In this ice breaker, your team work together to try and make a connection between two seemingly unrelated items. For example, a number of possibilities arise when asked to make a connection between grass and a book:
- You can use a blade of grass as a bookmark
- You can sit or lay on the grass to read the book
- You need light to read the book and grass needs light to grow
- Books have a unique smell as do books
Give the group two minutes to come up with as many connections as possible. Here are ten more random connections to give a try:
- Make a connection between Christmas and a lorry
- Make a connection between a park and a camera
- Make a connection between light and an apple
- Make a connection between a sign and a computer
- Make a connection between the beach and a car
- Make a connection between coffee and chocolate
- Make a connection between a pig and a fish
- Make a connection between a television and a plan
- Make a connection between snoring and a vote
- Make a connection between a potato and a shoe
John Muir wrote, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” This is your teams opportunity to make a connection between two completely random unrelated items.
Try and be creative and come up with your own pairings. You can also link the items to a particular objective or theme depending on your learning objectives.
For the ice breaker you will need a pen/pencil, piece of paper and a stopwatch for scoring. As soon as they begin the challenge, start to tally the teams answers. There is no need to note individual responses – just keep track on how many answers they come up with, so next time round they can try and build on their score.
An alternative is to split the team into two and give each team two minutes to come up with item pairings for the other. Once they have completed their lists, begin the ice breaker activity. One team watches, whilst the other team tries to make the connections. After their time is up, they then switch. The sub-team with the highest score wins the challenge.
