Categories
Action Games Ice Breakers

Giants, Wizards, and Elves

Summary: An icebreaker / action oriented game good for medium and large sized groups.  Similar to a game of rock, paper, scissors, two teams face off and decide to become either “giants,” “wizards,” or “elves.” Giants defeat elves, elves defeat wizards, and wizards defeat giants.

Ages: 10 and up.  Recommended # of People: 20 and up (large groups work fine too!).  Messiness factor: Might break a small sweat!  Materials Required: None.  Recommended Setting: Indoors or Outdoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers

Human Sculptures Game

Summary: Human Sculptures (also known as Human Clay) is an icebreaker group game that involves posing people into large human sculptures based on predefined topics.  Two versions exist: a competitive version based on a guessing game, and a version that is more about coming up with a creative interpretation.

Ages: 12 and up. Recommended number of people: Groups of at least three.  Messiness factor: Minimal – hold a pose for a few minutes. Materials required: Sheets of paper and pens.  Recommended setting: Indoors or outdoors.

Categories
Action Games Card Games Ice Breakers Party Games

A Thousand Blank White Cards

Summary: A unique open-ended activity that lets players create the rules on white cards!

Ages: All. Recommended # of People: 5-6. Messiness Factor: You’ll move around. Materials Required: pens, blank white cards, an open space.

A Thousand Blank White Cards

How to Play

A Thousand Blank White Cards is a fun game that will ask players to make up creative rules.  Everyone starts with a wide open blank canvas.

The facilitator should prepare small stacks (7-8) of white index cards.  For about $10 you can large packs of cards online from Amazon.  Give each person a pen.

Instruct everyone on how to create a good card.  Each card should have (1) a title, (2) a consequence, and (3) a simple drawing.

For example:

  • A giant dinosaur arrives.  Everybody must scream in fear.  Everyone loses 1200 points.
  • Cookie Monster.  For each card in the discard pile, cookie monster eats these.  You get 100 points each.
  • Ghosts come alive.  Search the cards in the discard pile and take one.  Play it.
  • Exercise bunny.  While this card is in front of you, you must do 8 jumping jacks before you take your turn.
  • Pirate ship.  Speak like a pirate for one turn, then disc-ARRRRR-d this card.

Some cards can describe a way to win the game.  Other cards can react to that (an “Undo” card or a reaction card if someone seemingly wins, it can take away their win).  More explanation on that below.

Each player writes various cards, each with the 3 required parts as described above.  It should have the title, consequence and drawing.  It can be funny and involve silly actions as well.  Collect all the cards once they are written.  Place the deck in the middle of the room on a table or anywhere easy to reach.  There will also be a “discard pile” in the center for cards that have been discarded.

Playing the Game

Follow the following steps:

  1. On a player’s turn, he or she first draws a card from the deck.
  2. He or she then plays a card from their hand.  Place the card in front of any player or on the table.   For instance, a beneficial card could be played in front of himself or herself, or a negative card could be played in front of another player.  Some cards will be played in the center or perhaps impacts everyone.  Some cards will be discarded in the center after used.  All of this depends on the rule written on each card.
  3. After the first player has finished their turn, play continues clockwise, either until there are no cards left in the deck, or until some card effect has determined the end of the game.

If you’re not sure what to write on a card, just ask yourself what cards would be interesting to see in the game. This might be a reaction to another card — for example, if one player creates a card that says “When this card is played, you win the game,” another player could create an “Undo card” or a silly card that reads “Opposite day: If a player wins the game, play this card immediately. That player loses the game and exits this round”

At the end of a game, you can discuss as a group which cards were good and should be kept for play in future games. The fun of this game is not so much winning, but rather being creative in making unique cards that can be retained for future play.

Categories
Ice Breakers Party Games Stationary Games

Bowl Icebreaker Game

Summary: A rapid-fire guessing game in which players write many clues and place them in a bowl.

Ages: All. Recommended # of People: 10-20. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: Bowl, lots of paper, and pens. Recommended Setting: Indoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers

Two Truths and a Lie

Summary: A classic get-to-know-you icebreaker in which each person says two truths and one lie. The goal is to figure out which statement is actually the lie!

Ages: All. Recommended # of people: 6-10. Messiness factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers

Superlatives Game

Summary: An icebreaker where players must quickly arrange themselves in proper order — smallest to biggest, farthest away to closet, least to most, etc.

Ages: All.  Recommended # of People: Teams of 5 or more.  Messiness Factor: A little hectic.  Materials Required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors.

Superlatives Game

A good, brief icebreaker game that can be an interesting way to see how people compare.  Get to know other players in silly categories.  The goal is for players to reorder themselves as quickly as possible.

Instructions:  Teams should be medium to large size, about five players or more.  Large groups are okay, but ideally teams should be about 5-10 people.

To begin, have the facilitator ask all teams to stand up.  He or she announces a category, such as:

  • “How many letters are in your first name? From shortest to tallest.”
  • “Where is your birthplace?  Arrange from the person most farthest away to the person closest to your current city.”
  • “How many hats do you own? From least to most.”
  • “How many brothers or sisters do you have?  From least to most.”
  • “Height, from shortest to tallest.”

