When school is starting, it’s the perfect time to pull out all your fun, new ‘getting to know you’ classroom activities or icebreakers for kids. Back-to-school icebreakers can go a long way in the early weeks of school to help your pupils feel more comfortable in the classroom, get to know you and help them get to know their classmates!
Whether your school shuffles students around from year to year, you’ve got a KS2 students who are brand-new to attending school, or you’ve got some new kids who just moved to your school, using first day of school and first week of school icebreakers can make a big difference in creating a team atmosphere and maybe even help your students forge new friendships.
The teachers on the Teach Starter team have put together some of our favourite ideas for breaking the ice and helping students through that crucial getting to know you phase of a school year.
Read on for tips on how to introduce an icebreaker and some ideas for your primary classroom.
What Is an Icebreaker Activity?
If you’re not familiar with the idea of ‘getting to know you’ icebreakers, maybe it’s simply because you haven’t used that term before.
Icebreakers are activities that are fun and built around loosening pupils up, helping them ‘break the ice’ so to speak with you and other classmates who they might not know very well.
Maybe you’ve done your own fair share of icebreaker activities in staff meetings or during an orientation, but they were called openers or challenges that just so happened to kick things off? Then you know they can help give people something to talk about and help them quickly build up a rapport.
Best of all … we’ve got plenty of fun icebreaker questions, games and activities for kids from EYFS to LKS2 and beyond!
See our favourite teacher-created first day of school resources!
Get to Know You Questions to Help Break the Ice
Before we dig into the games and activities, it can be helpful to provide students with a few get to know you questions to help break the ice. You might also use these with some of the games listed below!
- What’s your favourite colour, and why do you like it?
- If you could have any superpower, what would it be, and how would you use it?
- Which do you like better — maths or English?
- Do you have any pets?
- What’s your favourite book, and why do you like it so much?
- If you could go on holidays anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
- What’s your favourite thing to do after the school day?
- If you could meet any famous person in Britain, who would it be, and what would you ask them?
- Do you have any siblings? What do you like to do with them?
- If you could design your own amusement park ride, what would it be like?
- If you could be any animal for a day, which one would you choose, and what would you do?
Get to Know You Games and Activities for Kids
It’s important that any icebreakers you use to help your pupils in the getting to know you phase aren’t requiring young kids to take social risks they aren’t ready for. This can do the opposite of what you’re hoping to do — forcing shy pupils back into their shells, rather than creating familiarity and comfort in the learning environment.
You’ll also want to steer clear of icebreakers for kids that are just too cheesy. EYFS pupils may give you a pass, but those older kids — especially year 4 and older— will let you know they’re just not into it!
One final note, before we share out favourite fun icebreaker games and activities? Focus on points of commonality that don’t leave students out. Asking students to share information about their family, for example, can be rife with sensitive spots. Make sure students can all be on equal playing fields.
All About Me Bingo — With Getting to Know You Questions
One of our teacher team’s favourite games for the first day of school involves a pupil-favourite — bingo cards!
You can download blank bingo game grids, and add some of the questions above to each grid — randomising the queries — or you can print a ready-made version created by a member of our teacher team!
Pupils should walk around the classroom and talk to their classmates to find someone who can answer ‘yes’ to a particular question. When they find someone who matches the question, that pupil will write their classmate’s name in the corresponding square on their bingo card. The objective is to fill as many squares as possible.
Getting to Know You Chatterboxes
Whether you call them cootie catchers or chatterboxes (or fortune tellers), the popular paper flap games are a big hit in the classroom. But did you ever think to use them as an icebreaker? Print out this fun back to school (it’s free!), and fill it in with getting to know you questions such as ‘what day is your birthday?’ and ‘how many siblings do you have?’
Photocopy, and distribute to your pupils, splitting them into groups of two to play ‘fortune teller’ together. They’ll have fun seeing if the fortune teller can guess the correct answers!
Find Four Icebreaker for Kids
Find Four is a great icebreaker for helping kids get up and get those wiggles out while introducing themselves to their new classmates. The premise is simple:
- Pupils are given a card broken out into different squares with instructions in each square (You can print a pre-made Find Four card here!).
