Ice-Breakers
Here are some ice breakers to help get people talking as your group gets to know each other:
1. Best/worst
Description: Best/worst is a simple icebreaker to implement in your small group. Ask each person to share their best and worst moments from the previous week. The entire icebreaker should not take longer than 10-15 minutes depending on how large your group is. This is an easy one to use and gives you good feedback on how the people in your group are doing in a general sense.
Ideal group size: Any size group.
Ideal age group: College age and older.
Great for: Any group. The longer the group has been meeting, the more honest the answers will be. If you use this with a group of people who do not know each other well, the answers may be short and surface-level. Persevere, and people will become more comfortable with each other.
Tips: If people are not engaging with the question, you can prompt them with follow-up questions to help them remember what they did during the week. It can also help if you initiate the icebreaker by answering the question first, giving everyone else time to think about their answers.
2. Most unique
Description: Go around the room and have each person share something that makes him or her unique or unusual, such as “I’ve never left the state I was born in” or “I am one of 10 kids.” The more unique the facts, the more fun the icebreaker becomes.
Ideal group size: Up to 15 people.
Ideal age group: High school and older.
Great for: Newly formed groups.
Tips: Give examples of unique or unusual facts, and be willing to share your answer first. This activity often creates starting points for conversations between members.
3. Two truths and a lie
Description: Have each person make three statements about him or herself: two true statements and one lie. For example: “I’ve never broken a bone. I have five sisters. I was born in Poland.” The group tries to guess which statement is the lie. This icebreaker should not take longer than 10-15 minutes.
Ideal group size: This game can be time consuming, so it’s better with 10 people or fewer. Consider breaking up a big group into a few smaller ones.
Ideal age group: College age and older.
Great for: Newly formed groups.
Tips: The key to making this icebreaker fun is for people to come up with odd/interesting facts about themselves. The more seemingly random the better. Give people a few minutes before starting the icebreaker to come up with the facts about themselves. The lie becomes harder to spot when only a portion of it is false. For example: “I have five sisters” could be the lie if the person only has three sisters.
Keep the pace going by setting a time limit per player.
4. Get-to-know-you questions
Description: Most people will not know each other well in a group that’s just forming. Using this icebreaker helps create friendship and community within the group. Simply ask one of these questions and give everyone a predetermined amount of time to answer.
Your goal is not to answer all of these questions, but we have provided them to give you options.
What do you do for fun?
What would be your ideal vacation?
What is the most memorable activity you did with your family as a child?
What quality do you appreciate most in a friend?
What is one characteristic you received from your parents you want to keep and one you wish you could change?
What is a good thing happening in your life right now? What makes it good?
If you knew you could not fail and money were no object, what would you like to do in the next five years?
What would you like said about you at your funeral?
When, if ever, did God become more than a word to you, and how did that happen?
Ideal group size: Up to 15 people.
Ideal age group: College age and older.
Great for: Newly formed groups.
Tips: If you want to use this icebreaker for your first small group, plan on spending most of the time answering the questions you have chosen from the list.
Give your group space to be open with one another. If the questions above do not fit your group, come up with your own. The important thing is for people to share about themselves and practice listening well.
5. House on fire
Description: Ask the members of your group to imagine the following scenario: “Your house is on fire, and everyone is safe. You have 30 seconds to run through the house and collect three or four articles you want to save. What would you grab? Why?”
After everyone has done this, the group can discuss what they learned about the things they value.
Ideal group size: Up to 20 people.
Ideal age group: High school and older.
Great for: Newly formed groups.
Tips: If you decide to discuss your group members’ answers to the question, allow extra time. You can also come back and discuss the answers in a later meeting. This would be a great icebreaker to use to launch a study about identity or values.
6. Make-believe
Description: Ask the members of your group one of these questions: If you could ...
Go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and why?
Talk to anyone in the world (alive or dead), who would it be? Why?
Wish one thing and have it come true this year, what would it be? Why?
Ideal group size: Up to 10 people.
Ideal age group: High school and older.
Great for: Newly formed groups.
Tips: This icebreaker may take longer than others, depending on how much people want to share. Plan on 15-20 minutes for this icebreaker.
7. Deserted island
Description: Ask the group: “You’ve been exiled to a deserted island for a year. You are told you may take three things you want, apart from the essentials. What would you take and why?”
