Building community in a socially distanced classroom
Who knew that in 2022, this is where we would be? Regardless of what the pandemic has thrown at us, we know that the disruptions over the past two years have affected how our students engage and socialise with their peers. The product of spending so much time away from one another has left our once bustling and chirpy classrooms with a noticeable tension, an uncertainty, an invisible discomfort. To ease students back into the social side of education, we have put together some icebreaker activities that encourage students to get to know their peers and feel comfortable in the classroom of 2022.
Pictionary:
This is a great game to revise vocabulary relevant to your subject area (or you could use random words selected via this generator).
Divide students into small groups (four works well) and draw up a scorecard on the board. Provide each group with paper and textas to write on, or a small portable whiteboard.
The teacher will show a representative from each group the first word on a piece of paper. Set a timer depending on the complexity of the word and once the student is back in their group, ask them to draw a pictorial representation of the word without speaking or using words or letters.
The first team to correctly guess the word receives a point. Rotate the role of the artist and continue to provide additional words until every student in the group has had a turn to draw, and a winning group is declared.
Draw a Picture:
This is an adjustment to the Pictionary game which emphasises the importance of listening and being precise (and patient) when working with others.
Select an image for students - this can be relevant to the topic that you are about to study, or completely abstract and irrelevant (we love using these tricks and asking students how it relates to what we are studying - they come up with some amazingly perceptive answers!)
Put students in pairs and give one student the image. They are not to show that image to their peer.
The student with the image describes what they see, being careful not to name any objects. The other student draws what their partner describes. For example, in the upper-left corner draw a circle the size of your pinky fingernail (instead of saying draw the sun).
After a set number of time (approximately five minutes), the student who was drawing needs to guess the topic of the image. The image can then be revealed and compared.
Swap roles and provide a new image for another rotation.
Animal ages:
For this activity, students will be in groups of six. Each student is given a card that contains a living creature, and facts relating to its lifespan. Without writing anything down, the group needs to work out the order of lifespan, from youngest to oldest. To complete this activity, all students need to participate, share their card details and listen to the details of others before making a decision as a group.
Download a printable and free copy of this activity here.
Name Game:
An oldie but a goodie that is quick to organise and run, the Name Game places emphasis on getting to know the names of all students in the classroom.
Every member of the class chooses an adjective that starts with the same letter as the first letter of their first name. They put that adjective in front of their first name - for example: Laughing Lauren. The first student says their adjective and name (Laughing Lauren) and the second student says the previous name (Laughing Lauren) followed by their own (Jumping Jodie). The third student repeats the two previous names and adjectives, then adds their own name, and so on.
Other ideas:
Check out some of the team building activities we have shared in our previous blog posts:
Turn your back
Picture This
The Hunt
Guess the Timeline
Student Profiles
Walk & Stop
Fortunately/Unfortunately
Whip Around Pass
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