- Each instruction tells them to ‘find four’ classmates who meet different criteria such as ‘find four classmates who have a dog.’
- It’s up to your pupils to wander the room and ask their peers questions about themselves to see if they can ‘find four!’
- Pupils can write the names of their ‘four’ in the boxes — a great way to help kids commit new names to memory.
Name Chase
Remember ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’? This fun icebreaker activity is a twist on the classic game and a great one to help new pupils remember each other’s names.
- Pupils sit in a circle with one person, ‘it,’ standing on the outside.
- The person who is ‘it’ walks around the circle, gently tapping each person on the head, saying that person’s name as they do (instead of saying “duck”).
- If the person who is ‘it’ taps someone and says the class name instead (e.g. ‘Mr. Green’s class’ instead of saying ‘goose’), the tapped person has to stand up and chase ‘it’ around the circle trying to tag them before ‘it’ takes their spot.
Classmate Scavenger Hunt
Send your pupils on a scavenger hunt to break the ice with their new classmates … only they don’t need to find something. They need to find someone, or rather several someones! Very similar to Find Four, this icebreaker for kids may be more appropriate for smaller classes where ‘finding four’ might be tough or for younger pupils.
From someone who has a pet to someone who has blue eyes, this activity gets kids up and moving, as well as meeting and greeting their classmates.
You can print a pre-made scavenger hunt template here.
Two Truths and a Lie
This game is a classic (and fairly addictive) icebreaker for kids that can be played as a whole class or in small groups.
- Each person in the class comes up with three statements about themselves. Two should be true statements, and one should be false. Depending on the age of your pupils, you might allow them to think up the statements and keep them in mind or to practise writing them down.
- Working your way down the class list, call on pupils one by one.
- When called on, each pupil should announce their 3 statements for the rest of the class to determine which statement they think is false.
Some different ways to play this game are:
- Have the entire class vote by a show of hands, guessing which statement they think is false.
- Have each pupil write down which statement they think is false, and see who gets the most correct.
Beach Ball Icebreaker Game
Image credit: 4 the Love of Teaching
The Beach Ball Icebreaker game is another classic and fun way for you to get to know your pupils and for them to get to know each other!
- Use a permanent marker to write a question on each panel of a blow-up beach ball.
- Standing or sitting in a circle, students throw or roll the ball to someone else in the circle.
- When pupils receive the ball, they answer the question that is facing them. Then they pass or roll the ball to someone else.
This game can be so easily tailored to suit the context of your classroom or the time of year. You could prepare a variety of beach balls to bring out for brain breaks too!
For example, with a new class, you may write some more basic ‘getting to know you’ questions such as ‘What is your favourite thing to do on the weekend?’ Returning from a break with a class you already know you may write different questions like ‘If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?’
Pentagonal Me
Your pupils have returned from summer holidays brimming with stories and updates about their lives. Harness that energy with Pentagonal Me, an icebreaker activity that doubles as a fun way to introduce geometric shapes.
- Print a Pentagon Template that’s been broken into 5 separate sections.
- Each section directs pupils to share 5 facts about themselves in different subject areas.
- After the kids have written out their 25 facts, set your students up in groups of 5 (if possible), and have each pupil choose one section of their pentagon to read out loud to their group.
- When the group is done, send pupils back to their seats, and ask pupils to share 5 things they’ve learned about their classmates.
The filled-out templates also make a great classroom display that’s entirely pupil-focused when you put all the pentagons together. Parents will also love spotting their child’s pentagon on the wall at drop-off.
All About Me Cube Games
This hands-on activity can be used in different ways. Print out blank cube templates for every pupil in your class (and a few spares to go into any ‘new pupil packs’ you may have prepared for kids to join your class later in the year!). You may decide to enlarge these for extra creative space and to make a fun display.
Here are a few different ways you could use the cubes to turn this craft activity into a group-sharing, icebreaker activity:
1. Cube Clumps
- The teacher calls out one of the topics on the cube (e.g. birthday months, hair colour, special places, favorite hobby).
- Pupils find all of the other people in the class who share that same month, characteristic, or interest and stand in a ‘clump.’
- For topics that leave pupils standing alone (e.g. they are the only person in their class with that birthday month, characteristic or interest) use this as a way to highlight the amazing diversity and individuality in your class!
