Icebreakers for Children

An ‘icebreaker’ is a short warm-up activity or game designed to

‘break the ice’ and arise the students’ attention and excitement about
attending a foreign language course. Icebreaking activities are usually
conducted during or at the beginning of a course, but many teachers
choose to incorporate shorter icebreakers as daily warm-ups throughout
the whole course period. They can also be a very relaxing and fun way
to end a lesson.
The importance of using icebreakers lies in the fact that, in a
foreign language course, students need to participate actively in order to
be successful learners and develop their communicative skills in the
target language. They need to feel confident enough to share their
knowledge of the target language in order to maximize their learning.
The role of the teacher is to help students perform better by making the
classroom an inviting and comfortable place for them to practice their
foreign language skills. Icebreakers will also pave the way for better
group interaction between classmates, as students will get to know each
other better from the very beginning.