ESL Icebreakers with Fun and Flair!

ESL Icebreakers with Fun and Flair! Motivation, Introduction, Listening, Vocabulary, Cooperation, Review Nancy Charest Nnanc97@aol.com Susan Kocaba skocaba@branfordschools.org ERACE

Why Use Icebreakers? Icebreakers can play an important role in helping students integrate and connect with one another in a group environment. They can be motivational tools. They help stimulate cooperation and participation. Icebreakers can provide a change of pace and positive momentum for study and discussion by: ( Icebreakers ) Developing social skills Creating a good atmosphere for learning and participation Building rapport Encouraging cooperation Building listening skills Helping to develop a sense of community Helping students review material Using Icebreakers Be enthusiastic! Choose volunteers carefully and avoid causing embarrassment. If something is not working, quickly move to the next activity. Timing is important. Icebreakers are short, 10-30 minutes. Be sure to finish while students are still enjoying it. 2

Drum Jam* http://adulted.about.com/od/icebreakers/qt/drumjam.htm The ancient art of drumming can be a fun and easy way to energize your class or review material. Size: This is best in groups of 6-12, but could work in groups of up to 15. Use: Strengthening listening skills and developing an ear. Time: 10 minutes is ideal. Materials: None Instructions: Start your group by practicing a few rhythms. Tap a simple beat, repeatedly, and have the class follow you. A 3- or 4-beat measure works best. When ready, you start with a simple beat. The next person adds something different to your beat, and so on around the room. Encourage creativity, fun, syncopation, and a mixture of techniques. You might start with a slower beat to practice and then pick it up. Some options to explore: Tapping with fingers only. Slapping with whole palm. Tapping with finger nails only. Knocking with knuckles. Banging with soft side of fist. Three quick taps in one beat. Pausing a beat. Example: Start with two finger taps on your right hand and a knock with your left knuckles. Tap, tap, knock. Tap, tap, knock. The next person adds a bang, pause, slap. Bang, pause, slap; next, Slap, tap-tap-tap, bang, etc. 3

Life Raft Size: Form groups of 6 Use for: Oral language, building community through cooperation Time: 10 minutes Material: Newspaper Instructions: Place opened (2pp) newspapers scattered in an open area. You will need a newspaper foldout for each group of six. Following oral directions, at the count of 3, each group of students finds a life raft for their group. Everyone in the group must fit on the newspaper using language to accomplish their goal. Size: This game would work with any size. Use: Introductions and recapping learning Time: 20-30 minutes is ideal. Snowball Fight* http://adulted.about.com/od/icebreakers/qt/snowballfight.htm Materials: Paper from your recycle bin would be perfect if one side is blank. Instructions: If used for introductions give each student a piece of paper and ask them to write their name and three fun things about themselves. Have them crumple the paper into a snowball. Divide the group into two teams on opposite sides of the room and let the snowball fight begin! When you call stop, each student is to pick up the nearest snowball and find the person whose name is inside. Once everyone has found their snowman or snowwoman, have them introduce him or her to the rest of the group. If used for recapping, ask students to write a question regarding the topic you want to review. Provide each student with several pieces of paper so there is abundant snow. If you want to make sure certain issues are covered, add some snowballs of your own. When the snowball fight is over, each student will pick up a snowball and answer the question in it. Another variation for grammar review is to have students do three different snowball fights writing a noun first, a verb second, and an adjective third. After the third snowball fight the student writes a sentence using the words on the paper (Used in the demonstration). 4

Acting Class Size: This can be done as a whole class activity. Use: Fluency, vocabulary, reading with expression Time: 5-10 minutes Materials: Index cards Instructions: Review a phrase or sentence that you want students to remember. Have index cards with the words loudly, whispering, singing, monotone, screaming, fast, slowly, in a deep voice, in a high voice. Students choose a card and repeat the phrase/sentence as it dictates on their chosen card. This builds vocabulary. Choose words according to appropriate levels. Shopping Trip http://iteslj.org Size: This can be done in small groups or as a whole class activity. I prefer small groups. Use: Vocabulary, speaking Time: 30-45 minutes Materials: Magazines with plentiful pictorial advertising, scissors Instructions: Pass around some magazine ads, and have each student choose an ad that he/she likes. Give students an opportunity to explain their choice to the group. Who, What, Where, When* Use: Review of Wh- questions, speaking, getting to know classmates Time: 10-15 minutes Materials: 3 x 5 Index cards Instructions: Give each student a 3 X 5 index card with a one-word Wh- question starter written on it. The question starter should begin either with who, what, where or when. Students write one question using the question starter. For example, What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Students mill around the room asking students their question and recording the answers. Students share their responses with the class. 5

