ICE BREAKERS

1. Greetings
Choose a song that you like and that the students might also appreciate. It works better with
lively, happy tunes such as reggae.

In class make sure that you have lots of space for the students to walk around.

Explain that you'll play some music and when you stop they have to greet the person
next to them by shaking their hands and introducing themselves (name, country,
nationality, age, likes and dislikes, etc).

Do it a few times adding new 'topics'; then add some variation and fun by asking them to
greet each other in a different mood, for example 'greet each other happily' or 'sadly' or
'you don't like the person you're greeting' or 'he/she is your ex-boyfriend/girlfriend',
'you're in a bad mood', etc.
You can make it more complex by adding 'moods' and 'topics', according to
the level of your class.

2. Word Circle
This can be used as a warmer, to revise vocabulary or for the teacher to check students'
vocabulary range on a certain topic.

Ask your students to stand in a circle. Choose a soft object such as a small ball or soft
toy that would be easy for the students to catch.

The teacher calls out a topic, for example, 'animals' and the ball is thrown at students at
random.

The student who catches the ball has to say a word belonging to that category in a few
seconds (the teacher decides on the time according to students' levels).

If the student fails to say the word or says a word which has been already said, he sits
down and is out of the game.
You can make it more complicated by changing the topics without warning or by asking the
students to say the next word using the last letter of the last word said.

3. Star of My Life
This activity is great for breaking the ice and allowing teachers and students to get to know each
other quickly.

Draw a four, six or eight-points star on the board or prepare an OHP, depending on how
much you want your students to know about you.

On each point of the star write something that is important for you, such as a date,
name, number, likes/dislikes, etc. For example, I usually write Dave (my husband's
name), 31 (my age), 2+1 (I have two brothers and one sister), Thailand (my dream
holiday) and so on.

Write these words down but don't tell the students why they're there. The students have
to ask you questions and try to guess the meaning of what you've written. You can give
points for those who guess correctly or set a time limit to make it more interesting.

When you have finished, put your students into pairs and ask them to do the same.

4. Stand in line
By Tim Bowen
You can use this activity as an icebreaker at the start of a new course when the learners do not
know each other or simply as a warmer at the start of the day.

Ask all the students to stand up and form a large semi-circle at the front of the class.

Then ask then to rearrange the semi-circle as quickly as possible from left to right
depending on their birthday, with the left end of the semi-circle representing January 1 st
and the right end December 31st. There will be quite a lot of discussion as they get into
the right order. Sometimes a student will find that they have a birthday on the same day
as another member of the group.

You can then go on to get them to rearrange the circle depending on the first letter of the
place where they were born, with the left end of the semi-circle representing A>and
the right end > Z

The exercise can be repeated several times with different criteria: for example,
surnames, middle names, first letter of your street and so on.

5. The Lying Game

Sent in by Anushka Fowler

Write five sentences on the board about yourself.

Make three of them true and two false (or vice versa).

I speak 5 languages
I never learned how to ride a bike
I have eaten snails
I have been with my boy/girlfriend for XX years
I once appeared on national television
You can make a point of using structures or tenses etc that you have been working on recently.
The students have to ask you as many questions as they can about the statements. You answer
as if they are all true statements. When they have asked as much as possible, they decide
individually which are true and which are false. You give them the real answers - who got them
all correct? As a follow-up they can also each write 5 sentences about themselves and then get
into pairs or groups and repeat the interrogation. Have fun.