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Here are three types of icebreakers that I have used over the years. :)
Activity 1: About Me - Write, Listen and Remember
Age: 9 +
So typically for my older students I will get them to fill in an 'about me' worksheet, which will contain a number of fill in the blanks sentences about their likes, dislikes, family and so on. There is also a section for them to draw a picture. The students the n read their texts aloud for the class. The other students need to listen as there will be a quiz about there peers at the end. Groups get points for each question they get right.
Activity 2: Interview games / Interview Bingo
Age: 5+
Students are given interview sheets, the ultimate goal is to get a set number of interview points and then to go to the finishing point and to make a line. Person first in the line is the winner, the next is second, and so forth.
Typical interview process: They stand up, walk round the room and interview other people - for ESL students, you preteach and demo the question and answer grammar patterns. You can choose to use rock, paper, scissors to decide who will ask the question in an interview. Only the winner can ask the question and get an interview point. This introduces an element of luck to make it more fun and increases the average number of interviews needed.
For lower level ESL students this type of game can be used for a variety of topics. E.g. you give them a worksheet with 9 types of fruit in a grid. Each time they interview someone they cross of the fruit they like, and try to get 3 in a row.
Activity 3: Name Learning Games
Age: 15+ (I prefer using these games with adults)
Students are given a soft ball or another object that can be thrown safely. The class stands up and makes a circle. The person holding the ball says there name and introduces themselves, you can specify types of information that must be covered. After the student is finished they pass the ball clockwise to the next person. After everyone is finished you play a game where the students have to choose a random person, say their name and then pass the ball to them. Everyone passes the ball around for a few minutes. At the end you see who has memorized all the names. For an added level of difficulty, you can have a quiz about the personal information given earlier.
These games are really effective ways of learning names. I highly recommend them for intensive courses with adults.
*** You also need to provide feedback to other members of your cohort.
Typically in elementary school I give new students an All about me worksheet where they introduce themselves and their interests, and we play a write, read, listen and remember game where the students introduce themselves and then we have a quiz to test whether they were listening and remember the introductions.
For Computer Art Club and Coding Club I use a different surveys that gather information relevant to those clubs. Specifically about their relevant interests and skills in addition to their friends in the class. I also want to see a quick sample of their artistic skills. Here are a handful of the hard copy surveys Computer Art Club Printed Surveys . Coding Club surveys were particularly important as I just took over this class after another teacher left earlier this year.
This week I created a new online survey for the purposes of this assignment. I already have student data from the paper surveys at the start of the year, so a lot of bases had been covered. Here is the online survey Online Google Forms Survey for Coding Club and here are the Google Forms Survey Results including charts generated by Google Forms. This was my first time doing a digital survey with my students, and the thing that surprised me most was the way that Google presents all the data after the survey. It really makes the data much easier to understand at a glance without even having to create the charts. Even though I had done a similar survey with these students before, it did make the results much clearer. It also made it easy to see key findings at a glance, such as that one of my students does not have access to a computer, tablet or phone at home.
Doing a digital survey was so convenient that I would consider using it if I go back to being a grade 6 homeroom teacher again. One disadvantage would be that although I as a teacher have access to all the data (they don't learn about each other during the process), and, without modification, it lacks the gamification element of the icebreaker games that I have used with grade 6 in the past and the students are sharing that data only with the teacher, not with other students. Students could, however, still introduce themselves to the class after filling in the survey, though it is not the ideal environment as computers can be a distraction, even if they are locked.
This worked really well with my after-school classes, but this year my homeroom class is a group of first grade elementary students. The students are not as familiar with computers, typing or English. It is also harder to get use of the computer room during the day, and furthermore, I don't think the school (and, in particular, the teachers that are responsible for it) would approve of first grade students using the computer room. For these reason, other forms of icebreakers are ideal with this group. For instance, the interview Bingo game works well with this age group. This game is physically active, simple and does not involve any use of computers.