Returning to School this year is definitely going to be completely different from past years. For schools that will open with social distancing, desks will be 2 meters apart, plexiglass dividers could become the norm and many schools will have classes split into two shifts. What is a teacher to do when it comes to building a stable, successful learning environment in a classroom? Coming up with appropriate ice breakers will present unusual challenges.
Like
most things this year, many of our favorite classroom icebreakers and
team-building activities won’t work because they won’t be social distancing
friendly. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
Here
are 5 social distancing and virtual classroom-friendly team building activities
that will help you and your students get to know each other and set the
foundations of a successful classroom
environment.
1.
Let`s shake on it.
Build a
sense of classroom community with a class secret “handshake.” Tell the class
that you are going to create a secret handshake or motion that you can use with
each other during the year. Let the class brainstorm some motions and
then put together a simple secret handshake.
Some
possible motions include:
● Air
High 5’s, fist bumps, handshakes
● Touching a body part like the shoulder, nose, or head
● Wiggling or Moving a body part
● Turning Around
Try to
develop a series that is about 5 movements or 5 seconds long. After you decide
on the class secret handshake, then practice it a few times. Continue to
practice it multiple times a day so that students can learn it quickly. Then
use it as you say good morning, when you pick the class up from lunch or before
you say goodbye for the day.
2. Twenty Questions
Play a
game of 20 questions (or use the number that is the same as the number of
students you have so that each person can ask 1 question). Choose 1 person to
pick a secret word (nouns usually work best) and have them write it down or
tell the teacher. Then challenge the class to work together to figure out what
the person is. This will require students to listen to each other's questions,
the answers and thinking about related follow-up questions that might help to
narrow down the secret word.
After
everyone has asked a question, then let each student take one guess.
3.
Race to 100
This is
a fun ice breaker that takes teamwork, cooperation and listening skills.
Challenge the class to count to 100 as quickly as possible without two people
talking at the same time. Once the game begins, they are only allowed to say
the numbers from 1 to 100. If two people talk at the same time they must start
over with 1. If the numbers are repeated or said out of order, the counting
must start again at 1. It adds an element of competition if you time them or if
you set a time limit.
This
game works really well as a discussion starter for teamwork. After playing a
couple of times, stop and talk about the difficulties and what could make it
more successful. Then give the students 1-2 minutes of planning time allowing
only one person to talk at a time during the planning time too.
After
planning, let the class try the Race to 100 again. Then talk about how this
attempt was the same or different from the other attempts. If it was more
successful, have the class discuss the reasons why. Hopefully, these reasons
lead back to planning and teamwork!
4. Five Word Story
You are
going to tell a story as a class. The catch, each student may only say 5 words
at a time. Before you begin, make sure that everyone knows the speaking order
so that you don’t have to stop your story to figure out whose turn it is.
If you
have space for students to spread out and sit in a circle around the room, this
is probably the easiest option. If students are at their desks, make sure that
everyone knows who they speak after. You can also list the names of the
students on the board and use that order. Just have a plan and make sure
everyone knows it.
Then
start the story. As you say the first 5 words of the story, hold up your hand
and raise one finger for each word. Then look at the student who is next so
they can continue the story. It might sound like this:
Teacher:
Once upon a time a
Student 1: dog was running in a
Student 2: park. The dog was brown
Student 3: and white with a black
Student 4: spot over his left eye.
Student 5: A giant green and yellow
Student 6: lizard was chasing the dog
Student 7: through the park as it
Student 8: ran and looked around for
You can
finish the story as a class or let it be the start of a writing prompt. After
everyone has a chance to add 5 words, challenge the students to finish the
story in their writing journals.
5.
All Linked Up Ice Breakers
There is a well-known ice breaker game called “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” where you can connect any actor or actress with Kevin Bacon with 6 or
less connections. If you don't know this game, take a few minutes and Google it.
The
idea of All Linked Up is to see if you can connect everyone in your class
through common names, interests, or activities. To do this, students will
need to know things about each other, so this one might be best played at the
end of the week or during the second or third week of school.
To
start out, make the connections anything that the students have in common.
It
might be something like this:
Mary
is connected to Manuel, Maria and Mateos because all of their names all start
with M. Mateos is connected to Sarai because they both have 2 brothers. Sarai is connected to Jose, Jerson and Lolita because they all like the color pink. Lolita is connected
to Jonathan because they both like to read. And so on . . .
Once
you can connect the whole class in a few different ways, you might try limiting
the connections to one or two commonalities like favorite foods or members of
the family. Or challenge the class to see if they can connect everyone in 10 or
less links.
For students, there’s something about knowing that they are in some way connected with their entire class that helps them feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves.
You could also build a paper chain as a representation of these connections and
keep it hanging in the classroom.
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