Ideal group size: Up to 15 people.
Ideal age group: High school and older.
Great for: Any group.
Tips: This icebreaker is fun when people think of quirky answers. Encourage your group to think outside the box. This icebreaker should not take longer than 10 minutes, and the answers should be relatively short.
8. Heroes
Description: Ask each group member to name three people, past or present, he or she admires. Why?
Or ask: “If you could interview anyone in history, who would you choose and why? What one or two questions would you ask?”
Ideal group size: Up to 10 people.
Ideal age group: Middle school and older.
Great for: Any group.
Tips: People will have interesting answers for these questions. It would be best to utilize this icebreaker for a small group that is focussed on bonding. Members of your group will most likely talk about people who have impacted their lives personally, so it may take longer than other icebreakers.
9. You write the question
Description: Give each person a 3x5 card. Pick a topic and ask them to write down questions about that topic that anyone in the group could answer. For example, if you choose “friendship” as a topic, they can write down questions like “What do you value most in a friend?” or “Who was your best friend growing up and why?”
Pile all the cards face down in the middle of the group and let people draw one. Some topic ideas include jobs, life goals, funny stories, hobbies, family, fears, dating issues, significant relationships and relationship with God. Go around the room until everyone has had a chance to draw and answer a question.
Ideal group size: Up to 15 people.
Ideal age group: College age and older.
Great for: Newly formed groups.
Tips: If there are similar questions written on more than one of the 3x5 cards, have the group come up with a new question on the spot for the person drawing the second one (or third, etc.). This will keep people engaged in the game and give everyone something to do.
10. Telephone Pictionary
Description: Each person in the small group receives a piece of computer paper and a pen. Everyone writes a funny or unusual sentence at the top of their paper. Then, each person hands their piece of paper to the person on their left. Now everyone will have a new piece of paper. Each person draws out a picture of the sentence. They fold the paper so only the picture is seen. The paper gets passed to the left again. This next person will write out a sentence that describes the picture and fold the paper so only the sentence is seen. The game alternates between people drawing and writing out what they see as they continue passing each paper to the left.
The icebreaker ends when each person receives their original paper. Let everyone share their original sentence and the final sentence or picture.
Ideal group size: 5 to 15 people.
Ideal age group: Middle school and older.
Great for: Any group.
Tips: This is a popular icebreaker. It usually produces lots of laughs as everyone shares their papers at the end of the activity. Plan on this game taking 15-20 minutes.
11. Did you know?
Description: Ask each group member to give you one interesting or unusual fact about themselves before the group meets. Try to discover information that sets each person apart from the others, such as “I have a tugboat named after me,” “I once wrecked the same quarter panel of my car four times,” or “I have a twin.”
Then make a sheet with one fact from each person and a blank space to enter someone’s name beside this fact. Give everyone in the group a sheet and have them find out whose name goes in each blank.
When they find the right person, they must also learn one other fact about that person. This does not need to be written on the paper, it just encourages conversation. At the end, introduce everyone in the group in the order on the list. Give the person who found all the answers first a prize.
Ideal group size: 10-25 people.
Ideal age group: Middle school and older.
Great for: Newly formed groups.
Tips: This icebreaker will work best with people who do not yet know one another well. Plan on this icebreaker taking 20 minutes. Consider turning on music so people cannot hear each other’s answers.
12. Personal scavenger hunt
Description: Have group members take five minutes to find the following items in their wallets or purses: Something that ...
You’ve had a long time.
You’re proud of.
Reveals a lot about you.
Reminds you of a fun time.
Concerns or worries you.
Have each person share the first item. Encourage people to expand on their item and why it fits the topic prompt. For example, if they have an item that reminds them of a fun time, have them share the memory. Go around again sharing the second item and so on until you have gone through each prompt.
Ideal group size: Up to 15 people.
Ideal age group: College age and older.
Great for: Newly formed groups.
Tips: It can be hard to tell how long this icebreaker will take. Some people will expand on their answers, others will not. If the activity is taking too long, you can stop the sharing portion and pick up the icebreaker again during the next week’s meeting.
If people do not have purses or wallets to look through, ask them to find pictures on their phones that might fit the prompts. Or ask them to recall what is in their wallets or purses if they do not have them physically.
