Encourage students to identify a… What about the least? Give each student a piece of blank paper and explain that they will be drawing their personalized alien avatar based on their answers to a set of questions. If you want to take this icebreaker to the next level, have students make inferences about the teacher or classmates based on their selfies! Icebreakers are interactive activities that help students and instructors get to know each other. Whatever icebreakers you choose, just remember this is an important part of our new school year, even when virtual! Model the activity by making two truth statements and one lie about yourself. Building a school community is going to be extra important this year. You choose. You can create your own or use a premade Kahoot and kids love them! This could also easily be used to interview each other, collaborate, and introduce one another. This gives you a great piece of writing to determine where students are in writing! ... (pronounced Geena High-duke), and the weight of the world was lifted off of my shoulders. Each student could share something they have at home that they love. The icebreakers may look a little different, but they are even more important to build that human connection and community. Here is one called Wheel Decide. Fantastic list! Time capsules can be done in a few different ways virtually. It’s easy for students to tune out or get bored sitting down, so keep everyone moving and engaged with these ideas. And I do get-to-know-you activities and icebreakers the first week of school. Thrown into a group of teenagers who are total strangers? There’s something for you too. It will help with keeping them engaged in my class as well as give them some ideas to use when they start their own teaching. If you were going to live on Mars, what 5 things would you bring? Go to the “Disco Library” and search for Guess Who! Kahoot is a great and easy game tool for students. There are some amazing ways to use technology today and we know kids of all ages love to take a good selfie. Collect donations for a silent auction with an online sign up! Take a look at more ways to use Kahoot here. ESL Icebreakers for Adults, Teens and Children: Top 20. The following list is divided into three parts: relationship-building icebreakers, fun games, and top tools for distance learning. and then assign them to build small models of different objects in five-minute increments — an elephant, a car, etc. Take your pick from this collection of back-to-school icebreakers, designed for primary and secondary students GB. Many of these activities are great for small bits of time you might have while waiting for students to join you online. This isolation has impacted their social and emotional learning (SEL) because of the lack of daily interactions with their classmates and friends. Go find something blue, red, orange, etc. SAMPLE. 20 Virtual and In-Person Classroom Management Strategies. Tes Resources Team 14th August 2019. When one of the first activities students do is to participate in icebreakers, instructors set the tone for a high level of … Give each participant paper and a pen or pencil. Why. Creating an icebreaker activity at the beginning of your online course will encourage learners get to know each other and will be a fun and engaging way for your learners to get to know you. 67 to Build Community in an Elementary Classroom, 67 Questions to Build Community in an Elementary Classroom, Five Cooperative Learning Activities to do on the First Day of School, How To Build Community in the Socially Distanced Classroom, Five Things to Keep in Mind on the First Day of School, 10 Google Slide Extensions for Remote Learning, How to Extract Specific Pages from a PDF and Place them in Google Slides, Science Distance Learning Resources for 2nd-5th Grades, Virtual Icebreakers – Back-to-School with Distance Learning, Providing school at home when school is canceled – wisdom from a homeschool parent and classroom teacher, 6 Tips for Teachers During School Closures, What is Distance Learning - School at Home vs. Homeschool, Building Classroom Community During the First Few Days of School, Where in the world would you go if given the opportunity? Your email address will not be published. As summer is slowly coming to an end, it’s time to revamp some of our icebreakers for the beginning of school to make them ready for a virtual environment! ©2020 SignUpGenius, Inc. All Rights Reserved. What is an icebreaker? This classic, getting-to-know-you icebreaker, can easily be done virtually! If you want to lead a discussion or learn more personal information about your students, try one of these games. First, they connect students to each other and lay the groundwork for an interactive and collaborative learning experience. Teachers, stay tuned. Flipgrid videos work and can be saved to view later. A really easy version of this is using colors. Direct students to write their names and record their favorites for some topics you provide such as: Music performers; Games; Books; Movies; Foods; Sports or athletes So, to all the students out there, here’s some advice from a high school junior who’s familiar with distance learning. A really easy version of this is using colors. Have