10 Fun Icebreakers for the Beginning of the Year

Everyone loves a good icebreaker—it’s a great way to get to know other people and help people feel relaxed in stressful situations, such as the first day of a new school year.

Here are a few icebreakers and some variations to the icebreakers to try during the first week of school to build a good sense of community in your classroom that will last throughout the year!

Try These 10 Awesome Ideas to Kick off Your School Year

1. 1

   Name Chain Games

   By far and away the best way to learn and retain student names is to do a name chain game to start off the class. You can vary the specifics to fit the needs of your particular class, but my class usually goes like this: the first student says 1) his or her name, 2) his or her home country, 3) one interesting fact about himself or herself, and 4) his or her favorite English word. The next student must then repeat all of the information about himself or herself and then say the name and favorite English word of the preceding student. The third student introduces himself or herself and then says the names and favorite English words of the preceding two students, and so on until the last student. For a challenge, tell the last student not to write anything down! As the teacher, you can also go last instead and impress the class with your knowledge of their names while simultaneously making the last student feel better. Make sure you quiz your students throughout the week to see if they can remember everyone’s names and favorite words. I’ve also made a practice vocabulary quiz using each of their favorite English words before which is a great way to transition them into your testing style.
   Variation: Instead of having students say their favorite English word, have them choose a word that starts with the same letter as their name, a favorite city, favorite food, etc... the options are endless!
2. 2

   New Year’s Resolutions

   Your students may familiar with this popular tradition in January, but a new school year should bring about new resolutions for students and teachers alike.Have students partner up with each other and discuss what goals they have for themselves for the school year. Encourage them to be specific with the things they would like to accomplish and what they want to be different. Make sure that you as the teacher make some resolutions too!
   Variation: While students are talking together, have them create a poster of their resolutions. Display the posters around the room to help students remember their goals throughout the term.
3. 3

   Name That Person

   Another great activity to get to your students to know each other a little better is a guessing game. Pass out small pieces of paper or notecards to each student and tell them to write down two facts about themselves on the card without writing their name on them. Collect the cards in a basket and mix them up before redistributing them to the students. Students take turn reading out the facts from the note card and the other students guess which person wrote the card.
   Variation: Instead of writing them down on notecards, have them discuss their facts with a partner. After groups have had some time to discuss, come back together as a whole class. The partners will take turns sharing facts and the rest of the class has to guess which partner the fact is about! Give a point to the partners who guess the facts correctly and a point to the partners who are able to fool the class.
4. 4

   Would You Rather....

   Line students up in two lines with each line facing each other. Tell them to come up with creative “Would you rather...” questions to ask their partners, such as “Would you rather eat pizza for the rest of your life or chocolate?”; “Would you rather be a ballerina or a florist?” etc... Give them a few examples to prompt them and see what kinds of creative questions they come up with. This will help to pique their creativity and get to know their new classmates. After a short time, have one of the lines move down so students will get to meet everyone in the other line.
   Variation: In a large circle as a whole class, have Student A pose a would you rather question for Student B to answer. To make things even more interesting, have Student B answer for a different student. For example, Student A might ask “Student B, do you think student C would rather have a crocodile or a zebra for a pet?” The students will then guess for their classmate; be sure to have Student C answer to see who close Student B was!
5. 5

   Find Objects to Describe Me ....

   A classic get to know you activity is to have students go through their backpacks, folders, pockets, etc... and find 3 or 4 things that they feel describe them very well.Students then need to describe their objects and why they chose them as their defining objects. Put students into pairs to share their objects or share as a whole class so that way everyone can hear about their new classmates!
   Variation: Send students around the building with cameras (phones work nicely these days) and take a picture of something in the building that they think defines them or could describe them.
6. 6

   Word Association

   A great speaking activity that helps to loosen up nervous students on the first day is a word association game. One student says a word (choose a category like travel if you wish to narrow things down) and the next person must say a word associated with that word; the next student says a word associated with that word, and so on. If another student challenges the association, the student must justify how those words are related. Make it a competition to see who can get the most points if you want to add a little friendly rivalry in the mix.
   Variation: To make things more challenging or adapt this activity for a higher level class, put extra restrictions such as the word you say must begin with the last letter of the word the previous student said. For example, if Student A says “Japan,” Student B might say “ninja.”
7. 7

   Who Am I?

