Tag Archives: ice breakers

Two No-Prep Icebreakers: Personal Stars and Funny Cartoons

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I still had sand between my toes and here I am, already planning the first day of class. How did that happen SO fast? One minute you’re lying on the beach not thinking about anything, and the next, bam! September is staring you.

But let’s look on the bright side: starting means new faces, renewed energy, and that special “fresh start” buzz I love so much.

So today I thought I’d share my plan for day one:

  1. MY PERSONAL STAR: a no-prep icebreaker to get everyone talking
  2. CARTOONS: followed by some cartoons I love using to squeeze out even more conversation once the ice is broken.

Sound good? Let’s get into it!

Icebreaker 1: Personal Star

This one takes no prep, and students always love a bit of gossip about their new teacher!

Here’s how it works: draw a star on the board and write six pieces of information about yourself inside it. Mine looks like this: black, London, December 9th, Homer, English, meat.

Tell your students the star is full of clues about you, and their job is to guess what’s behind each word by asking questions. If they’re a bit lost, give them an example: “My favourite colour is black. What question do you need to ask to find that out?” Let them work it out — “What’s your favourite colour?” — and cross the word off the star. Keep going until the whole star is solved.

Their Turn Now

Put students in pairs and get them to draw their own personal star with six pieces of information about themselves inside. They take turns asking each other questions to uncover what’s hiding in their partner’s star.

When everyone’s done, bring the group back together and have each student introduce their partner, sharing what they found out. Instant mingling, instant speaking practice, and everyone leaves knowing a little more about the person sitting next to them.

Icebreaker 2: Conversations around some of my favourite back-to-school cartoons.

Once the ice is well and truly broken, I like to move on to something a bit more visual and that’s where these back-to-school cartoons come in — they’re perfect for warming up vocabulary and getting students talking a bit more, without it feeling like “work.”

Here are six cartoons with some questions each, mixing some better suited for adults and others that’ll hook teenagers more. Grab whichever fits your group best!

CARTOON 1:We don’t all follow you on Instagram, Kayla

Questions for adults:

  1. What’s funny about this cartoon?
  2. Do you think social media has changed the way young people communicate?
  3. What are the pros and cons of kids using social media?
  4. Do you follow any of younger relatives on social media?
  5. How is “sharing your summer” different today compared to when you were a kid?

Questions for teenagers:

  1. What does the little girl expect the teacher to already know?
  2. Do you post about your summer on social media? Which apps do you use?
  3. Have you ever assumed someone already knew something because you posted it online?
  4. What’s one thing you did this summer that you’d want to tell the class about?
  5. Do you think it’s weird when teachers follow students on social media? Why or why not?
CARTOON 2: He teaches second grade

Questions for adults:

  1. Why do you think a 27-year-old teacher would feel the same way as a little kid on the first day?
  2. What usually causes that back-to-school dread for teachers — is it the students, the workload, or something else?
  3. What’s your own trick for getting motivated when you really don’t feel like going to work?

Questions for teenagers:

  1. Have you ever refused to go to school? What happened?
  2. Do you think teachers get nervous on the first day too, just like students?
  3. What year do you think would be hardest to teach, and why?
CARTOON 3: Everything but homework cutbacks

Questions for adults:

  1. Do you think schools in your area have enough resources? Why or why not?
  2. If you could cut one thing from your child’s school day, what would it be — and why?
  3. What’s something schools spend money on that you think is unnecessary?
  4. How has education changed since you were a student?

Questions for teenagers:

  1. Do you ever feel like you get too much homework? Give an example.
  2. If your school had less money, what would you miss the most — sports, clubs, or something else?
  3. What’s the worst homework you’ve ever had to do?
  4. Would you rather have more homework or a longer school day? Why?

Have a nice back-to-school day!!!

6 Excellent First-Day Icebreakers

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Dear readers

Here I am again!! I Didn’t  this summer fly by ? It totally  flew by!!!

Oh my god! The beginning of another school year is fast approaching and I am feeling  the butterflies starting to gather in my stomach, even after 25 years teaching English. Yes, even after all this time, I still feel like a newbie about to teach her first class. I have yet to decide whether this is a good or a bad thing.  In these 25 years there are not many things I have not tried but I always like to start telling my students something about myself. I used to include information about my age, but I no longer do ( for obvious reasons)  and in fact, I always say I am 25, with a wink, if a student dares overlook the fact that I have intentionally omitted that bit of information. Anyway. I feel like in my twenties 🙂 when facing a new group of students.