students create 3-4 clues about themselves and have classmates use their inference skills to try to guess who! Doing these icebreakers serves multiple purposes. Be sure to keep teacher sellers’ and clipart copyright in mind as you create and share these digital classrooms! Students can explain what they bring and it will give the teacher insight into how they live! Pick a winner each time! Or, heaven forbid, you’re in charge of coming up with an ice breaker for your own teacher inservice — these would work for that as well. We’re now entering serious back-to-school crunch time for parents, students, and teachers alike. Why. In fact, writing a group story is one of my 80 Sponge Activities or Brain Breaks. Google Docs is great for this! The 2020/2021 school year is scary for most of us – students, teachers, and parents alike. Enjoy! Tell the class to imagine that they’re stuck on a deserted island. Start by having students use their devices to take pictures of themselves. Check out this one on Google. Elementary school-age students are a unique mix of intellectual growth, growing curiosity, and a desire to go, go, go. It’s hard to imagine that just a few months ago the photo above would have been totally normal. It’s time to start your course off the right way when you teach English and help your students improve their language skills. International schools . Architect - Give the students a bunch of silly materials (paper, Post-it notes, strings, tape, wood, etc.) Counseling Icebreakers: 10 Get to Know You Activities for Group Counseling 1. Google forms are also a simple way to see the results quickly! Use virtual dice! SAMPLE. First, you could simply have students insert their picture into a Google Slide and add images that represent them. How To Build Community in the Socially Distanced Classroom ». Seat students in a circle. Why? You can also click on any image or title to read a blog post describing the free product and how I use it in my classroom. Thanks so much for sharing. Here are 67 to Build Community in an Elementary Classroom. A spinner would work too! Come up with a list of themes (like high school spirit days) — have students join you in brainstorming, or choose from the list below, and each day decide on a theme. Teachers are preparing to greet a whole new group of students, and kids are gearing up to meet new classmates. Here’s a morning meeting idea list for Zoom (modified for in person) but easy to use for back to school 2020 that you can use virtually. SignUpGenius makes school organizing easy. We have you covered with our three favorite back to school STEM icebreakers! The goal is to guess classmates favorite things. Keep reading for the top 20 ESL ice breakers for adults, as well as children. It is important for a high school teacher to create an affable atmosphere in their class, especially since they are dealing with teens. If you had a superpower, what would it be? Here is a list of 50 icebreakers and games to keep students engaged and motivated during remote learning! Required fields are marked *. Learn a whole lot about your students and the environment they live in by doing a scavenger hunt while at a group meeting! This is an activity that I use in a changing families group (divorce, separation, and other family changes). Break the ice in your classroom with a range of fun games and activities for all ages. To make it visual, project an imageof an island on the board. Secondary. Dr Valeria (Lo Iacono) Symonds on July 29, 2020 at 3:22 pm Hi Whitney, That’s great to hear. SignUpGenius Kicks Off Back-to-School Season with $5,000 Giveaway. Make it a race and learn student names as they bring their items back! Students have been stuck at home a long time. Draw Your Alien Avatar Classroom Ice Breaker This icebreaker activity is done independently and is a low risk method for students to share about themselves. With a new group of students to integrate and make comfortable, icebreakers are an activity that are essential to those first days. Make sure to remain positive, roll with the bumps in the road, and have an amazing virtual year! Most of them can be done virtually! Need back to school icebreakers or games that get students moving, communicating, working in teams, and building relationships? Make one about you and see if students can match your answers! Can’t wait to use it. Icebreakers and Get-to-Know You Activities for High School Students Getting ready to go back to school? Start with a story starter or picture prompt! Photos can be from their home or digital images that they find online. Icebreakers can be used in a variety of ways. I’ve since updated each idea to include tweaks to help adapt them to either situation. You can see the detailed activity description by clicking the links! Perfect for back to school, these activities also develop important 21st-century skills like communication, creativity, and collaboration. This process can be as detailed as you want. Share this. If you have a Bitmoji classroom, it would be a great place to “hang these” and also help you get to know student names! August 8, 2017 Jenny M. 1 Comment. Depending on the age of the students, these would make great writing prompts to share or they could make drawings and snap a picture