Ask the group to listen inwards and to think about how they feel. Then work round the group, with people describing in a couple of words or sentences how they are feeling, e.g. curious, nervous, tired, excited etc. This allows the facilitator and the group to tune into each other. Use this prior to the workshop to set them up for the training/challenge and eliminate any negative feelings (as a positive framing tool). Also use at the end of a workshop to see if the workshop has had an effect on people’s feelings.
Author: David Priestley
Everyone in the group shares something exciting that has happened to them recently. Examples are: “I won money on the lotto”, “I got a new cat” “I became an Uncle”. Doing something like this creates positive energy for the meeting and puts people more in touch with each others lives. This can be used as a quick icebreaker when people already work together (or know each other). Just don’t get confused between excitement sharing and announcements.
Organise the group into a sitting circle, explain that everyone will give a personal introduction. Each person gives their name, where they are from and one other fact about themselves. This third fact could be freely chosen by each individual or the facilitator could suggest a theme. I’ve used a random fact or even a claim to fame in the past.
Everyone in the group has an imaginary ball. Each ball has its own special movement pattern, and its own sound which the participant decides. The participants practice “throwing” or “bouncing” the invisible balls by themselves, while simultaneously making the sounds (“boi-oi-oing,” “zip-zap,” “wheeeee”). After everyone has the movements and sounds finalised, they start walking around the space. The leader calls out, “freeze,” and then instructs everyone to trade balls with someone. There is no talking allowed, only demonstrating the sounds and movements of the balls. Once everyone has traded, everyone continues walking around the space again, this time with their new balls. The leader again calls out,…
Give a jigsaw piece to each participant. Ask them to walk around the room and find other people in the group with pieces of the jigsaw that go with theirs. Eventually the various members of the small groups join up and match up their pieces to make the picture, and they become a group. Think about your event objective and any particular themes: environment; gender; community relations; unfair trade; this can determine the jigsaw you will use. Equipment: Set of jigsaw pieces (different one for each group). You can also use a photo or picture cut up.
Great for organising smaller groups and works well with both adults and children. Fix a coloured dot onto the forehead of each participant. Ask the participants to stand up and move around the room in silence. Participants must find out what colour their dot is without talking. Once they know what colour their dot is, they find others with the same colour and that will be their group. This is a great game for encouraging non-verbal communication. Don’t forget to give some thought to how you want to mix the groups. Equipment: Sticky dots in a range of colours.
Have the group walking (or running if a warm-up) around the space and then call out a number and body part, for example 5 elbows. So people get into groups of 5 and touch elbows. Repeat with different numbers and body parts. Whatever number you want in each group call out that number for the final clump.
Choose a set of questions and answers. Write each question and answer on separate pieces of paper. Roll each one up and place it in separate balloons. Blow the balloons up. Have the group to walk around the room (could be to music) until you shout, “jump” then each person stands on a balloon to burst it and releases the statement inside. Everyone then picks a statement and then looks for the person with the answer to the question they have, or the question to the answer. This works great as an icebreaker, especially when working with larger groups. Depending on the statements written…
The Clapping Game is a variation on the game Pulse. Organise your group into a circle on the floor or around a table. Get everyone to place their hands flat on the surface, with their arms crossing over with those of the neighbours. Start the game by clapping one hand on the surface. Let the clap run around the circle, so that always the hand claps that is next to the one that clapped last. After practicing this for a couple of rounds, introduce a complication. If a hand claps twice, the direction of the clap changes direction. Again, practice. When everyone has understood…
Throw a balloon into the middle of the group and everyone has to keep it from touching the ground, you can add rules like participants cannot touch it more than once in a row. You can also do this by having everyone lay on the ground with their feet or heads touching in the centre of a circle and then throw the balloon in the middle. Try and be creative – it’s amazing what you can do with a balloon.
Simple to do but still effective as an end of session cool down. Form a circle and invite participants to do a physical stretch and the rest of the group copies. People can go at random or you can work around the circle.
Standing in a circle, participants place their palms together in front of them, explain that inside their palms is a ball of energy. Next up explain to the group that Zip Zap Zop all refer to different directions that they will point their hands. Zip: left Zap: right Zop: across the circle (or whatever you like) Whoever starts chooses one of Zip, Zap or Zop says it out loud for example “Zip” and passes/points their hands to the person on their left, it carries on (domino effect) with each person turning to the left with their hands and saying “Zip” until someone says something…