As soon as each superlative is announced, teams quickly figure out the proper order and sit down when done.  The judge checks to make sure they have done it correctly.  The first team to do it right wins the round.  Have fun and be creative with the superlatives!

Categories
Ice Breakers Stationary Games

Simon Says

Summary: A classic kids’ icebreaker/stationary game in which the leader, Simon, instructs people to do various actions. The goal is to only do something when Simon says so, and to do nothing when he doesn’t.

Ages: All ages. Recommended number of people: Any size group, including large groups. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: Nothing. Recommended setting: Indoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers

Straws Question Game

Summary: A useful icebreaker game to get people to know each other better, using specially marked straws.

Ages: 8 and up. Recommended number of players: Any number of players from 4 to 30.  Messiness factor: No mess at all! Materials required: Several straws, a cup, and a sharpie.

Categories
Ice Breakers Stationary Games

Hodgy Podgy

Summary: Hodgy Podgy is a simple (and entertaining!) rhythm game that has each person go around taking turns adding words to create a story.

Ages: 10 and up.  Recommend # of people: 6-15.  Messiness factor: No Sweat.  Materials Required: None.  Recommended Setting: Indoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers

Blanket Name Game

Summary: A good get-to-know-you name identification game that can get pretty hilarious!  Two people stand facing each other with a large blanket in between.  The blanket drops, and the first person to correctly identify the other person wins the round.

Ages: All.  Recommended # of People: 10-20.  Messiness Factor: No Sweat.  Materials Required: Blanket.  Recommended Setting: Indoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers Party Games

Autograph Bingo Game

Summary: Autograph Bingo is a simple icebreaker that asks people to mingle and find people that match interesting facts listed on a bingo card. The game is useul in that it causes players to discover interesting and humorous facts about each other.

Ages: 12 and up. Recommended # of people: Larger groups of 24+ people. Messiness Factor: No problem. Materials required: bingo cards prepared in advance and writing utensils. Recommended Setting: Indoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers

M&M Game

Summary: The M&M Game is an icebreaker that allows people to get to know each other. Each person grabs some M&Ms and shares facts about himself or herself.

Ages: All. Recommend number of people: Groups of 3-12. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: A large bag of M&Ms or any candy with multiple colors (e.g. Skittles).

Categories
Action Games Ice Breakers

Pulse Game

Summary: An action oriented icebreaker that works especially well with large groups of people.  A game of quick reflexes and passing on the pulse!

Ages: All.  Recommended # of People: At least 40 people.  Messiness Factor: Might break a small sweat. Materials Required: A coin, a chair, and any small object like a tennis ball.  Recommended Setting: Indoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers

ID Guessing Game

Summary: An icebreaker in which people write down two things that they’ve done and one thing that they haven’t on an index card. The goal is to correctly guess who wrote each card.

Ages: All. Recommended # of people: 8-15. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: Several pens and index cards. Recommended setting: Indoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers

Name Game

Summary:  A simple icebreaker useful for introducing people to each other and helping people learn names.  This game is especially useful when there are new people present.

Ages: 10-21 years old.  Recommended # of People: 5-20.  Messiness Factor: No Sweat.  Materials Required: A fun attitude.  Recommended Setting: Indoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers

Whose Story Is It?

Summary: An icebreaker in which you read various (bizarre) stories and try to guess whose true story it is.

Ages: All. Recommended # of People: 8-20. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: Paper, pens, container. Recommended Setting: Indoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers

Homemade Pictionary Game

Summary: A classic icebreaker game in which the goal is to get your teammates to correctly identify something that is drawn within the time limit.

Ages: 8 and up. Recommended # of people: Teams of 3+ people. Messiness Factor: No sweat. Materials required: Several sheets or two large pads of paper, notecards, pens, a stopwatch/timer. Recommended setting: Indoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers

Never Have I Ever

Summary: An icebreaker where players sit in a circle and take turns saying interesting things they have never done. Each player starts with ten fingers. Each time someone says something that you’ve done, you drop a finger. The goal is to be the last player remaining.

Ages: 8 and up. Recommended # of people: 10-20. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers Team Building

Human Knot Icebreaker

Human Knot photoSummary: A good icebreaker or teambuilding activity for new people to learn to work together – in close physical proximity! The goal is to figure out how to untangle the human knot without letting go of hands.

Ages: 12 and up. Recommended number of people: 7-200 (group sizes of 10 are ideal). Messiness factor: Might break a sweat – (close proximity – hope you’re not claustrophobic!). Materials required: None. Recommended setting: Both indoors or outdoors.

Categories
Ice Breakers

Sorts and Mingle Game

Summary: An icebreaker that gets the group to move towards various parts of the room and to find others with shared interests and preferences, based on various interesting categories.

Ages: 10 and up. Recommended number of people: 25 and up. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: None. Recommended setting: Indoors.