Save ice breakers for the second day.

I do a “human bingo” activity. Create a couple of different

bingo boards (xerox em), and in the 5×5 grid, put different questions in it. Examples, “I have more than 3 siblings” or “I worked at the mall this summer” or “I hate peanut butter” or “I am in band” stuff like that. They have to go around and find out a person for the categories. That person signs their name. 5 in a row = bingo. To win the bingo, though, the winner has to be able to point out who the 5 people are to the rest of the class. I collect the boards and at the end of the hour, if there’s a few extra minutes (for the next week or so), I’ll ask a Human Trivia question from the board, “Who remembers which person hates peanut butter?”

I get trinkets from Oriental Trading Company (yes, in a “Treasure Chest for Good Children”), and hand them out as prizes. Even HS kids get a rise out of a bouncy ball or a little parachute man. Or I’ll make a dumb looking paper crown from time to time…. it works. I guess it depends on your personality, and the personality of your kids.

One of the most entertaining ways for everyone to memorize other people’s names is for you to take a look at the roster beforehand and purposely seat students together that sound like a celebrity together (put Micheal and Jordan next to each other)…. trust me, those two will be the two names everyone remembers.

If you want order, don’t let the kids decide where to sit. Assign them seats so they don’t talk and it’s easier to their names.

Oh, and bring food. =D Seriously- high school age kids will eat it up.

You tell the class that they need to break themselves up into groups based on (for example) sibling status – everyone who is the oldest sibling in their family go to one corner of the room, everyone who is the youngest to another corner, middle-children to yet another corner, only-children in the last corner. Then you give them 2 minutes to figure out amongst their group three additional things they ALL have in common. This gets them quickly talking with one another and bonding. Sometimes it’s hard to find things in common! After the 2 minutes are up, have them go group by group telling the class what their group members discovered they have in common. You can give them a minute to chat about their discoveries and what it means to them.

You can do this multiple times with as many categories you can think of. You can start with something really basic like the example I gave, and then introduce more complex categories or groups related to your curriculum. It’s a lot of fun and definitely breaks the ice!