Facilitator Icebreakers For Groups

WHAT ARE ICEBREAKERS?

An Icebreaker is where persons participate in a session in order to "get to know one another" and to provide "team-building" in order to eleviate tensions of uncertainty with others. Icebreakers are facilitated in either professional, educational, and home settings.  For each game, the Facilitator can decide the incentive for each winning team or group, and participants.  As a Facilitator, general rules apply such as orderly conduct and how to maintain peer mediation incase of a conflict.  In case of a game that involves teams, a facilitator has the choice to allow participants to choose a "team leader" to chose team players and to give directions as it can provide better flow to the activity.  Also, the Facilitators can revamp each game according to their subject matter to make it more interesting.

ELEMENTARYDUCK, DUCK GOOSE- 

Duck, Duck Goose is a game where you can sit kids in a circle and have one child in the circle be the goose.  This is a three or more player game.The chosen goose has to go around in the circle and choose whom they would like to be the goose. 

RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT- 

You can have a choice to Incorporate the yellow light to trip the players to yield or stop until green light is called.  The person who reaches the finish line or the end point wins the game.  The game needs at least 3 players.  This is a “listening” game like simon says.

MUSICAL CHAIRS-

Musical Chairs is a game where there are a line of chairs where every other chair is inverted or in a circle.  The players move in a circle when the music begins, when the music stops they must sit down.  Each chair is one less the amount of players.  The last player to be out of a seat is out of the game.

THE LONGEST LINE- 

The Longest Line is a game where it may be a lot of space needed even outdoors.  Each player are in teams of two or more and must create the longest line using their bodies, clothing articles that they already have.  The group with the longest line wins.

HIDE AND GO SEEK-

  I would recommend this game in a well gated and safe area, and make sure the players are of age, know what they are doing, and not get lost.  This game should be under supervision where one out of the game always knows where everyone is going to hide, that way everyone can be found.  There is one seeker and the other players are hiders. The seeker must close their eyes and turn around away from the hiders to make sure they are not peaking and count to 10.  The seeker has to go out and find the hiders either in a field or an open space facility where there are many places to hide.  The person that they seeker can not find in a short period of time (no more then (5 minutes) that person can become the seeker or the group can find a new seeker.

7-UP- 

This game includes seven people the secretly select seven other people by pushing their thumbs down.  This game involves multiple players, where each player seated usually at a desk put their heads down and eyes close. The thumbs that where pushed down are the people that have to stand up and guess which person chose them. If they guess right, the person that did the selecting sits down and takes their place.

SARDINES-

 Sardines is just like Hide-And-Go-Seek except in reverse.  The one person hides and the rest of the players have to find the one person thats hidden.

FLAG TAG-Flag Tag is a game such as "Freeze Tag" where each player is wearing a tag in teams of two with multiple players.  Each team member must attempt to take the tag of the opposing team or go straight to the opposite side goal area, and a Main Flag can be added in the goal area.

HODGY PODGY- 

This is rhythm game that has each person add words to the story.  The first player begans by making up the story, then the following players follow adding more words to the story.  The hilarious part about the game is that the story doesn't necessarily flow as each person adds different words to the story.

MUSICAL STATUES-

Musical Statues is a game where everyone starts dancing, and as soon as it stops everyone freezes. It can also be like "Simon Says." 

HIGHER ED

JEDi MINDTRICK-

Jedi MindTrick is a "silent" game where players form a circle and there is one player in the middle of the circle.  The term "Jedi" comes from the well-known movie of Star Wars.  The players have to pass and switch places without the person in the middle of the circle taking their place first.  If the person in the middle of the circle takes the place of a player, the player that was on the outside of the circle must be in the middle of the circle.  The object of the game is that the player must watch who is trying to leave from the outside of the circle in order to leave the middle of the circle.  The person in the middle of the circle must watch and any person even behind can communicate by watch the other players from the other side of the room in order to cross the circle.  The only rule is that the player can switch with the person next to them.  Be careful, because the person who may look like they want to switch places with you may change their mind and stay in their spot while you may be stuck in the middle, so watch, hince "Jedi MindTrick."

EVERYONE

2 TRUTHS AND A LIE-

2 Truths and a Lie is a game where multiple players have to tell two truths and one lie about themselves.  Other players have to guess which of the three statements made are the truth and which is the lie.

TAXI CAB-

Taxi Cab is a "improv" game where there are multiple players.  There is a taxi driver and 3 other passengers as in a car.  The driver is the main character that starts the improv and the first passenger that gets in the car acts another character.  The driver must mimic what the passengers act out, starting with the first passenger, and ending with the rest of the passengers.  After a short time, one of the passengers will say "This is my stop" and get out of the taxi.  After the last or fourth passenger gets out of the taxi, the game reverses back to the taxi driver and the character of each person reverses back to when they first got into the taxi, until it reaches the driver, then concluding the game.  Taxi Cab can be very interesting as every passenger has a different character.

