Icebreaker activities provide students a great way to get to know each other a little bit better at the beginning of a class, which can facilitate discussions and advance the overall learning experience of a course. An icebreaker can be as simple as a short introduction by every student. This approach is more common in higher education where students can share their majors and academic interests
. with the rest of the class. This strengthens the integrity of the class in that each student can offer a wide variety of strengths and analytic approaches to knowledge. These activities are also very useful in grade school classes as well. One popular icebreaker is the Birthday Game. Students line up in no particular order and then must rearrange themselves by the date of their birth. However, this must be done without any verbal or written communication and aids in the progression of social development skills. Another popular icebreaker activity is the Quiet Game. This is a test of bearing and discipline as students must pair off and face one another while attempting to remain stoic and quiet. The first person to say something or smile loses and must sit down. This is continued until there is only one person left and the students that lose usually get ample enjoyment from watching their peers struggle to remain solemn. There is also a variety of icebreakers that builds upon verbal communication. One example of this is the shoe game. Each student removes one of their sneakers and places it into a pile. The teacher then distributes the shoes randomly and students must find their shoe and learn some information about the person that has their shoe in the process. There are many educational resources available online that may help an instructor choose the right icebreaker activity for their class. For more information, please see: http://training-games.com/pdf/40FreeIceBreakers.pdf http://wilderdom.com/games/Icebreakers.html http://training-games.com/pdf/40FreeIceBreakers.pdf or http://wilderdom.com/games/Icebreakers.html
