FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL ICEBREAKERS FOR ELEMENTARY

STUDENTS

Name Ball Toss

Instruct your class to sit in a circle. Give a student a small
ball to pass to another student. When the student receives
the ball, they share their name. Once everyone has passed
the ball around once, practice having the students say the
name of the student before they pass the ball to them.

Candy Pass
Give each student a small handful of colored candy. Assign
each candy color a question and write them on the board.
Tell students to eat all their candy except for one piece. The
color that is left is the question they will answer.

Sit Down If…

With the class in a circle, ask them a series of quirky yes/no
questions. If students answer “yes,” they sit down. The last
student standing is the winner.

Create All About My-Selfies

Using a phone template, have students draw a picture of
themselves showing something about them that makes them
unique. Then, tell them to write a caption and hashtags to
match. This also makes a great bulletin board display for a
back-to-school night!
Make Words As A Team
Divide students into teams and give each team a bag filled
with letters. Ask the students to make as many words as
they can in five minutes.

Blobs and Lines

For this activity, students will listen to prompts and organize
themselves into a line (for example, in alphabetical order of
last name) or in blobs according to something they have in
common (birth month). Examples of prompts:
Line up in chronological order of your birthdays
Create a blob with those who have the same-colored clothing
Line up in order of how many siblings you have
Gather in a blob with those who traveled by car, bus, etc.

Classmate Bingo
Create bingo cards with prompts for students to ask each
other questions. The goal is to have students cross off all the
squares.

Venn Diagrams
After reviewing the purpose of Venn diagrams, put students
in pairs and have them discuss their similarities and
differences. Have them complete a Venn diagram based on
their discussion.
Concentric Circles
Arrange the class in two circles: an inside circle and an
outside circle, the inside facing out, forming pairs. Ask the
students a question and have them discuss it before rotating
for the next question, forming a new partnership. Here are
some sample questions:

Do you play any sports? If so, which ones?

What was the last movie you saw? Did you like it?
What would you do with a million dollars?
What is one thing you’re good at?

This or That
Ask students to choose between two options for light topics,
such as “Which animal makes a better pet…dog or cat?”
Designate each side of the room for each answer (i.e., one
side is dogs, the other is cats). After students choose a
position, they physically move to the side of the room that
represents their opinion.

Four Corners
Four corners is a variation of “This or That.” Instead of giving
students two options, give them four choices for a question.
Each corner of the room is designated for each option. After
students choose a position, they move to the corner that
represents their opinion.
Name Pictionary
Have students write their names by drawing pictures of
objects that start with the corresponding letter. Then, have
the group try to spell and guess each person’s name.

Lie to me
This energizer is a fun way to get to know your students
better. Not just the basics, like where they live or if they have
a brother, but real stories and anecdotes.
The students have to tell 3 facts about their life. Something
that happened to them. Two of them should be true, and one
should be a lie. The other students have to find out which
one is the lie. You’ll be surprised what kind of crazy things
can actually happen! (Or how good your students can lie!)

Keyword music roulette

The teacher makes cards with a keyword on it. The keywords
refer to the lesson The students go sit in small groups with a
tablet or a computer. You, or one of your students, picks a
card. The groups have to find a song title that mentions the
keyword. The group that finds it first, may play their song on
the cellphone.
Blind artist
Have your students form pairs. The students can’t see each
other. One student gets a drawing you have prepared earlier.
Ideally, the drawing should be something relevant to what
you are teaching.
The student holding the drawing needs to give good
instructions to the other student. The other students need to
draw it without being able to see the original picture. If you
want to spice up the classroom game, you can put a variety
of conditions to it. For example: no asking questions, must
draw with your non writing hand etc. Aren’t you curious
about the results?
When you use this energizer as a revision activity, you let the
pair explain to the rest of the class what the drawing is
about.

Likeable Lucie
Students think of an adjective to describe themselves. The
adjective must suit the student and must also start with the
first letter of their name.
The students have to memorize every name. The first student
just says his name, but the second and the rest of the
students have to name the previous names before saying
their name. The last students will have to do the hard work.
For example: 1. Likeable Lucie - 2. Likeable Lucie and
Precious Petra - 3. Likeable Lucie, Precious Petra and Tiny
Tom
Don’t answer
Ask the students to stand in a circle. One student starts by
going up to someone else. The student asks the other
student a question. For example: “What is your most
annoying habit?” However, that person may not answer the
question, but the person on his left must answer. The
answer doesn’t have to be right. Students can make their
answers as imaginative as possible. Fun guaranteed!

Give a compliment
No one’s tool old for compliments! This energizer lets
students feel better about themselves by sharing
compliments. Each student gets a paper on their back. Every
student has to write down a compliment on the paper on the
backs of every other student. They cannot miss a single one.
Afterwards the students can read their paper and all the
compliments they have been given.

Be unique
This classroom game is about being unique and about
getting to know each other better. Everyone stands in a
circle. Every student has to say something unique about
themselves. For example: “I have four brothers.” If another
student also has four brothers, the students who shared the
‘not-so-unique’ aspect has to sit down. The goal is to stand
as long as possible and therefore to share very special things
about yourself that no one else typifies.