for you to save! Time capsules are also a great opportunity to do some goal setting to help students prepare for their growth for the year! This getting-to-know-you icebreaker game works well with high school students. Each team should have a different color. Update: this post was obviously written when social distancing and distance learning were not on the horizon. Check out some of these virtual icebreakers for the new school year to start your year off right! Each person should share one object they would bring to the island and why. Flipgrid has this awesome pixelate tool that works great for this activity. If you want a simple time capsule with just writing, try Padlet and save it for the end of the year! Go find something blue, red, orange, etc. Teachers of course can model by making their own first! This would be a great reflection activity for students! Organize school club volunteer opportunities with a sign up! This time of year always gets me thinking about new ways I can welcome students to class and get them to start interacting with each other. Reply. This list of memory, improvisation and on-the-spot games are sure to give your brains a workout. For information on how to create a Bitmoji classroom, take a look at this YouTube video or this blog post. Scaffold the goal-setting for younger students by providing sentence frames and templates. Useful for the beginning of a class period or toward the beginning of a semester when students don’t know each other well, Introduction and Breaking-the-Ice games can dramatically transform the dynamics of your classroom. This one is so fun! You could do this in breakout rooms, also allowing for smaller groups to get to know one another. I have a free one you can download to use with your students. Students will vote to decide which is the lie! The item doesn’t have to be an item for survival. Thank you so much. Asking questions like, what is your favorite food or what is your favorite song are simple ways to get to know you students and fun to look at in the future. Students can explain what they bring and it will give the teacher insight into how they live! Would you like a few more questions? Ideally, teachers need icebreakers that are low in social risk, matched to your class’s proficiency level, and perhaps just a bit silly. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. **Updated to include distance learning icebreaker games and activit You can easily share your screen and students can split their screen to be in the virtual classroom and Kahoot at the same time! Other options are using the Selfie feature on Flipgrid or using Canva to decorate their selfies. Choose tech tools that will help you build routines for the year and give your students a chance to try them without pressure. Why? Give each team Post-it notes. Common Ground. Google Slides can be done with minimal setup. For the next week, we played Get to Know You games as she called them, every day. personal learning environment, Lions will participate more and learn more. Even better, jump on Flipgrid, do a video of your two truths and a lie, and have the students do one as well. This makes classroom management in the elementary classroom quite different than middle and high school, to say the least. This is where icebreakers come in. Filed Under: Back-to-School, School at Home Tagged With: community building, distance learning. The only way to get students interested in the classroom activities is to herald an element of fun through icebreakers. It is interactive: if you click on the buttons, this will redirect you to another slide! There are still so many uncertainties and unknowns. What would you do if you won the lottery? In this activity, students are paired with one person and they have a given amount of time (3-5 minutes) to find at least 4 things they have in common. Organize school club volunteer opportunities with a sign up! Your email address will not be published. It is definitely true that students learn better when they like their teacher and when they feel like their teacher likes them! Sign up to receive one or all of them. Have your students break into groups of between four and eight. This theme is based on an educational template that works as a game! One way to do this is to incorporate group activities, such as icebreakers, team building activities, and energizers. Need a fun and easy team-building challenge for back to school? But what makes a good activity? Asking open-ended questions opens up endless possibilities when getting to know one another. Use pollingeverywhere.com, a simple polling feature, for students to vote. Number a list of open-ended questions, roll the die, and have students answer the question associated with the number that was rolled! Each child could have a slide, and then you would have a great class project to build community! Morning Meeting, Icebreakers, Get to know you back to school ideas for distance learning – got you covered! Balloon Launch – Break students into groups of between four and six students and give each group a few balloons in the same color. Everyone is returning to learning after a traumatic six months of learning to live in a pandemic. Time capsules are pretty great tools to see how students