Want to know why using icebreakers team building activities is essential to any secondary classroom? Here are the top 5 reasons why using icebreakers games for small groups and/or icebreakers for large groups will transform your classroom from day one.
Creating a safe learning environment where students feel comfortable participating is essential to any successful classroom. Over the years of teaching math to high school students, I know first-hand that using icebreakers team building activities from the very first day of school is necessary. Nothing is worse than it being the end of the school year and students addressing each other as “the kid that sits in front of me” or “the kid that’s always on their phone.”
You are going to learn the top 5 reasons why using ice breakers for teens is so important for promoting academic achievement in your classroom.
After learning all of the reasons why they’re so important, you’ll also discover some icebreakers examples that you can implement in your own classroom.
This post is all about why every middle and high school teacher should use icebreakers team building activities with their students.
Life-Changing Reasons you Need Icebreakers Team Building Activities
1. Introduce Everyone (Obviously)
Yes, the main reason we use icebreakers is so that everyone gets to introduce themselves. Depending on the icebreaker that I choose, I will have my seating chart and will write down the names of my students once they’re introduced. What’s nice is that students begin to learn each other’s names as well. Sometimes you have transfer students or students new to your school and they know no one. By using icebreakers to introduce themselves, these students can begin to make connections with others and start making acquaintances.
Icebreakers team building activities aren’t just for the first day of school or even just for the first week. Living in Florida, we’re often faced with hurricanes that shut down schools for days, sometimes even weeks. You may live in a place where schools shut down for snow or it could just be for a fall, winter or spring break. As soon as we get back to school, I will start everyone back by doing an icebreaker. It immediately sets the mood for the classroom and gets everyone back on track. It also gives you, the teacher, a chance to relearn students’ names.
2. Discover Your Students’ Personalities
Over the summer, at my high school of over 3000 students, the incoming 9th graders participate in a one-week camp where they get to know each other and familiarize themselves with the high school campus. A simple, short icebreaker I do is to have all of the students form a circle (or an oval depending on the size of the group). I have a beachball and I explain that whomever catches the ball has to say their name, what middle school they went to, and one fun fact about themselves. This icebreaker activity by no means is challenging or groundbreaking. It’s just a simple quick way to get the students to introduce themselves so they can start to learn each other’s names. I write the three prompts on the board for anyone who needs a reminder once it’s their turn. Forcing everyone to be in a circle allows for a more comfortable setting for those shyer students.
Even with this simple icebreaker, I can discern so much from the students’ personalities. I can tell who’s introverted, extroverted, who seems like they’re going to be a handful in class, and what their interests are. And of course, you can’t judge a book by its cover, and throughout your school year you’ll be learning a lot more about your students, icebreakers are a great way to learn about your students’ interests, their personalities, and it allows them to take social risks in a comfortable group setting.
3. Build Relationships
Doing icebreakers creates the tone for the class. Students begin to learn about one another in a non-threatening way. They are more likely to work together in groups. They begin to build relationships with each other. In turn, they begin to form study groups, call each other for help, and rely one another to see what was missed when they’re absent. And since schedule changes do occur throughout the year, I also like to use icebreakers during various times of the school year to break the monotony and make sure that new students have a chance to get to know the rest of their peers. Nothing drives me crazier than when it’s the middle or end of the school year and the students don’t know each other’s names.
Over the years I have noticed that classrooms where students feel comfortable with each other and feel like they’re in a safe learning environment thrive more academically. They work collaboratively to help each other learn. In teaching mathematics at the high school level it is so necessary for students to feel at ease in going up to the board and solving a math problem in front of their classmates. Even introverted students will be better able to conquer their social anxieties when they feel like a valued member of the group.
4. Promote Creativity
Icebreakers for young adults should be fun. Even if you are using icebreakers via zoom or icebreakers virtual, they should be engaging and promote creativity. Icebreakers that are actually fun will motivate students to interact with each other and you’ll immediately learn more about your students. They will be more inclined to engage with you during your lessons because they will feel like they’re part of a team. This translates to higher academic achievement scores and learning gains.
In having students partake in icebreakers, remember to participate yourself. Students will also learn more about you and when students build a positive rapport with their teacher, they’re more willing to put forth maximum effort in class. Don’t mistake building a positive relationship with sharing every little detail of your personal life, no, not at all. It’s more of letting them get to know a little bit of your own interests and personality.
When I do the activity I mentioned above to put the students in a circle so they introduce themselves, I am not watching from a distance, I’m also in the circle and participate whenever any of them throw me the ball. It’s a fun way to connect with students.