WHERE THE WIND BLOWS- "Where the wind blows" is a game where if multiple players have something in common they will switch places by running through the circle until the last person who doesn't get a spot will have to stand in the middle of the circle.  The game commences by one player being in the middle of the circle while multiple players or two rows of chairs can be faced towards each other with alot of running space in between the rows.  The person in the middle of the room will say "The wind blows when I like shoes."  If the other players have that in common with the person who states "The wind blows...," each participant must run to the other side of the room in the other row or across the circle in order and fill the space before they are the last person to be seated or back in the circle.  The only rule is that players can not switch with the person next to them.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?- 

What are you doing is a game where there are a line of people and there is one person infront of the line that acts out a scene (i.e. Basketball).  The person next in ilne walks up to the person and says "What are you doing?"  The person in front of the line that was acting out a scene says "I'm a ballet."  The person that was next in line must now act out as a "ballet."  The game proceeds, to the next person the same way and so forth and can get interesting as the imitated actions change.

SIMON SAYS-

 Simon says is a "listening and improv" game where players have to do exactly what the leader hince "Simon" says "Simon says."  Players will have be out of the game if the leader does not say "Simon Says."  You need at least three players for the game to be interesting. The game is fun and can be more complexed with more commands (ie. raise right your arm, rub your head, and march in place).

  HUMAN STATUE-

A narrator can tell a story with at least two people, one person moving the statue, and another person being the statue. The statue can be based on the followingTime in HistoryA Famous PersonMovie SceneEveryone can guess what they think that statue is trying to act out. The game can be competitive and the groups can be split up into two to see who guesses what the statue is doing first.

  HUMAN KNOT-

This game involves multiple players in a circle where each player has to hold another persons hand except for the people next to them creating a "Human Knot." Players must figure out how to get out of the knot without disconnecting their hands.  The purpose of the game is to provide that there is always a way out of a knot and there has been many ways.

HUMAN ORCHESTRA-In Human Orchestra, multiple players can form a circle and each can make sounds with their body.  This is also a "silent" game where you can not speak but make other sounds besides words (ie. hum, whistle, stomp, etc).  Each player can select a sound they want to make and choose a tune or instrument that everyone is familiar with.

  LOCOMOTION-

 The leader stands in the middle of the circle.  The Facilitator directs the leader to walk, run, or do an action moving outside of the circle (ie. car, train, swimming, etc.) as the leader signals the other players to follow the leader, imitating a Locomotion.  The last person that is not in their seat is the person who takes the lead of the next Locomotion.

  MAFIA-

Mafia is a 'silent and listening" game where it tests the "trust" of the group.  In this game, there is a narrator, mafia, detective, guardian, and towns people.  

The game includes multiple players where everyone is in a circle.  There is a narrator that tells everyone to go to sleep, and chooses whom will be the mafia, detective, and guardian by taping them on the shoulder.  No one can peek or make noise.

 The narrator then says "only Mafia" wake up.  Then, the mafia wakes up.  The narrator then asks, "Who would you like to kill."  Then, the mafia chooses whom they would like to kill "silent." During this process, everyone has to be silent and not give hints that they are any of the characters such as the mafia and everyone else's eyes are closed. After the victim is chosen, the narrator then says  "Mafia, go to sleep", then the Mafia go to sleep.

 The narrator says "Detective, wake up!"  The detective wakes up.  Then, the narrator says, "Detective, who do you think the mafia killed?"  Then, the detective silently points without a sound on who they think the mafia killed.  The narrator says "Detective, go to sleep." The detective goes to sleep.  

The narrator then says "Guardian, wake up?" The guardian wakes up.  The narrator then says "Guardian, who would you like to save?"  The guardian then choses silently who they would like to save by pointing.  The only persons eyes at that are open at this moment is the Facilitator, Narrator.

Then, the narrator says everyone, "Wake Up."  

"Everyone wakes up.  Then, this is where it gets "interesting."  The narrator then tells a fiction tale of how the person is "done" by the Mafia.  The person that is killed off can either be the Detective or the TownsPeople.  However, if the person that was chosen by the Mafia to kill was also chosen by the Guardian, the person is automatically saved and still in the game.   They can also be a Mafia member if they feel the person was giving away the Mafia identity if the game is long.  Everyone has to debate amongst themselves and prove there case one by one who they think the Mafia is and why.  

The Mafia can act as if they are not and accuse another person in the circle of being the Mafia.  The townspeople vote on who the Mafia is or who they want to kill.  The majority number of votes will decease a person or take a person out of the game.