Matching Pairs Use: Visual discrimination, cooperation, oral language Time: 10 minutes Materials: Holiday pictures/word cards/photographs, scissors Instructions: Have holiday picture cards. Write the name of the holiday on individual index cards. Students receive either the index card or a picture. On the count of 3, they try to partner with the match. A variation is to do this using compound words. Another variation is to do this using photographs of people cut in half. Use: Vocabulary, categorizing, oral language Materials: Paper and pencils Time: 15-20 minutes Mind Reader* Instructions: Each student needs a paper and pencil. The teacher says in a dramatic voice, I am the mind reader! Tell me what I am thinking. She then instructs the class to write all the items they can in a particular category. For example, he/she says I am thinking of a kind of car. What is it? The mind reader writes the name of one car on a paper which is kept private. Student list all the cars they can think of in a minute. The mind reader then reveals the name of the car. A student with the matching answer becomes the next mind reader with a new category. Jigsaw Puzzle Size: Depends on the number of the pieces of the puzzle Use: Oral language, cooperation Time: 15 minutes Materials: Puzzle Instructions: When students enter the room, give each of them a piece of the jigsaw puzzle. They must assemble the jigsaw puzzle together discussing where each piece should fit. Only the student holding the piece may place it into the puzzle. 6

Categories* in small groups Use: Vocabulary, oral language, dictionary use Time: 30 minutes Materials: Poster paper, marker, dictionary Instructions: Divide students into small groups. Give each group poster paper and a marker. The group must designate a recorder and a reporter. Each group has a different category such as: Vegetables, Furniture, Occupations, Colors, Clothes, Flowers, etc. Give students 15 minutes to brainstorm as many words in their category as they can. When time is finished, the reporter reads the responses to the whole class. Members of the other teams may challenge an answer. The teacher and the student issuing the challenge use a dictionary to resolve the challenge. The team gets one point for every answer that is unchallenged or beats the challenge. The highest scoring team can claim victory. Size: Small groups or whole class Use: Speaking, vocabulary, introductions Time: 15 minutes Materials: Cut up pieces of construction paper Color Pieces* Instructions: Have at least five different colors of construction paper cut up into 2 x 2 squares with enough for one color for each student. Allow students to choose a color piece. Tell students that each color piece represents a question. For example: Red: What is your favorite time of the day? What do you like to do during that time? Green: Are you a small town or big city person? Why? Blue: If you could go on vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go? What would you do there? Yellow: Are you a morning person or a night owl? What time do you get up in the morning and go to bed at night? Orange: What is your current job or dream job? Describe your work responsibilities. Depending on the class size, you could group those with same color together to discuss the question or put one person with each color in a group. Questions can change depending on the level of the student. 7

How Well Do You Know the Teacher? http://www.eslcafe.com/ideas/ Use: Writing and responding to questions, introductions Time: 20 minutes Materials: Paper and pencil, class board Instructions: This is a variation of an icebreaker found on Dave s ESL Café. It is a fun activity when you start a new semester and you would like to introduce yourself to your class. Ask your students to write 2-4 questions they would like to know about you, the teacher. While they are writing you can go around and check that the questions are appropriate (As the teacher you may want to say you have the right to not answer a question that you do not feel comfortable answering just as they do while in class). Once the students have the questions written ask for a volunteer to come to the front of the class. Tell the volunteer and class that the volunteer will now play the role of you as the teacher and the volunteer student will answer as s/he thinks you would answer (not his/her own answers). While the students are asking the questions and the volunteer is attempting to answer the questions as the teacher, the real teacher is keeping score on the board- one point if the student answers the question correctly, ½ point is some of it is correct, and zero points if it is not correct. This really creates a lot of anticipation and laughter. The teacher can then summarize or correct the responses at the end. You can rotate volunteer teachers to give more students the opportunity to respond to questions. Use: Asking questions, introductions Time: 10-15 minutes Materials: 3x 5 index cards Alternative Version of Find Someone Who* http://www.eslcafe.com/ideas/ Instructions: This is another variation of an icebreaker found on Dave s ESL Café. Instead of giving students a pre-made list requesting to Find someone who, you ask them to write on an index card I want to find someone in the class who and then complete the sentence. The students then mill around the room asking their personalized question to their classmates. This allows the student to determine what they want to find out about their classmates. 8

