Standing or sitting in a circle, get participants to hold their right thumb and index finger in a circle to their right, next get them to hold up their left index finger and place inside the hold created by the person on the left. When everyone has done this and fingers are placed inside the circles, the leader shouts, “go” or counts to three and each person has to try to free their finger from the left and catch the finger on their opposite side.
Author: David Priestley
Standing in a circle holding hands 3 or so people are nominated as ‘train stations’ (TS) and 2 as ‘junctions’ (J) depending on the size of the group. Facilitator squeezes the hand of a person next to them and sends a ‘pulse’ which is the train around the circle. When the train reaches a TS they make a sound ie: “toot toot” and when it reaches a J it can change direction if the J chooses. Then a person has to go into the middle of the circle (train spotter) to guess where the train is at by touching the person they think has…
Form a circle of chairs (one for each person) and then take one away. One person stands in the middle and calls out something like “Everyone with blue eyes”. Everyone with blue eyes then jumps up and moves to a place vacated by someone else who has moved. The last person who is left without a seat remains in middle to call out something else. Instead of using chairs, you can also use cones.
Get the group to form an inward facing circle. One person moves to the centre and begins acting an activity, such as walking the dog (it is important that the people really do the activity). A second person enters the circle and asks, “What are you doing?” The first person then responds, while still doing the original activity: “driving a go-kart” The second person then begins to pretend they are driving a go-kart, and the first person re-joins the circle. A third person enters and asks, “What are you doing?” The person in the centre, while still doing their activity, replies: “Climbing a tree” (or…
In pairs participants describe something about themselves using the palms of their hands. They then have to introduce their partner to the rest of the group. Palm = what relationships and values do you consider as being very important to you? Thumb = what activities are most important to you? Fingers = what ‘things’ are you interested in but are perhaps less important? Wrist = what group/organization would you describe yourself as being most associated with? Change the questions to suit your learning objective and the type of group you are working with. For younger learners, use something that adds fun…
While holding the end of a long ball of twine/wool the first person says their name and they toss the twine to someone else across the circle who holds onto the string and repeats. You then retrieve the string by reversing the path the string took and each person says their name and who they are passing it to.
Each member of the group has a marker pen and writes their name on a large sheet of paper. They then write or draw something around their name. Information could include: why they have come to the workshop or something about themselves. This gives others in the group an opportunity to ask questions – find common interests and discussions can form where individuals are asked to elaborate. You can leave this up for the whole workshop and others can graffiti on their wall too.
The objective of the challenge is for the group to retrieve a bucket containing deadly radioactive isotope and tip the contents into a second bucket in a defined safety zone. The team only have a rope to complete the challenge and they cannot enter the marked off area. Equipment Required: 2 buckets, rope, plastic balls, cones to mark areas Space Required: Small. Indoors or outdoors. Group Size: 8 to 12 ideally, but can be done with 6 to 14 participants. Total Time: 25 minutes 5 minutes to brief and set up 15 minutes to achieve outcome 5 minutes to review and debrief Radioactive Isotopes Team Challenge Instructions…
One person leaves the room. Everyone in the circle decides on a certain rule to follow when answering the psychiatrist’s questions. Examples might be: tell the truth when legs uncrossed, tell a lie when legs are crossed answer all questions with five word phrases begin all sentences with a vowel. When a rule is decided upon, the psychiatrist comes back into the room and starts asking questions to people in the circle. They continue asking questions until they recognize the pattern. They have three guesses to try and figure out the rule. When the psychiatrist guesses correctly or guesses three…
An easy to deliver game for groups of any age (ideally with more than 10 participants). Organise your group into a sitting inward facing circle with their eyes closed or heads down. Next tap one of them on the shoulder and remove them from the circle. The first one to guess who is not there wins. Great as a quick game or an ice breaker when you are trying to participants to learn each others names.
Three or four players are chosen to be the ghosts. The rest of the group needs to scatter across the playing space and choose a spot to stand in. All players need to close their eyes. The ghosts will roam about the playing space. They will try to eliminate the others by standing close behind the players for 10 seconds without them knowing. If this happens, the ghost will tap them on their head and they will sit down quietly. If a person suspects a person behind them, they would ask, “Is there a ghost behind me?” If they are…
For this ice breaker, you need just paper and a pen. Before you begin, you will need to write the names of famous pairs on the paper (one name per piece of paper). Each participant will get one name each (i.e. Micky Mouse is one half and Mini Mouse is the other half). Have the group stand in a circle and have one person tape a piece of paper with a name to each person’s back. When everyone has a name they are free to walk around and ask each other questions, once they have figured out who they are…