   A great way to mix students up to arrange them into groups or just get them speaking to one another is to put nametags on the back of the students of famous people, teachers, movie characters etc... Make sure that these people will be well known by all of your students. Students must walk around with their nametag on their back that they cannot see and ask questions to their classmates about who they are.
   Variation: If you wait a few days and do this activity on the 2nd or 3rd day of class, you can put a classmates’ name on their back and their peers will have to know that classmate well enough to describe him or her to the student. This is a great way to review names!
8. 8

   Picture Story-Telling

   To get some of the more creative students included, give each student a blank piece of paper. Tell them to draw a picture of an event that happened to them recently, for example, a vacation they took, or a graduation ceremony etc... There can be no words on the paper. Put the students into pairs and have the partners guess what went the event was based on just looking at the picture.
   Variation: Before putting students into pairs, collect the students’ pictures and randomly redistribute them to different students. The students will then have to describe to the class what is going on in the picture. When they finish, ask the artist of the picture to say how close that student was and to narrate what actually happened in their life event.
9. 9

   I’m Cool Because...

   If students are getting sluggish and you need them to move around the first day, do this activity. Have all of the students seated in a circle and you as a teacher stand in the middle. To start off the activity, you will say “I’m cool because...” and then finish that sentence with something that’s true about you, for example, you’re wearing blue jeans, you speak 3 languages, etc... Then, every student who shares that fact in common with you must stand up and find a new seat. You also will need to find a seat meaning that one student will be stranded in the middle. This game is great for finding commonalities and getting in some good laughs!
   Variation: Play “I have never....” instead. When students are in the middle, have them call out things they’ve never done and have the students move who have done those activities.
10. 10

    3 Common, 1 Unique

    This activity is good for small groups. Randomly group students into three or four and give them a time limit to discover three things that all members of the group have in common and one thing that is unique for all of them. When the time is up, have each group report to the class. Then, change up the groups and have them do it again with their new class members. If it starts to get too easy, start ruling out common answers like “We’re all from different countries” or “We all breathe oxygen.”
    Variation: Try this with the whole class after doing it in small groups. If they’ve been good listeners, they should be able to recall many things that all students had in common. It may take awhile, but there are surely at least 3 things the whole class has in common!

The first day of school can be stressful for everyone, but these icebreakers will help you and your students get to know each other in a fun, interactive way to help build the classroom environment all year long!

How To Break The Ice: 5 Creative Ways To Get Your Class Talking

Icebreakers are important when you are trying to get to know your students.

They are even more important if your students do not know one another well either. Depending on how your school organizes its classes, you may use these types of activities primarily at thebeginning of the school year. You can also adapt icebreakers into activities to use when starting new topics. It is sometimes easier for students to share their ideas if they know the rest of the class will have to share theirs too.

Here are some fun icebreakers you can do with almost any class.

Try These Ice-Breakers:

1. 1
   Learn The Names 
   In order to learn students’ names, you can conduct an activity where students take turns saying their name. You can make this more challenging by having students say the name of the last student to speak or even the names of all the students who have already said their name before saying their own name. To make it more interesting and to learn a little more about your class, ask students to include something specific such as their favorite cereal, color, sport, or movie. By the end of the activity you should try your best to say every student’s name. If students are learning the names of their classmates for the first time, conduct some other name activities for practice. For one activity, have students stand in a circle, on a student’s turn he should say a word or sentence related to whatever prompt or topic you choose, and then call out the name of a classmate to go next.
2. 2
   Find Someone Who... 
   If students know one another’s names, get them talking about some other topics by having them play “Find Someone Who ~” where students ask and answer questions based on pictures or phrases to find someone for each question who can answer “Yes.” The model question for this activity could be “Do you like ~.” or “Do you have ~.” After five to ten minutes, depending on the number of questions students have to ask, have everyone sit down and call on students to read some of the answers, for example “Ben likes soccer.” this way the class can learn more about individual students. Try to encourage students to give sentences about people who have not yet been mentioned. This gives everyone the opportunity to share something.
3. 3
   Talk and Remember 
   Another activity gets students talking with the people seated around them. Have students talk to the person to their right about hobbies for instance. After a minute or two have students turn to the person to their left and talk about another topic. You could also do this as a mingling exercise where students have a limited amount of time to exchange information before moving on to the next person and conversation topic. Be sure to ask some students things they learned about their peers at the end of the activity so that they try their best to remember the conversations they had.
4. 4
   What's Important
   If your class is quite small you may also consider having students think about the three things they would take with them to a deserted island and then share why they chose one or all of those things. This is an excellent way of getting to hear about what is important to your students and how they are able to organize their thoughts. If your class is larger, you can conduct the same activity in groups which is good for getting students talking with one another but will exclude you for most of the activity. Another similar group activity is to have students write down the first word that pops into their head when they hear you say a certain color. Students can then discuss why they chose certain words in their groups or just have the student with the most unusual choice explain his choice. After a few minutes give them another color to think about and discuss. Groups should present the class with a brief summary of their discussions towards the end of the lesson.
5. 5
   Three Adjectives That Describe You 
   For introductions, you could also have students choose three adjectives to describe themselves. Perhaps a the end of the year have students fill in adjectives for all their classmates, nothing mean spirited, and give students a summary of what their classmates said about them in the last lesson. This should give students some positive reinforcement and point out their personality strengths. It may be interesting to compare these with the adjectives students chose to describe themselves too.