2. Cube Mix
- Pupils complete all sides of the cube except for the name and self-portrait sides.
- Collect the cubes, and mix them up in a bag or box.
- Hand a cube out to each pupil, making sure they don’t get their own cube.
- Pupils look at the cube they received and see if they can figure out who it belongs to.
3. Cube Stack
In groups, pupils use the complete cubes to create 3-D sculptures or displays in your classroom by stacking cubes with the same face out.
- The name and birthday side can be used to create a birthday display by stacking all of the cubes from each month together.
- Stack the cubes with the portrait side facing out to make a 3-D sculpture.
- Use the ‘special people’ or ‘special places’ sides to create a display, or even to use as writing prompts throughout the year.
Wipe That Smile Off Your Face
Hey, we promised these icebreaker games were fun, right? Well, this one is FUN, and for fans of the YouTube ‘try not to laugh’ challenges, it will be a big hit!
- Pupils sit in a circle, and the teacher chooses one person to start the game.
- That person smiles their widest, biggest, cheesiest smile at everyone else in the circle, trying to make them laugh. However, they must be silent, and they cannot pull faces or be silly. All they can do is smile.
- For every person in the group who laughs at their smile, they receive one point.
- After they have smiled at everyone in the group, they ‘wipe’ the smile off their face with their hand and ‘pass’ the smile to the next person in the circle.
Heads or Tails
This is an easy icebreaker game to play in the classroom that requires almost no set-up. All you need is a pile of pennies and your whiteboard markers!
- On your whiteboard, create two separate lists with the word ‘Heads’ on top of one and ‘Tails’ on top of the other.
- List One should be a list of favourites such as animal, colour, book, etc.
- List Two should be would you rather questions — would you rather have a dog or cat, eat cereal for breakfast or dinner, etc.
- Have your pupils pair off, and give each pair a penny.
- Pupils in each pair then trade off flipping the coin.
- If they get a ‘heads,’ they have to share an answer from list one with their partner, working down the list in order.
- If they get a ‘tails,’ they have to tell their partner their answer to a ‘would you rather’ question from the list, working down the list in order.
Save time with Would You Rather question cards you can print and share with your pupils!
My Memory Matching Game
Another twist on a familiar classic, this is a great icebreaker game for older students. In this game, students create their own cards to play a game of memory with a partner.
- Provide pupils with an even number of blank cardboard squares or rectangles that are all the same colour and size. They will create two memory cards for every fact about themselves (i.e. To create 3 facts, every pupil needs 6 cards. To create 5 facts, each pupil needs 10 cards.).
- On each pair of cards, pupils write or draw a fact about themselves. You may like to provide pupils with a list of prompts to help.
- When they have finished creating their ‘My Memory’ cards, pupils shuffle their cards with a partner and play a game of memory.
- Pupils can rotate to play with other new partners too.
This Is Me Task Card Game
This icebreaker game is great for the lower grades, and it makes for a great movement break during those early days of school. Download the task cards, and tell your pupils to stand up near their desks or in a circle. If the weather is nice, you may even want to take the class outside to get some of their wiggles out while the kids get to know one another.
As each card is read aloud to the pupils, they respond appropriately if the information applies to them, e.g., jump up and down if you have an older brother. Pupils will find that there will be many cards that do apply to them, and many that do not. They simply stand still for those cards that are not applicable and get to know their classmates!
STEM Icebreaker Activities
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) activities make fantastic icebreakers as they encourage kids to work together and start building a team mentality. It can also take some of the pressure off shy pupils who may feel uncomfortable with activities that focus on aspects of themselves and their own lives.
STEM tasks help you to assess where your new pupils are at in terms of general knowledge and higher-order thinking skill development. Additionally, you will be able to see how pupils work in groups which will help with classroom and behaviour management planning.
Here are some great open-ended STEM tasks that your pupils can work on in small groups.
This set of STEM task cards for primary pupils contains 22 different challenges that pupils can complete with commonly found and easily sourced materials. From creating the tallest button tower to racing cars without using their hands, these activities are a super fun way to get kids engaging with their new peers.
You can also download this ‘Build a Raft’ STEM challenge!
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