5. Social and Emotional Health
One of the biggest changes I’ve seen over the 20+ years of teaching in a high school classroom is free time. Years ago when I gave students free time after a long test or on a day before a holiday I usually used to constantly have to tell them to quiet down because they were being too loud. But nowadays, give your students free time and they’re all on their headphones (airpods or whatever else they’re using) and on their phones. The room is quiet. Students when left alone will usually isolate themselves and rather be left alone to watch something on their phones or play a game on their own.
Icebreakers team building activities help students connect with one another and helps build a strong sense of community in the classroom. Students will come together to speak with one another and because of this sense of community they’re more likely to participate in group activities and collaborative learning.
Icebreakers getting to know each other activities help students with their social and emotional health. It allows a safe space where they can come together and get more comfortable with each other.
Icebreakers for the Classroom
So there you have it, those are the top 5 reasons why it is so important to use icebreakers with your middle and high school students. One of the most basic icebreakers is Find Someone Who. You might be rolling your eyes because you think that the students have done this activity so many times. But I find it surprising how many teachers don’t use icebreakers at all and so if you’re thinking no, I won’t use that icebreaker because it’s overdone, you might be surprised that students have not done it recently and will equally enjoy it.
Creating icebreakers to get to know each other can be so much fun! But if you don’t have the time, check out these icebreakers from my TpT store. Here’s what other teachers have said about it:
“I used the Find Someone Who Game on the first day of school and it was an awesome way to get to know my students and for them to learn a little something about their classmates! The second day of school I used the Hands on Deck activity which the students enjoyed creating and I learned about their goals for the year. I then placed them on the bulletin board with the theme of “We’re All in this Together!” If time allowed, we then played Simon Says. I would highly recommend this resource, my students loved it!”
Ice Breakers for High School Students includes 5 activities meant to be ice breakers that can be used in a virtual setting or in a face-to-face setting. They promote student engagement and allow your students to establish a positive rapport with you and their peers. It’s Easy. NO PREP. Download and Go! Since it’s a PowerPoint presentation, everything is COMPLETELY EDITABLE so you can customize to meet your students’ needs. You can also use at the middle school level.
Now as part of an ICEBREAKERS BUNDLE!
Because Ice Breakers for High School Students is a PowerPoint file, you can edit the categories to make it more academic and add categories like I can add polynomials, I can factor, I can use the distributive property (I’m a math teacher) and this way you can use this activity later on in the school year.
FIND SOMEONE WHO: I’ve included examples of what I did with my classes. When I was teaching on Zoom, this ice breakers for high school students activities allowed students to get practice in using the annotating features offered. I not only asked them to write/type their name, but to also include a drawing. It was so much fun!!! And my largest class has 39 students, mostly seniors. I printed a copy of my class roster and randomly chose someone to present themselves and then add themselves to the board. With the largest class I told 5 at a time to do their drawing for the sake of time (over Zoom multiple people can annotate at the same time). They even asked me to chime in and pick a category to draw in. I highly encourage you to use it as a way to not only break the ice, but get students to practice proper protocols during virtual learning.
***Now it also includes a Team Building Activity to collect information from your students that you can sprinkle into your lessons throughout the year as mini check-ins or mental breaks in order to break up the monotony and keep students engaged. Student directions are included.
An additional bonus included is also 4 Mental Break Ideas (including one that is a Zoom poll that you can just copy and paste in order to get immediate feedback from your students and conduct a “temperature check” onto their mental well-being).
Each activity comes with teacher instructions, teacher tips, even samples. The PowerPoint presentation can be used with Google Slides.
I asked my 12 year old son what first day of school get-to-know you activities his teachers usually do. His response, “They don’t do any. They just say, ‘Hi. I’m Ms. Jones. This is what we’re going to learn this year. These are the rules.’ And we just sit there silently waiting for the end of the day to go home.”
Does that sound familiar?
Ice Breakers for High School Students Includes:
- Find Someone Who
- America’s Got Talent
- Simon Says
- 3 Truths and a Lie
- Hands on Deck
You can spread out these activities throughout the first few weeks of school, or you can do one on the first day(s) of school and then do another one to break up the monotony of the learning routine and promote student engagement in a fun way later on in the school year. Our district usually has to shut down schools due to tropical storms or hurricanes, sometimes for weeks at a time, and so upon our return to class, I usually do another icebreaker to ease them back into our routine.
Also available, back to school rules, parent letter, and Google Form to collect information.
If you’re looking for cute free ideas, here is a great YouTube video by one of my favorites to get your ideas rolling.
Using icebreakers will create a greater sense of community in your middle or high school classroom in order to improve academic achievement in the long run. Use icebreakers throughout the school year, not just at the beginning of the year. You’ll be glad that you did!
This blog post was all about the top 5 life-changing reasons you should use icebreakers team building activities to instantly transform your secondary classroom.
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