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Warm and Icebreaks

This document provides several warm-up and icebreaker activity ideas for English language learners. Warm-ups help learners shift their focus to English and encourage participation to build community. Suggested warm-up activities include brainstorming vocabulary, asking daily questions, having learners describe their previous day, and describing pictures. Icebreakers are intended to help learners get to know each other and can include name bingo, a name crossword, finding similarities, pair interviews, a snowball fight, and guessing mystery identities.

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92 views3 pages

Warm and Icebreaks

This document provides several warm-up and icebreaker activity ideas for English language learners. Warm-ups help learners shift their focus to English and encourage participation to build community. Suggested warm-up activities include brainstorming vocabulary, asking daily questions, having learners describe their previous day, and describing pictures. Icebreakers are intended to help learners get to know each other and can include name bingo, a name crossword, finding similarities, pair interviews, a snowball fight, and guessing mystery identities.

Uploaded by

erzsebetkacso
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Warm-up Ideas

Warm-ups help your learners put aside their daily distractions and focus on
English. If they haven't used English all day, they may take a little while to
shift into it. Warm-ups also encourage whole-group participation which can
build a sense of community within the group. For new groups, see the list of
ice breakers further down.

Brainstorm (any level, individual or group)


Give a topic and ask learners to think of anything related to it. Write
the responses for all to see, or ask a volunteer to do the writing. You
can use this to elicit vocabulary related to your lesson.
Question of the Day (intermediate-advanced, individual or group)
Ask 1-2 simple questions and give learners 5 minutes to write their
answers. Randomly choose a few people to share their answers with
the group.
Yesterday (intermediate, group)
Have a learner stand in front of the group and make one statement
about yesterday, such as "Yesterday I went shopping." Then let
everyone else ask questions to learn more information, such as "Who
did you go with?" "What did you buy?" "What time did you go?" etc.
Try this with 1-2 different learners each day.
Describe the Picture (any level, group)
Show a picture and have learners take turns saying one descriptive
thing about it. Beginners can make simple observations like "three
cats" while advanced students can make up a story to go with the
picture. They aren't allowed to repeat what someone else said, so they
need to pay attention when each person speaks. Variation for
individual: take turns with the teacher.
Criss-Cross (beginner-intermediate, large group)
Learners must be seated in organized rows at least 4x4. Have the
front row of learners stand. Ask simple questions like "What day/time
is it?" Learners raise their hands (or blurt out answers) and the first
person to answer correctly may sit down. The last standing learner's
line (front-to-back) must stand and the game continues until 3-4
rows/lines have played. You can use diagonal rows if the same person
gets stuck standing each time. To end, ask a really simple question
(e.g. "What's your name?") directly to the last student standing.
Variation for small group: the whole group stands and may sit one by
one as they raise their hands and answer questions.
Show & Tell (any level, individual or group)
A learner brings an item from home and talks about it in front of the
group. Give learners enough advance notice to prepare and remind
them again before their turn. Have a back up plan in case the learner
forgets to bring an item. Beginners may only be able to share the
name of an item and where they got it. Be sure to give beginners
specific instructions about what information you want them to tell.
Sing a Song (intermediate-advanced, group)
If you're musically inclined, or even if you're not, songs can be a lively
way to get everyone involved.
Mystery Object (advanced, group)
Bring an item that is so unusual that the learners are not likely to
recognize what it is. Spend some time eliciting basic descriptions of
the item and guesses about what it is and how it's used. If possible,
pass the item around. This is an activity in observation and inference,
so don't answer questions. Just write down descriptions and guesses
until someone figures it out or you reveal the mystery.

Ice Breakers
Name Bingo (beginner, large group)
Hand out a blank grid with enough squares for the number of people in
your class. The grid should have the same number of squares across
and down. Give the students a few minutes to circulate through the
class and get everyone's name written on a square. Depending on the
number of blank squares left over, you can have them write their own
name on a square, or your name, or give them one 'free' square.
When everyone is seated again, have each person give a short self-
introduction. You can draw names randomly or go in seating order.
With each introduction, that student's name square may be marked on
everyone's grid, as in Bingo. Give a prize to the first 2-3 students to
cross off a row.
Name Crossword (any level, group)
Write your name across or down on the board being sure not to crowd
the letters. Students take turns coming to the board, saying their
name, and writing it across or down, overlapping one letter that is
already on the board. It's usually best if you allow students to
volunteer to come up rather than calling on them in case a letter in
their name isn't on the board yet, although the last few students may
need encouragement if they're shy.
Similarities (beginner-intermediate, group)
Give each person one or more colored shapes cut from construction
paper. They need to find another person with a similar color, shape, or
number of shapes and form pairs. Then they interview each other to
find 1-2 similarities they have, such as working on a farm or having
two children or being from Asia. They can share their findings with the
class if there is time.
Pair Interviews (intermediate-advanced, group)
Pairs interview each other, using specified questions for intermediates
and open format for advanced students. Then they take turns
introducing their partner to the whole class. Be sensitive to privacy
when asking for personal information.
Snowball Fight (any literate level, group)
Give learners a piece of white paper and ask them to write down their
name, country of origin, and some trivial fact of your choice (such as a
favorite fruit). Have everyone wad the pages into 'snowballs' and toss
them around for a few minutes. On your signal, everyone should
unwrap a snowball, find the person who wrote it, and ask 1-2 more
trivial facts. Write the questions on the board so the students can refer
to them. Remember that each learner will need to ask one person the
questions and be asked questions by a third person, so leave enough
time. Variation for small groups: learners can take turns introducing
the person they interviewed.
Mystery Identities (any literate level, group)
Write the names of famous people or places (or use animals or fruits
for a simplified version) onto 3x5 cards. Attach a card to each learner's
back. Give them time to mingle and ask each other questions to try to
figure out their tagged identities. This is usually limited to yes/no
questions, although beginners might be allowed to ask any question
they can. Be at least 90% sure that the learners have heard of the
items on the cards and especially the ones you place on their own
backs.

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