Ten Fingers (presented at TESOL 2013)* Size: Small groups of 5-6 Use: Asking questions, practicing yes-no simple present and present perfect tenses Time: 5-10 minutes Materials: None Instructions: Place 5-6 students in a small circle and ask them to hold up all 10 fingers. Each student takes a turn asking a yes-no question. If the student cannot answer yes to the question, s/he puts one finger down. The last student with a finger up wins. Some sample questions may be Do you have a pet? Are you married? Have you ever been to an amusement park? Size: Students in pairs We Have a Lot in Common Use: Asking and answering questions, introductions Time: 15 minutes Materials: None Instructions: This is another great icebreaker for students to get to know each other. In pairs, ask students to find three things that they both have in common besides what is obvious (same gender, language, etc.). Students have to keep asking each other questions until they come up with a list of three things. For example, we both shop at the Asian market in Middletown. The pairs then share their commonalities with the class. Use: Expressing and defending an opinion Time: 15 minutes Four Corners Activity (presented at TESOL 2013) Materials: Four signs labeled Strongly Agree, Agree, Strongly Disagree, and Disagree Instructions: Place signs with Strongly Agree, Agree, Strongly Disagree, and Disagree in each corner. Gives students a statement that requires some evaluation of opinion (Example: Soda should be banned in school cafeterias. ). Students go to the corner that matches their opinion. The students in the same corner discuss why they chose that corner and then report it to the rest of the class. After each corner has explained their opinion you can ask students from the different corners to politely refute another corner s opinion and see if any of the students may now want to switch to another corner. 9

One Question Use: Asking questions Time: 5-10 minutes Materials: Teacher questions Instructions: The teacher gives each student a different question and the student has to find the person in the class that best answers it. For example, Who has lived in the United States the longest? The students can also come up with their own questions. Use: Introductions, oral instructions, direction words Time: 10 minutes Materials: 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 index cards Four Corners Introduction Instructions: This is another great activity to allow students to get to know each other. Give each student a 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 index card. In the middle of the card ask each student to write his/her first name. In each corner ask the student to answer a different question from four predetermined questions. For example, in the top right corner write the name of your favorite food. In the bottom right corner write the name of your home country. Fill in the last two corners. Students then mill around the room looking at each other s answers and asking questions. This is also a nice opportunity to teach words like right, left, top, and bottom while following oral directions. Would You Rather? www.insight.typepad.co.uk or small group Use: Oral language development Time: 10-20 minutes Materials: Teacher list 10

Would You Rather? Instructions: Present students with Would you rather questions similar to the ones below. As a whole class or a small group, students discuss and then are given the opportunity to make and defend their choice. Samples: Would you rather have unlimited money or unlimited time? Would you rather have a new car or new furniture? Would you rather see a good movie or eat a good dinner? Would you rather be lost in a jungle or in the desert? Would you rather see the future or change the past? Would you rather always be cold or always be hot? Would you rather be invisible or be a mind reader? in pairs Use: To state preferences, get to know each other Time: 20 minutes Materials: Teacher-generated handout Which Do You Prefer? Instructions: Teacher generates a handout similar to below. In pairs, students ask each other to choose which they prefer (or not) and why. Students then report the information about their partner to the class and the results are recorded on the board. Students can then take the class responses and create a bar graph of preferences. The class can then compare the survey results. Preferences My Answers My Partner s Answers Eating pizza or tacos Drinking coffee or tea Eating sweet foods or salty foods Walking or running Eating at home or in a restaurant Talking on the phone or sending an email Reading a book or watching TV Sleeping in late or getting up early Living in the city or in the country Studying English in the morning or at night 11

Human BINGO https://bingobaker.com/ Use: Review of formulating a question, introductions Time: 20 minutes Materials: Pre-made BINGO cards Instructions: There are several free BINGO card generator websites on the Internet. I have given a link to one above and an example below. The teacher creates fragments of questions in each box of the bingo card. The generator mixes up the fragments so students can all have different cards. Once you have enough cards for each student, give students some time to review what is on their card and how they would ask the questions to their classmates. After students are prepared, they mill around the classroom asking questions of their classmates until they get five in a row and a BINGO. The student then has to read the responses with the classmates name to check that it is a good BINGO. B I N G O Has ridden on a horse Speaks two or more languages Has more than three siblings Was born in January or February Is afraid of heights Has been camping Doesn t like roller coasters Likes to go hiking Owns a cat Has been scuba diving Has lived in the United States for over two years Knows how to swim Free Space Has visited the Statue of Liberty Has broken a bone Likes broccoli Likes rap music Has read more than ten books in the last year Has traveled to five or more countries Has children Has traveled to Disney World Writes poetry Is a grandparent Eats in a restaurant at least once a week Plays a musical instrument 12