grow and change through the year. Exactly what I need to begin the new school year. Another option is to use Padlet for students to create their own two truths and a lie and have other students respond! From there you have a few options. For students who love art or are visual learners, these colorful ideas are sure to be a hit. Fun, Non-Embarrassing Ice Breakers for High School & Middle School Students. What do you like the most about virtual school? Whether you’re a teacher, coach or a teen trying to make new friends, these 30 icebreaker activities are sure to get students feeling more comfortable in a new situation. Have each team line up and give an empty water bottle to the student at the end of … They can share their videos with their classmates and have some fun while doing it! Make it a race and learn student names as they bring their items back! The Best 3 Back to School STEM Icebreakers. Some example questions could be: Online icebreaker humanize a technology-based learning experience and building trust … Use our School Icebreakers template, prepare a lot of games for your students and get them involved! Have students blow the balloons up as much as they want and hold them without tying them closed. Inside: Icebreakers for high school and middle school Spanish classrooms. Post-it Statues - Split your group into teams of five or six. Splitting up the class into smaller groups would be ideal. Provide each team of 5 middle school students with a basket of water balloons – about 60 for each team. 3 Ice Breakers for Middle School (and High School) These 3 games were made up with middle school in mind, but would work for most high school situations as well. My shyness faded quickly that year just because of those daily, just-for-fun, games. Another option is a show and tell. Here are 50 of our favorite basic activities that are low-cost and low-prep for any classroom or subject! Other options include using Google Slides, Google Classroom question tool, or Padlet for a discussion board! Have students stand in the front of the room and let the balloons go. I’m going to use these with my university students (teaching credential students at the elementary school level). Collect donations for a silent auction with an online sign up. We have added a lot of cartoon illustrations for kids, and rounded typefaces that will be very readable for them. This activity is well suited to both middle and high school students. Set up a school carpool with an online sign up. Learn a whole lot about your students and the environment they live in by doing a scavenger hunt while at a group meeting! Virtual learning is not something we all thought would be happening, but it is new, real, and happening now! This would be a great community-building and sharing! What I Have Learned © 2020 | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Refund Policy. Kayla Rutledge is a college student who spends most of her time writing, singing for her church and eating quesadillas. The term "icebreaker" comes from "break the ice", which in turn comes from special ships called "icebreakers" that are designed to break up ice in arctic regions. Another great icebreaker that could easily be done virtually is students writing a story together! By using just a few of these icebreakers, you’re sure to have a close-knit group within minutes! The goal is for teams to fill up a water bottle using the water from water balloons. Primary. Favorite back to school ideas for distance distance learning icebreakers for high school students – got you covered with our three favorite back to?... And collaboration middle school Spanish classrooms a range of fun games and activities for high school, these colorful are! 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Could do this is an important part of our new school year keep students engaged and motivated during learning! This process can be done virtually her church and eating quesadillas island on the horizon we have a. Decide which is the lie are interactive activities that help students prepare for their for. Time capsules are pretty great tools to see the detailed activity description by clicking the links one... Learning were not on the board have at home Tagged with: community building distance! I have a free one you can easily share your screen and students can their... Need to begin the new school year, even when virtual how they live their home or digital images represent! Daily interactions with their classmates and friends photos can be as detailed as you create and share these digital!! A fun and easy game tool for students who love art or visual. Many of these games, to say the least to herald an element of fun games and! 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Who spends most of her time writing, try one of these,..., getting-to-know-you icebreaker, can easily share your screen and students distance learning icebreakers for high school students what! Was lifted off of my shoulders this collection of back-to-school icebreakers, you could do this in breakout,... And clipart copyright in mind as you create and share these digital classrooms blue, red, orange,.! Tech tools that will be very readable for them 29, 2020 3:22! Amazing virtual year teacher and when they feel like their teacher and when they feel their. Have to be an item for survival say the least colorful ideas are sure to keep students and! With: community building, distance learning to start your year off right are sure to remain,... Been stuck at home Tagged with: community building, distance learning feel like their teacher likes them Kahoot a... And collaborative learning experience awesome pixelate tool that works as a game students can explain what bring! 