 The person that is killed can then reveal their identity if they where "Mafia, Detective, Guardian, or TownsPeople. You can even add a bounty hunter and a spy to make the game more interesting.  

  CHARADES-

 Charades is an "improv" game where players can be in a team of two or more.  Each team member chooses a team leader or vice versa the team leader chooses the players.  The player to do the sherade or "act" can either give a few categories that have been often used including a Phase, Thing, Celebrity, Movie, or Television.  Once the category is chosen the sherader has to act out the category with their hands by describing how many words are in the answer by signing the number and how many syllabels are in each word.  The "Charader" then acts out the category and players of the team that is going first can shout out what they think may be the word or phrase.  The team who guesses it right wins and the person who guesses it right may be the person who can be the next sherader for the team.  If the other team does not guess the category on-time then the other team steals the question or can be the other teams turn.  The "Charader" must be creative and exaggerate as they are "silent."

  RAINSTORM-

The Facilitator directs participants to rub the palms of their hands together to mae the sound of rain.  The action goes around a circle first and after it goes back to the first person who made the sound, the rain gets lounder buy snapping their fingers, then clapping, then hitting the sides of your thighs, then directing participants to stomp their feet to create a hurricane.  To stop the storm, the storm goes n reverse. 

MIRROR IMAGE -

The Mirror Image game involves players of two "pairs."  Each participant must mimic what the other person does by copying the actions of the other participant hints mirror.  Participants sort themselves. Players can switch roles as one can be the mirror why the other can be the copy cat.

PEOPLE TO PEOPLE-

This game includes "pairs" where the Facilitator announces the actions such as "foot to foot," "back to back", "elbow to knee."  The game is like Simon Says with more immediate instructions.  When the Facilitator calls out "People to People," everyone must change partners.  The last pair to stand wins. A tie breaker can be involved in this game.

ROBOT-

The Robot game is interesting with at least 2 or more "pairs"people.  Each player in pairs either can be in the role of the "Robot" or "Controller."  The "Controller" has to act as if they are controlling the "Robot." The "Controller" has to move the "Robot where they want to go.  The "Robot" keeps moving until directed to stop.  The "Controller" has to make sure the "Robot" doesn't run into the walls or crash into anything.  Participants can switch roles.

  FACT OR FICTION-

There are many "Fact" or "Fiction" Games

Mature:

BEYOND BELIEF, FACT OR FICTION-

There was a series that was broadcasted for short time called "Beyond Belief."  It showed reenactment stories and at the end of each story, it would be announced whether it was "Fact"or "Fiction."  This is good for a creative group.  You can make a game out of this for those who have not seen the series, and individuals can decide whether it's "Fact" or "Fiction."

YES OR NO-

The game consists of There are multiple players in a circle or seated while one person can be in the middle of the circle or in front of the room.  There are small pieces of paper handed out to each player.  A question is asked and the players must either right yes or no to the question, while the main player must give the truthful answer to the question.  Then turn their answers to the facilitator.  The facilitator has to direct the main person to guess who thought the question was yes or no.  The player then goes around to the other players and point by guessing either 'Yes" or "No" to what they thought the players would answer to the question.  At the end of guessing, the main player finally reveals if the answer to the question was "Yes" or "No."  This game gives the opportunity to show what the main player may think of everyone and what everyone may of thought of the main player.

PASS THE PERSON-

This groups involves participants standing in two lines facing each other while, one person is at the end between both lines.  Each person must firmly hold the persons arms opposite of them to create a "bridge." The person at the end of the line falls back in the peoples arms as they pass the person on the bridge to the end of the line.  

  TRIVIA GAMES

GEOGRAPHICAL TRIVIA-

The host / hostess must guess the name of the Country, State, City, Capital, or Continent by giving players a universally known fact about the geographical location, or 

WHAT'S THAT MUSIC? -

This game is a multiple player game where each person has to guess the artist or song title of a clip of music.

WHAT'S THAT MOVIE?-

This game involves multiple players where a clip of a movie is played and the players must guess the title of the movie or the name of the actor / actress that the facilitator points out in the screen.  You can also make this into

WHAT'S THAT TV SHOW?.

  TUG OF WAR

Players are into two teams. Each team takes both sides of the rope. The facilitator either has a whistle or signals the beginning of the game.   The teams have to pull on the rope to bring the opposite team towards them.

  BALLS UNDER CHIN- 

This is a multiple player game where each person can take a tennis ball or create a ball with crumpled paper to hold under their chins.  Each player in teams of 2 or more must form a line and pass the ball under their chins to each team member to the end of the game marker by passing the line.  If the ball drops, the player has to go back to the beginning of the line.  The game concludes once one of the teams finish passing the ball.