Why use icebreakers?

Teaching aduIts has a lot of advantages and some minor disadvantages. In my experience, one of these disadvantages is that they tend to be naturally shy when asked to speak a foreign language  so it’s essential to break the ice from the very first moment students enter my class. The sooner I get to know them and they get to know each other,  the faster they will start learning. One way to accomplish this is by using icebreakers.

Below are some of the icebreakers/first-day activities I normally use to introduce myself .Some of them might sound familiar to you although I have slightly modified the name to better describe my own contribution but I should add that  I take no credit for inventing these games. I hope you find something you can use. I would suggest you demonstrate how to play the games  by  first offering personal information about yourself. It doesn’t have to be too personal, just a bit, enough to satisfy students’ curiosity.

This is an interactive image using ThingLink

1. HANGMAN WITH A TWIST (no preparation required)
I have yet to meet a student who doesn’t like playing  hangman. This time we will play  a variation of the traditional  hangman game as all the words will  contain some information about myself ( blue, twenty.-four, music, keeping fit…etc). Remember that you cannot use proper nouns such as names, places, and brands.

PROCEDURE.

  • Think about some information you want to share with your students and play the hangman  game.
  • Choose beforehand the information you want to use and play hangman for every piece  of information you want to share. Once they have guessed the correct word, explain  why this word is important to you.

Students in pairs play hangman with using their own personal information.

How to play Hangman here

2.CONCENTRIC CIRCLES ( requires little preparation)

  • PROCEDURE
    Students arrange  themselves so that they are facing each other in two circles. The inner circle faces out, the outer circle faces in, so that each participant has a partner that they’re facing (Note: If the group has an uneven number of people, the teacher should participate in the circles)
  • Tell the students that they will be having a series of short conversations with  different partners. They  will need to  introduce themselves and  share the time given  so that everybody has a chance to speak.
  • Give students a  getting-to-know-you question and  ask pairs  to discuss their answers to the question (Note: after  three minutes, call time)
  • Rotate for the next question, forming a new partnership.

This engaging one-to-one game gives students the chance to get to know their classmates very quickly

Some ideas

1. Why do you want to learn English?

2. What’s your favourite TV programme?

3. What you like doing in your free time?

4.Do you prefer to live in the city or in the countryside?

5. Where do you hope to be 10 years from now?

3.PERSONAL INFORMATION  BINGO (requires preparation)

Everybody knows how to play Bingo. This time we are going to play bingo with personal information.

PROCEDURE

  • Decide on 20 or 25 general traits that you think might apply to your students and use  a free online bingo generator here or  here to create your own bingo cards. Some ideas: who has a pet, who speaks two languages, who hates maths, who went abroad last year, who has a friend called Mary, who likes tea, who is  his/her twenties, who hates going shopping,who has slept on a beach, who doesn’t like meat…etc)
  • Now cut all the squares in the bingo card and put them in a bag.
  • Draw one card at a time asking ” who….?”.
  • The winner is the person who first fills  4 boxes (if you have  20 traits) or 5 boxes (25 traits) either across or down and yells BINGO.

Ask students now in pairs  to talk about some of the squares they have crossed  off.

4.PERSONAL STAR (no preparation required)

The one I like best is Personal Star, for many reasons but mainly because it requires no preparation  and students always  enjoy a bit of gossip  about their new teacher.

PROCEDURE

  • Draw a  six-pointed star  and on each point write  6  answers to questions about yourself. (My answers are black, London, December 9, tennis, Terry and meat.)
  • Tell students that the star contains information about you.
  • Ask them to try to guess the information behind the words by asking questions.If they don’t get the idea give an example. Tell them “My favourite colour is black. What question do you need to ask to find out this information?” Elicit from them, “What’s your favourite colour?” and cross out the word ‘black’ from the star.
  • Then, put the students in pairs. Ask them to draw their own personal star and write 6 pieces of information about themselves on each point. In pairs they can ask each other questions to find out about their partner. When they have all finished, ask them as a group to tell the others what they have found out about their partner

5.WHO AM I? (no preparation required)

I love this game to introduce myself to my students. It is played in teams and there is a winner. If you have been reading me for some time you know I am very competitive; that must be the reason why I am definitely going to use this one this year. The game was written by Paul Adams  and here is the link.