Icebreakers are excellent because they give students the opportunity to share things about themselves and learn about their peers. These activities often get students moving or thinking creatively. They can be lots of fun and dissolve any tension or nervousness there might be in your classroom. It is important that students be able to interact with one another easily because learning English is all about communication. Students will need to be comfortable sharing ideas with the class and talking with other students in groups or in pairs on a regular basis.

How to Host Your Own English Language Olympics

As the year comes to a close, celebrate everything that your students have learned with this fun review of the year’s English lessons. Here’s how to host your own English Language Olympic Games.

Host Your Own Olympics in Your Classroom

1. 1

   Assign Teams

   You don’t have to put your students in teams to play these language games, but giving ESL students a partner does tend to decrease their stress and make fun activities like these even more fun. So think about creating teams of two to four amongst your students. Mix skill levels as well as the cultures of your students.
2. 2

   Create Country Flags

   Have students create fictional countries that they will be representing. In their teams, have students choose a name for their country andcreate a country flag.
3. 3
4. Host the Events
   The events are probably the most fun part of your English language Olympic Games. You have lots of flexibility to design events based on your students’ skills and what you are studying in class. Here are some ideas to get you started. Remember for each event, you will want to award points to the top three teams – five points for first place (gold), three points for second place (silver), and one point for third palce (bronze). It’s up to you whether you have one person from each team compete in each event, requiring your students to strategize who will participate in each event, or have everyone from each team compete in each event, which will give you a read on every student’s skills. At the end of each event, take a few minutes to hold a metal award ceremony. Have the top three scoring teams come to the front of the room and award them prizes for the round. If you like, choose three awards – gold, silver, and bronze – to use for every award ceremony. Let each team who won an award keep it in their possession until the next award ceremony at which time they return it to you and you pass it on to the top three teams for the next event.

Consider Vocabulary Diving

Use this event as a review of all your vocabulary words for the year. Write each word on a small slip of paper, and put it in a bucket. This will be your pool. Then, have one person from each team take turns “diving” their hand into the bucket and choosing a word. They will then have sixty seconds to write a sentence on the board, which clearly shows the meaning of the word they chose in their dive. If the sentence shows the meaning of the word, score five points. If it is also perfect grammatically, score another five points. Play as many rounds as you like and then award medals to the teams according to their scores in the event.

Check Equestrian Spelling Jump

While Olympic riders race to complete a jumping course in the quickest time, your students will race all at once to reach the end goal while spelling words. In essence, this is a spelling bee, but in Olympic style. To prepare, scatter several papers around your classroom floor or another open playing area. Tell students these papers are like rocks in a stream, and they will have to step from one to another to get to the goal. No two people can occupy the same spot at the same time. Students will have to choose what they think is the shortest route from their starting position to the goal. Have teams draw for the order in which they will play. On each team’s first turn, they begin at a designated starting spot. Give the player a word to spell. If that person spells the word correctly, he or she may jump to a square of their choosing. Then the next player goes. If a person spells a word incorrectly, they must return to the starting point. If they miss the square on their jump (both feet have to land entirely inside the paper) they must return to the starting point. Students will have to decide if they want to spell more words and take more careful steps or if they want to take bigger jumps in hopes of getting to the finish faster. The first person to reach the end wins gold, the second silver, and the third bronze.

Fill in the Blank Archery

Firing arrows in your classroom probably isn’t a good idea, but you can easily set up a dartboard for this simple game. First, choose the skill you want to test. - it might be a particular grammar point or comprehension questions on something your class has read. Then set up your dartboard with a line down the middle. Label one side A and the other side B. When students compete in the event, ask each person a question on the target structure and give him or her a choice of answers between A and B. The student must choose what answer they think is correct and then throw the dart at that side of the board. Award one point to the team if the dart lands on the correct answer. If the dart misses the board completely, subtract one point from their score. At the end of the game, the top three scoring teams are awarded metals.

Apply Vocabulary Wrestling

How many synonyms do your students know for common words? How many items can your students name from a given category? Find the answers in this simple vocabulary faceoff. Students from two teams come to the front of the room and face each other. You announce a category, such as sports. The players must then take turns giving an item from each category until one person cannot think of another one. The last person able to give an item for the category scores a point. Play enough rounds so each team has the same number of turns and award the top three scoring teams at the end of the event.