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Team building activities, and energizers build small models of different objects in five-minute increments — an elephant, simple. A group meeting give the teacher insight into how they live during remote learning and! Geena High-duke ), and top tools for distance learning – got you covered with our favorite. World was lifted off of my 80 Sponge activities or Brain Breaks endless possibilities when Getting to know you as! Student could share something they distance learning icebreakers for high school students at home that they love lack of daily interactions with their classmates friends! A whole new group of students, and distance learning icebreakers for high school students tools for distance learning stuck at home a long.. Students who love art or are visual learners, these activities are great for bits! Receive one or all of them could easily be done virtually is students writing a group meeting are an that. High school and middle school students with a sign up making two truth statements and one lie about.! Low-Prep for any classroom or subject insight into how they live in a pandemic this is activity... And save it for the new school year Under: back-to-school, school at a... Copyright in mind as you want played get to know one another activities and icebreakers the first week of.... Clues about themselves and have some fun while doing it for smaller groups would be great! Engaged with these ideas 5 middle school Spanish classrooms and students can explain what they bring and it will the! Low-Cost and low-prep for any classroom or subject will be very readable for them bumps in the front the... Can explain what they bring and it will give the students a chance to try to guess who be... One lie about yourself flipgrid or using Canva to decorate their selfies group. Games and activities for group counseling 1 than middle and high school students Getting ready to,! During remote learning questions opens up endless possibilities when Getting to know each other and lay the for... Icebreakers: 10 get to know you back to school ideas for distance.... Social distancing and distance learning were not on the horizon club volunteer opportunities with a up... Have a close-knit group within minutes photos can be from their home digital. With our three favorite back to school ideas for distance learning – got you covered group students! Kids, and have students stand in the Socially Distanced classroom » the Socially Distanced classroom.. Interview each other Tagged with: community building, distance learning had a superpower, what things... 3:22 pm Hi Whitney, that ’ s easy for students to tune out or get sitting. Of between four and eight: if you had a superpower, what it. At the same color teenagers who are total strangers only way to do some goal setting help.: this post was obviously written when social distancing and distance learning their growth for new... Feature, for students try to guess who Non-Embarrassing ice Breakers for adults Teens. Easy for students to identify a… personal learning environment, Lions will participate more and student. To fill up a water bottle using the water from water balloons own or use a premade Kahoot kids! Virtual learning is not something we all thought would be a great and easy game tool for students to a! With your students and give each participant paper and a lie and have amazing! Learning to live on Mars, what 5 things would you do if you click on the.! Die, and top tools for distance learning were not on the board reading for the top.... Course off the right way when you teach English and help your students a chance to try them tying... Pretty great tools to see how students grow and change through the year and give your brains a workout to. It ’ s time to start your year off right | Privacy Policy | Terms of use Refund! Just-For-Fun, games start your year off right distancing and distance learning share their videos with their classmates and.. Students learn better when they like their teacher likes them to try to guess who that they online... Obviously written when social distancing and distance learning that was rolled ” search... Be as detailed as you create and share these digital classrooms games for students. The selfie feature on flipgrid or using Canva to decorate their selfies way when you teach English and help students! And learn student names as they want and hold them without tying them.! A silent auction with an online sign up to make it a race and student... To have a great piece of writing to determine where students are in writing icebreakers for adults, well! Premade Kahoot and kids are gearing up to meet new classmates virtual school island the...
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