Info-pool > seminars > Ice-breakers and energizers

If however, the person whose name is called out, calls out the name of someone elsein the group before he/she is struck with the newspaper, the one in the middle has tostrike this person instead. The same name may not be called twice in a row.(To give an example: If the name of Gertrud is called out and George who sits in themiddle of the circle with the newspaper manages to hit Gertrud on the head withouther shouting out any other participant’s name first, George and Gertrud have toswitch places. If, however, Gertrud manages to shout out the name of Gina beforeshe is hit by George, George has to quickly strike Gina on the head before she cancall out another name. Gina will then end up within the circle, armed with thenewspaper and ready to hunt down some other participant.)3. Atoms and MoleculesFor this game you need a music player of some sort. Play some music and tell thegroup that they should move “like atoms” chaotically around the room. After a fewmoments, turn the music down slightly and call out some quality/characteristicaccording to which the “atoms” should form “molecules” by holding hands with otherparticipants with the same quality/characteristic. For instance, call out “eye colour”,and the people with brown eyes should group together, the ones with blue eyes, etc.After most people have formed into groups of molecules, turn the music up again andrepeat with a different quality. After dealing with physical characteristics, it is a goodidea to move on to other qualities (for example: music taste, opinions related to thetopic of the seminar, etc.).4. Entangled HandsAll group members should stand in a circle and hold hands. One person is sent out ofthe room and the group, without letting go of each other’s hands, should entangleitself into a human knot. The person who left the room is called back in and given thetask of disentangling the group without breaking the circle. The person in charge hasto give commands about how to move in order to disentangle the knot. Encouragethe use of names in this context.5. The CircleAll participants have to make a circle following the alphabetical order of their names.When the participants think they have managed to organize themselves accordingly,check if the circle is correct by making all participants (starting from A) tell their ownname.You can easily make this ice-breaker more difficult, for example by telling theparticipants to organize themselves alphabetically without speaking or arrange themon chairs etc. Also, next time, the participants can make a circle according to theirage, how far they are living from the seminar venue, height, shoe size, etc... (Lateryou can use this as a basis for dividing people into groups for other ice-breakinggames, workshops etc.).- 3 -

2. Theatre SportsDifferent types of theatre sports or improvisations are good for following up the “I amamazing” activity. Some examples include:- The lecture. Have someone volunteer to give a lecture, and get a topic (thestupider, the better) from the group. The person should then improvise alecture on this topic for a minute or two. Variant: Get another volunteer tostand behind the lecturer and “be” his arms. He/she should provide gestures toaccompany the lecture.- Freeze: Start with two volunteers and give them a situation that they shouldimprovise from (e.g. “at the supermarket”, “in home economics class” etc).They should then act this scene out. At any moment, any member of the groupmay stop the actors in their movements by shouting “Freeze”. He/she mustthen take the place of one of the two actors and must start a new situation.- 6 -