Teachers tend to use icebreaker activities for small groups and the whole class at the beginning of the school year. Read my other post for easy icebreakers for kids to use! While they are definitely a perfect way to get to know each other, there’s also great value in using them throughout the year. Read on to find out why you should be using icebreakers all year!
Why Should You Use Icebreakers?
Get to Know Your Students
Building relationships is everything! You’ll be able to make the biggest impact with the students you are able to develop a relationship with. Once they feel valued and that you care about them, they’ll be more likely to work harder for you and for themselves. Plus when icebreakers are presented in a fun gamelike format, students are more willing to share new facts about themselves.
Our school has practiced the 2 x 10 strategy to help connect to at-risk students. This simple strategy involves having a 2-minute conversation for 10 consecutive days with a student who is struggling to feel connected. Pay attention to these students while using icebreaker activities for small groups to identify possible conversation starters.
Build a Sense of Community
Not only do icebreaker activities allow you to get to know your students, but it also provides them with opportunities to learn more about each other. This helps create a stronger sense of community in your classroom, which we all know how crucial that can be for a successful year!
Improve Student Engagement
As you learn tidbits about students through icebreaker activities, you can incorporate them into your instruction. You may learn that several students play football, so you can find stories revolving around football for your small groups. Any opportunity to incorporate some of the students’ interests into your instruction, will greatly improve engagement. Another option to get to know more about students and improve student engagement is through the use of reading surveys.
How Should You Use Icebreakers?
Class Meetings
Class Meetings are the perfect opportunity to incorporate icebreaker activities into your daily schedule. They can be a quick way to start the day and continuously build a sense of community within your classroom. Icebreakers can also be used at the end of the day if you have a closing meeting or while your class waits for buses to arrive (since we all know what a loooong process that can be!)
Zoom Meetings and Google Meet
With our new norm of distance learning, icebreaker activities can increase student engagement. These are fun ways to encourage student participation virtually. One example is playing This or That where 2 pictures are shown and students hold up their fingers to show which picture they prefer.
Download the FREE Digital Icebreaker!
Small Groups
Icebreaker activities for small groups are the ideal opportunity to get to know students better. By using a quick icebreaker to begin or end your small group, you immediately make students feel heard. During this time students can share more and you can immediately connect with them. It feels more personable in a smaller group than during whole group activities. Any opportunity you can create to get to know students or connect with them is worth the effort!
Reading Buddies
Teachers can also use icebreaker activities to build a sense of school community. One way to do that is through Reading Buddies. These FREE Readding Buddy Icebreakers provide a variety of suggestions to help buddies get to know each other – which leads to a much more effective reading buddies program.
Make it a Priority!
It can definitely be hard to make time for icebreakers throughout the year, especially once we become so caught up in covering the curriculum. But it will make a tremendous difference in your dynamics with your students and the overall classroom community if you commit to making it a priority. It only takes a few minutes to make a major impact! To help you get started, you can use these premade icebreaker activities with your students!
Find out more icebreakers for kids that you can use all year long! What other ways do you incorporate icebreakers into your classroom? Share the activities you use or the other ways you use the information in the comments below!
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