Group Bingo
Mingle with a get-to-know-you game of bingo. Create a bingo board with different traits or attributes listed in each square, like "Born in January" or "Has a pet cat," and give each person a copy of it. Then, have everyone chat with each other and try to find people that have the traits listed on their bingo cards. When a player finds someone who has one of the included traits, they write that player's name down in that square. Whoever gets bingo first wins! To encourage more conversations, only use a person’s name once on your bingo card. Prompts that you could include on the premade bingo card might be “has lived in another country,” “born in January,” “has a pet cat,” or “plays soccer.”
Two Truths and One Lie
Learn fun facts about other people in the group. Invite each person in your group to share 2 true facts about themselves, as well as 1 lie. The rest of the group will try to guess which facts were true, and which one wasn’t. No one has to share any big secrets or confessions—simple facts about your life are a fun, educational way to break the ice with your peers. Statements like, “I’ve never had Thai food before,” “I have a pet iguana,” or “I’ve never left the country” are fun facts you could share during the game.
Jenga Questions
Transform a game of Jenga into a fun icebreaker. Write a get-to-know-you question on each of the wooden blocks. Then, set up your Jenga tower as normal. Invite each member of your group to carefully remove a block and answer the question that’s written on it. Continue cycling through your group members until the tower falls down. Questions like “What’s the best present you ever got?” “What’s your favorite time of year?” and “How do you like to spend your alone time?” are all great icebreaker questions. “What are 2 things you’re good at?” “What’s something you can’t live without?” or “What are you looking forward to?” are other excellent questions.
I Have Never
Compare your life experiences with other people’s. Sit in a circle with the other group members. Hand out 10 pieces of candy to each player. Then, invite each player to share a “I have never” statement. If you’ve done the activity that the person shared, give them 1 of your candy pieces. Continue around the circle for as long as you’d like. You might say “I have never gotten stung by a bee,” “I have never seen the Pacific ocean,” or “I have never pulled an all-nighter.”
Where Were You
Take a trip to the past with your fellow group members. Write different years on multiple slips of paper, and drop them in a jar. Ask each person to pull a piece of paper out of the jar. Then, encourage each group member to share where they were and what they were doing during the year listed on their paper slip. Write down years that everyone in the group can relate and connect to.
String Game
Share fun facts based on a length of string. Cut out several different lengths of string, and let the group members each pick one. Then, invite each person to wrap the string around their finger. Each group member must volunteer a fun fact about themselves for every loop that the single piece of string creates around their finger. You can play a sillier version of this icebreaker by using toilet paper instead of string. People grab as much toilet paper as they normally would use from a roll. Then, each person shares a fun fact about themselves for every square they pulled off.
Deserted Island
This game shows you the personal values of other group members. Divide everyone into small groups. Then, tell each group to pick 5 items that they’d bring with them to a desert island. Invite each group to explain their choices to the rest of the group. Each group has to agree on 5 items, instead of each player picking 5 items.
Shoe Icebreaker
Learn about the rest of your group through their shoes. Instruct everyone to stand in a circle and take off their shoes. Then, invite 1 person to grab a pair of random shoes and make a positive assumption about the owner based on their footwear. The owner will then introduce themselves and continue the game by grabbing a new pair of shoes. You might say, “The owner of these shoes has a great sense of fashion” or “The person who owns these shoes must not like being cold.”
A Great Wind Blows
Get to know your group in this fun variation of musical chairs. Invite everyone to sit in a circle of chairs. Make a general statement using the phrase “A great wind blows for everyone who…” Invite anyone who identifies with the statement to stand up and seat themselves in a different chair. For every round that someone stands up, remove a chair from the circle—if someone can’t find a chair, then they’re out of the game. You might say, “A great wind blows for everyone who likes spicy food” or “A great wind blows for everyone who speaks another language.”
Common Ground
Figure out what you have in common with others. Break into even groups of about 3-6 people. In these groups, take 3 minutes to write a list of different things you all have in common. When the timer runs out, compare your lists with the other groups and see who had the longest one. The similarities can’t involve body parts, like “We all have 2 eyes” or “We all have 10 fingers.”
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