|
|
Post by shanniebananie on Sept 19, 2018 1:57:40 GMT
I know, icebreakers...
Torture for us introverts. However, I am tasked with coming up with 5 different ones to be used at our moms group meetings throughout the year (one per meeting). Typically, there are around 30-40 woman who attend and we definitely do not all know each other. I am thinking no more than 5-8 minutes in duration, little to no materials to prep and they can be done at the tables or move around.
Do you have a favorite? Ones where you actually had fun, thought it was clever, learned interesting things about your fellow attendees, no too painful for the introverts in the group, etc..
I am heading over to Pinterest now, but thought I would ask here to get some real world suggestions too.
|
|
|
|
Post by mrssmith on Sept 19, 2018 2:01:09 GMT
One that I liked was "tell me the story of your name" (doubles as an introduction). You talk about the origin or your name, who you were named for, why it has an unusual spelling, etc etc.
I really dislike "two truths and a lie" because I find it hard to come up with something.
|
|
|
|
Post by ScrapbookMyLife on Sept 19, 2018 2:53:37 GMT
Depending on the place, event, etc...
Are you from "Name of City"?
How do you now the Bride and Groom?
How do you know the Hosts? If at a home or event. BBQ. Dinner party.
Do you have kids? GrandKids?
Is this your first time here?
Do you have kids?
What do you do for a living?
If they are wearing something with a name on it....I Love Disney. The "name" are a great team.
I love watching the kids play ball. Which kid is yours?
Sure am enjoying the rain. Great time for a hot cocoa.
To answer your question...maybe have everyone give a brief synopsis.
Hi, I am Scrappin. I love Scrapbooking and reading. My favorite author is Danille Steel. Love taking photos.
|
|
chendra
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,861
Location: The 33rd State
Jun 27, 2014 16:58:50 GMT
|
Post by chendra on Sept 19, 2018 2:54:41 GMT
We did one recently at work that wasn't too bad (and I'm a supreme introvert). It was a list of "find someone who": was in the military, is an only child, speaks more than one language, has a pet that isn't a dog or a cat, has lived in another country, etc. All we had to do was write someone's name in each space. Some people got involved in interesting conversations and didn't move on to others, while others buzzed around frantically trying to complete the whole list. Works either way and gets people talking.
I'll tell you one I DIDN'T like--being randomly assigned a type of animal and having to wander the room acting like that animal until you found the others of your kind. That was torture.
Good luck!
|
|
|
|
Post by mlynn on Sept 19, 2018 3:02:50 GMT
What is your favorite season? Why?
|
|
|
|
Post by Lexica on Sept 19, 2018 3:07:47 GMT
I participated in a team building event where the question was, “What is there about you that people would be surprised to know.” We were to spend 10 minutes asking as many people as we could. One story that I found interesting was a coworker whose mother was a secretary to a very wealthy businessman. They had an affair and due to being pregnant with him, they married after the father’s divorce. He lived the first 8 years of his life on a glorious estate. He had his own manservent that taught him to ride a bike, play tennis, swim, and play team sports because the father was always working. He said he hardly saw the father, and although he wanted for nothing, he was terribly lonely and shy. He didn’t attend school; he had various tutors brought in.
Then the father died just after he turned 8. The father’s will left everything to him, but he could not access it until he turned 30. He and his mother went from luxurious living to a cheap apartment with mattresses on the floor and not enough food to eat. He said they had to move to another state to where his mother’s aunt could babysit him while his mother went back to work. Total culture shock.
When I knew him, he had access to the funds, but only for certain things. The trust was set up to where he had to request funds from the attorney/executor and have it approved after the strict will was reviewed for allowed expenses. Weird, huh?
Most people had fun things like they were double jointed or they played piano or sang. I was fascinated by his one guy’s history though.
|
|
|
|
Post by peanutterbutter on Sept 19, 2018 3:12:17 GMT
I've done one similar to chendra's above. I called it the people scavenger hunt and mixed up questions to include some that were obvious like when someone wearing blue, someone who has brown eyes to other less obvious things like find someone who ate chicken last night, who had their tonsils out ,who likes to ride roller coasters et cetera.