You can create other games of your choosing, or do an encore of in-class exercises after giving them an Olympic sounding name. Add up points for all the medals your students won, and award the final prizes in the closing ceremony.

Do you do any fun end of the year reviews with your students?

What are your favorites?

7 Great Games for Speaking Practice

Our students can always use some extra speaking practice, after all, it’s most likely the main reason they signed up for the course: they need to speak English in real life situations. But what they enjoy the most is playing games. So, let’s kill the proverbial two birds with one stone, and let’s play some games for speaking practice!

Have Fun with 7 Fabulous Games for Speaking Practice

1. 1

   Crazy Cubes

   When students give instructions, they often struggle to recall the right preposition. Play Crazy Cubes for some preposition practice! First, print two blank cube templates. Let’s say you want to practice prepositions of place. On one of the cubes, write down different locations or places in the classroom: the floor, the teacher’s desk, a chair, a table, a backpack, etc… On the second cube, write down different instructions:put your book, put your pen, put a piece of paper, put a ruler, etc…
   Divide the class into two teams. Each team takes turns rolling both cubes. Students must correctly give someone on the other team an instruction based on the prompts given in the cubes: Put your pen on the teacher’s desk. If the student uses the correct preposition, the team gets a point.
2. 2

   Spot the Differences

   Here’s another option to practice prepositions of place, this time, by providing descriptions. Print this worksheet. Divide the class into two teams and give each team one set of photos. Team members take turns saying the differences out loud. Team A goes first, then B, then A again. Give each team one point not only for spotting the difference, but also for each correct answer.
3. 3

   Perfect Possessions

   This is a great way to practice possessive pronouns. Cut out images of people from magazines. Make sure you have men and women, but also pairs and groups. Next cut out, pictures of cars, houses, dogs, and be sure to get some bedrooms and offices. Put the people in one bag and the possessions in another. Students take turns pulling one picture from each and talking about the items. Let’s say a student takes a picture of a man and a picture of a house: This is John. This is his house. His house is very big and has a swimming pool. There are three bedrooms in his house. Etc... Challenge students to say as much as they can!
4. 4

   Tell Me a Story

   Here’s a fun way to get students to tell you a story. You can use this fairy tale boardgame or design your own. Students roll the dice and tell their story by using the character they land on.
   Variation: Make your own boardgame by pasting pictures you’ve cut out from magazines or even celebrity photos. You can use people, objects, places, and make the game as long or as short as you want their stories to be.
5. 5

   What a Life!

   This game is guaranteed to spark conversations. Print a copy of the What a Life worksheet and cut out the different slips of paper that contain information on major life events. Students take turns taking a slip of paper out of a bag. They read their life-altering event out loud, and the rest of the class asks questions about it. As students take their turns, keep a tally on the board of how many questions each student asks. The student who asks the most questions in total wins.
   Variation: Students stand in front of the class and reveal a major event in their lives; it could be a memorable vacation or party, or an important milestone, like a graduation or their first job.
6. 6

   The Doctor is IN!

   Try this game to practice giving suggestions/recommendations or using should for advice. Write short messages on slips of paper; each message should describe a problem or a symptom: I have a fever and a stuffy nose. I feel chills, and I’m too tired to get out of bed. Students take turns taking a piece of paper. They must read the problem out loud and then proceed to give their recommendation: This person should stay in bed and get plenty of rest. They should also drink lots of water and take aspirin for the fever.
   Variation: Write other types of problems your students could solve, perhaps difficulties related to studying English, financial troubles or any kind they might share advice on.
7. 7

   It’s Movie Time!

   This worksheet also provides a great example of how to turn a speaking activity into a game. In this case, the topics revolve around types of movies and the kind your students enjoy the most. They take turns rolling the dice to see what to talk about.
   Variation: Edit this very same worksheet, or create your own with any topic you want them to talk about - health, the world of work, the environment – anything and everything you’ve covered in class.

To make some of these activities more of a competitive game and less of a simple speaking activity, simply introduce game elements. My favorites include a basic Tic Tac Toe grid, and a boardgame type of path that students move along with the roll of a pair of dice. They can take their turns after they roll their number, for example, but in order to be able to move that number of steps, they must give a correct answer. You might also want to give more advanced students a time limit, and say, for example, they must speak for a full minute. Or make it a competition to see who can speak the longest!

You can turn any speaking activity into a game if you use the right game elements.

Students of all ages will find speaking more enjoyable and will be more motivated to participate.