  • Write on  the board information about yourself and next to each piece of information write a number.
  • Divide the class into  two or three teams, depending on the number of students per class.
  • Tell students that teams  have to choose a number and ask the question they think matches the answer on the board.
  • Teams  take it in turns to choose a number and ask the question they think matches the answer.
  • They  get 1 point for asking the correct question and 1 point for using the correct grammar.

6.A QUESTION, PLEASE(no preparation required)

Again, this little game requires no preparation and students love it because it gives them the perfect opportunity to meet their new classmates

PROCEDURE

  • Ask students to write two questions they would like to ask you.
  • Answer some of their questions elaborating on your answers.
  • Tell students questions cannot be repeated  so they need to be ready to write a new question if necessary.
  • Once this step has been completed and their curiosity satisfied,  ask students to stand up and mingle, introducing themselves to the rest of the class  by saying their names and then asking their questions and answering their partner’s .
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Back to School ! Part II : Icebreakers to get to know my students

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So much for writing about going back to school but… my classes haven’t started yet.The big day is going to be Monday and I am still deciding which ice-breakers will work better  with my new students.

Let me show you some of the ones I’m considering and you might want to drop a line if you know of any others that work well. The good things about these ones is that they require “No Preparation“.

♣The one I like best is Personal Star for many reasons, but mainly because it requires no preparation  and students always  enjoy a bit of gossip  about their new teacher.

I draw a star on the board and inside it  6  answers to questions about me. (My answers are black , London, December 9, tennis, Terry, English , and meat.)

Tell students that the star contains information about you. Ask them to try to guess the information behind the words by asking questions.If they don’t get the idea give an example. Tell them “My favourite colour is black. What question do you need to ask to find out this information?” Elicit from them, “What’s your favourite colour?” and cross out the word ‘black’ from the star.

Then, put the students in pairs. Ask them to draw their own personal star and put 6 pieces of information about themselves inside. In pairs they can ask each other questions to find out about their partner. When they have all finished, ask them as a group to tell the others what they have found out about their partner.

♣ Who has never told a white lie?? This is another very traditional way of getting to know your students. The Game could be called True or False? or any other name you fancy.

Write on the board  3 statements about yourself :, 2 must be  true ones and 1 must be false.  Grade the statements depending on the level of the class. For beginners, use the present simple.

 

♥I go to the gym four times a week
♥I like football
♥My favourite singer is Justin Bieber

For a more advanced level, a mixture of tenses would be great:
♥I have been to Israel in July
♥I once did a bungee jump
♥I don’t like hoovering

Students will have to  guess which one is false. Then, ask the students to do the same and write 3 sentences about themselves. In small groups they read out their sentences and the others guess the false one.

♣Add an adjective
The aim of this activity is to try to learn their names. Introduce yourself by saying, “my name’s Cristina and I’m calm”. (Replace Cristina with your name and “calm” with an adjective which has the same first letter) Emphasise the fact that your adjective starts with same letter as your name. Invite the students to introduce themselves in the same way.

♣Hot Seat: Preparation: some vocabulary for revision. Split the  class into two teams. Take two chairs and place them at the front of the class. One member from each team sit in the chairs so they are facing their teams and with their backs to the board.
Now, write one of the words you want to revise and write it on the board. The aim of the game is for the students in the teams to describe that word, using synonyms, antonyms, definitions etc. to their team mate who is in the hot seat – that person can’t see the word! The student in the hot seat listens to their team mates and tries to guess the word.
The first hot seat student to say the word wins a point for their team.
Then change the students over, with a new member of each team taking their place in their team’s hot seat.
Then write the next word…

Source: straight from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/language-assistant

Back to School! :)Part 1

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Here I am again!!!! Summer has slipped  by and I can hardly believe that I am about to start a new school year. This year I’ll be teaching in a different high school and yeeesss,  there are some butterflies in my stomach!! I don’t know the teachers , I don’t know the students… and they don’t know me. It’s hard to start all over again. This year I’ll be teaching lots of different levels (OMG!) mainly due to cutbacks so , sadly, I don’t think I’ll have much time to research new tools or create new materials .

Anyway, these are some of the pictures I’ll be using on the first day to try to make my new students relax and  have a healthy laugh and, then, there also follows some other pictures to get them into more serious thinking. My aim: to make students talk. Is there ever any other?