Another way that we found to put people into smaller groups for an icebreaker activity is to give everyone parts of a cartoon strip, and first they would have to match those up and then could do a short Icebreaker / introduction activity.
Building something or making a quick project is a good way to get people to bond as well.
|
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
May 19, 2024 16:25:12 GMT
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2018 3:16:15 GMT
Actually quite a few threads on this board would work as ice breakers, but the "do you use a wash cloth" might not go over so well.  How about: Do you like to travel / best vacation you ever took Do you have any pets / are you a cat or dog person Favorite holiday and how you prepare for it Favorite food/dessert Do you have a talent/hobby |
|
moodyblue
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,179 
Location: Western Illinois
Site Supporter
Jun 26, 2014 21:07:23 GMT
|
Post by moodyblue on Sept 19, 2018 3:28:06 GMT
We did one recently at work that wasn't too bad (and I'm a supreme introvert). It was a list of "find someone who": was in the military, is an only child, speaks more than one language, has a pet that isn't a dog or a cat, has lived in another country, etc. All we had to do was write someone's name in each space. Some people got involved in interesting conversations and didn't move on to others, while others buzzed around frantically trying to complete the whole list. Works either way and gets people talking. I'll tell you one I DIDN'T like--being randomly assigned a type of animal and having to wander the room acting like that animal until you found the others of your kind. That was torture. Good luck! I've had to do that one a few times - it's not as bad as some, although it usually is a timed activity so people are rushing to find someone who can sign a square on their card so you really don't talk to anyone during the activity. I've also done it where I didn't care about filling out the card so I didn't put out much effort. |
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
May 19, 2024 16:25:12 GMT
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2018 3:29:27 GMT
Tell us something unusual about yourself? My mom replaced me with chickens is a good one.
|
|
|
|
Post by freecharlie on Sept 19, 2018 3:31:22 GMT
Have you seen Freedom Writers diary? Two lines facing each other (or however many lines you need). They do a step forward if a statement applies to you, stay put if it doesn't. Start off with premade questions and then have people come up with their own questions.
Soundtrack: each person plays a small portion of a song that is like their life or something
|
|
|
|
Post by freecharlie on Sept 19, 2018 3:34:18 GMT
Knock knock match up...
Take knock knock jokes and split them in two (questions and answers) find the person you think fits with your knock knock...share the jokes (some wont be what you expect)
|
|
|
|
Post by LilyRose on Sept 19, 2018 3:51:08 GMT
One that I liked was "tell me the story of your name" (doubles as an introduction). You talk about the origin or your name, who you were named for, why it has an unusual spelling, etc etc. I really dislike "two truths and a lie" because I find it hard to come up with something. I’ve done the name one too, and it was fun. I remember one woman wasn’t officially named until she was a year old, and someone else was named after her father’s ex-girlfriend, LOL. I have also played one where you were asked to tell what would be your dream job (if money weren’t an object). My favorite answer was the person who would be the person inside a character costume at Disney. |
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Sept 19, 2018 3:54:44 GMT
I went to CookieCon last week and they had a fun one that got people talking to each other that would be great for introverts. Everybody at the convention got a random pack of 20 identical cards with a number and a graphic on them. Everybody had a different number on their set of cards. The goal was to go around and talk to other people and trade one of your cards for one of theirs until you had a full set of 20 cards. Since there were hundreds of attendees and only 20 card designs (so multiple people had duplicate cards), you might have to talk to ten people before you found someone who had the card you needed to complete your set. It was a great ice breaker because pretty much everyone was trading them, and there was a raffle drawing that everyone who completed their set was entered into so there was that added benefit to doing it.
|
|
|
|
Post by jemali on Sept 19, 2018 4:11:47 GMT
You could have some of the “Would you rather” cards. They can be pretty entertaining.
