselves. For instance, if a student draws a
yellow M, can anyone guess that she likes
McDonalds?
8. Show and Tell.
Don't forget about this old time favorite part of
class. Instruct students to bring in something that
they cherish, or just want to share with the class.
Give each student a turn to come up and tell
about the item that they brought in. This way the
class will get to know each other and something
that makes each student happy.
9. The Snowball Activity.
Have students write three things about themselves on a piece of paper. Then have them crumble up the paper to
resemble a snowball. Let the students have a snowball fight for about one minute. Now everyone grabs one of the
snowballs and has to try and find the person who wrote on it. Once they find their partner, they have to bring that
person up in front of the class and explain what they learned about their new friend with the three facts written on
the piece of paper.
10. The Observation Game.
Line up the students in two lines facing each other. If there is an odd number of students, you can play the game,
too. Give students 30 seconds to look each other over really good, paying attention to all details about their partner.
The students in one line now turn facing the other way while the other line of students changes something about
themselves. For example, a girl might take off a hair bow, or a boy might un-tuck his shirt. When the kids in the first
line turn back around, they have to guess what their partner changed. Now switch and let the first line make the
change and the second line guess the difference.