|
|
camcas
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,973
|
Post by camcas on Sept 19, 2018 4:30:10 GMT
I absolutely HATE stuff like this
It would def make me NOT come next time
|
|
|
|
Post by crimsoncat05 on Sept 19, 2018 4:34:03 GMT
We did one recently at work that wasn't too bad (and I'm a supreme introvert). It was a list of "find someone who": was in the military, is an only child, speaks more than one language, has a pet that isn't a dog or a cat, has lived in another country, etc. All we had to do was write someone's name in each space. Some people got involved in interesting conversations and didn't move on to others, while others buzzed around frantically trying to complete the whole list. Works either way and gets people talking. this is a really great-sounding one! |
|
wellway
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,770
Jun 25, 2014 20:50:09 GMT
|
Post by wellway on Sept 19, 2018 9:15:57 GMT
We did one recently at work that wasn't too bad (and I'm a supreme introvert). It was a list of "find someone who": was in the military, is an only child, speaks more than one language, has a pet that isn't a dog or a cat, has lived in another country, etc. All we had to do was write someone's name in each space. Some people got involved in interesting conversations and didn't move on to others, while others buzzed around frantically trying to complete the whole list. Works either way and gets people talking. I'll tell you one I DIDN'T like--being randomly assigned a type of animal and having to wander the room acting like that animal until you found the others of your kind. That was torture.Good luck! What an odd way of getting people to talk, I'd be a sloth for that one and just hang out near the food.
|
|
|
|
Post by jassy on Sept 19, 2018 12:37:57 GMT
I happen to LOVE this one - but only because it's how I met my husband :-) :-) :-) We were 17 and at a youth retreat. And fate had us both be dogs. I am not shy, so as the group stood there not wanting to make a sound, I stood on a chair and barked like a dog. That's his first memory of me. LOL! 29 years later, I'm still crazy about the old dog 
|
|
|
|
Post by grammadee on Sept 19, 2018 12:54:27 GMT
Pairs and Quads is a good one for the first meeting.
1. Find someone you don’t know or don’t know well.
2. Ask that person 3 questions about herself. (If people are really introverted, maybe post a list of possible questions to choose from)
3. Join up with another pair, and introduce your partner.
4. Decide ONE thing your group has in common to report back to the whole group.
|
|
|
|
Post by grammadee on Sept 19, 2018 13:01:11 GMT
These are moms? Split them randomly into groups of 4 to 6. There are lots of ways to do this. One I like is to stick coloured dots on the back of the meeting agenda. People join others with same colour
In their group, respond to, “My kid did WHAT?!?!” Group members tell stories about the...
Funniest...
Sweetest...
Most surprising...
My proudest moment...
With their kid.
|
|
|
|
Post by hockeymom4 on Sept 19, 2018 13:06:48 GMT
We did one recently at work that wasn't too bad (and I'm a supreme introvert). It was a list of "find someone who": was in the military, is an only child, speaks more than one language, has a pet that isn't a dog or a cat, has lived in another country, etc. All we had to do was write someone's name in each space. Some people got involved in interesting conversations and didn't move on to others, while others buzzed around frantically trying to complete the whole list. Works either way and gets people talking. I'll tell you one I DIDN'T like--being randomly assigned a type of animal and having to wander the room acting like that animal until you found the others of your kind. That was torture. Good luck! I have done this fr DD’s hockey team a few different years.... the kids seemed to like it. The more unusual the “find” the better |
|
|
|
Post by grammadee on Sept 19, 2018 13:07:02 GMT
How many people are in your group? Can you just answer questions in place?
Roll the Dice.
Facilitator rolls a die. Then tells a short anecdote with that number in it. Can be as short as a sentence. For example, you roll 5 and say “This morning the school bus was five minutes early!”
If members have tables, pass the die around. If not, then you roll for each participant, and she responds to the number rolled.
|
|
|
|
Post by Crack-a-lackin on Sept 19, 2018 13:19:38 GMT
I went to CookieCon last week and they had a fun one that got people talking to each other that would be great for introverts. Everybody at the convention got a random pack of 20 identical cards with a number and a graphic on them. Everybody had a different number on their set of cards. The goal was to go around and talk to other people and trade one of your cards for one of theirs until you had a full set of 20 cards. Since there were hundreds of attendees and only 20 card designs (so multiple people had duplicate cards), you might have to talk to ten people before you found someone who had the card you needed to complete your set. It was a great ice breaker because pretty much everyone was trading them, and there was a raffle drawing that everyone who completed their set was entered into so there was that added benefit to doing it. Wait, what?!? CookieCon?? A convention focused around cookies? That sounds like my kind of place! Was it a retail convention for people selling cookies? |
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Sept 19, 2018 13:40:20 GMT
I went to CookieCon last week and they had a fun one that got people talking to each other that would be great for introverts. Everybody at the convention got a random pack of 20 identical cards with a number and a graphic on them. Everybody had a different number on their set of cards. The goal was to go around and talk to other people and trade one of your cards for one of theirs until you had a full set of 20 cards. Since there were hundreds of attendees and only 20 card designs (so multiple people had duplicate cards), you might have to talk to ten people before you found someone who had the card you needed to complete your set. It was a great ice breaker because pretty much everyone was trading them, and there was a raffle drawing that everyone who completed their set was entered into so there was that added benefit to doing it. Wait, what?!? CookieCon?? A convention focused around cookies? That sounds like my kind of place! Was it a retail convention for people selling cookies? It was a cookie decorating conference! There were hands on decorating workshops, presentations from well known cookie bloggers / YouTubers / instructors on everything from various decorating techniques to marketing your business to setting up a commercial kitchen, a taste testing event, a Sugar Show with several categories people could enter decorated cookies for and win prizes, raffle drawings for prizes, a vendor fair, open decorating time and a Mystery Shape event where you had to come up with a design on the fly and execute it on a predetermined random shape sugar cookie, and, and, and. Many of the attendees have businesses but there were also quite a few like me who were there as hobby decorators. My friend wants to do it professionally and she kind of arm twisted me to go, but I’m glad I did. It was kind of expensive though, $299 for the two day show not including the add-on workshops which averaged about $200 each.  It was really pretty amazing. I never even knew there was such a thing until my friend looped me in to go. |
|
|
|
Post by kellapea on Sept 19, 2018 13:41:15 GMT
I went to a party where we said our favorite quotations.
|
|
|
|
Post by annabella on Sept 19, 2018 13:58:52 GMT
I hate these!
|
|
sharlag
Drama Llama
I like my artsy with a little bit of fartsy.
Posts: 6,574
Location: Kansas
Jun 26, 2014 12:57:48 GMT
|
Post by sharlag on Sept 19, 2018 14:51:33 GMT
Ask that person 3 questions about herself. (If people are really introverted, maybe post a list of possible questions to choose from) 3. Join up with another pair, and introduce your partner. We did something like this in a NAMI class-- 'interviewed' one person with 5 set questions, then introduced that person to the class.
ETA: Some of the questions mentioned on this thread can be stressful. "Accomplishments"-type topics can leave some of us feeling really unaccomplished and sub-par.
|
|
|
|
Post by Crack-a-lackin on Sept 19, 2018 14:54:30 GMT
Wait, what?!? CookieCon?? A convention focused around cookies? That sounds like my kind of place! Was it a retail convention for people selling cookies? It was a cookie decorating conference! There were hands on decorating workshops, presentations from well known cookie bloggers / YouTubers / instructors on everything from various decorating techniques to marketing your business to setting up a commercial kitchen, a taste testing event, a Sugar Show with several categories people could enter decorated cookies for and win prizes, raffle drawings for prizes, a vendor fair, open decorating time and a Mystery Shape event where you had to come up with a design on the fly and execute it on a predetermined random shape sugar cookie, and, and, and. Many of the attendees have businesses but there were also quite a few like me who were there as hobby decorators. My friend wants to do it professionally and she kind of arm twisted me to go, but I’m glad I did. It was kind of expensive though, $299 for the two day show not including the add-on workshops which averaged about $200 each. It was really pretty amazing. I never even knew there was such a thing until my friend looped me in to go. That sounds so cool! I would love that. |
|
|
|
Post by idahopea on Sept 19, 2018 15:47:00 GMT
The one I remember best was everyone at the table shared their most embarrassing moment. It was hysterical! Then a spokesperson person from each group shared the funniest one from the group. I still remember some of the stories 30 years later!
|
|
It was really pretty amazing. I never even knew there was such a thing until my friend looped me in to go.
