Icebreakers, team-building and scrtach activities from July Apportunidades courses and

others
Icebreakers
5 MINUTES
In common

??
1: In pairs/groups kids determine three things they have in common.
2: the group tries to come up with a thing everyone has in common

Instructional
errors /
opportunity for
improvement

Share how we all make errors all the time, but if no one corrects us
or we dont want to correct ourselves we never learn. My Spanish
isnt always correct and we are not perfect instructors, so if theres
something they dont understand/thats not clear, they need to say
so, so that we can improve our instruction. We love to get better!

Goodmorning

Saying good morning in different voices/expressions/gestures

Name + gesture
in circle

The group stands in a circle. One person starts and says the name and
performs a gesture that relates to its personality. Then, everyone must
repeat the gesture with their own style, and say that person's name in
unison. Everyone gets a chance to perform a gesture and say their
name, until the circle completes.
- Give students 30 seconds to create / rehearse a name / gesture.
- Students can turn to the outside of the circle if they would like more
privacy while rehearsing.

Bomb and shield

Everyone picks a shield ("escudo") and a bomb. Must always have

their shield in between themselves and the bomb to not die when
the bombs go off. (it takes some effort to explain but after that can be
done for a few minutes or longer to shake their heads/bodies).

Yarn story

Passing around yarn ("historia") we string together a story by each

contributing one word. The younger kids found this slightly tricky.

Signaling game
(creative
thinking)

Kids walk around in a circle and do the signals theyre told such as:
touch your head, jump, touch your nose, turn around. Next round the
commands are swopped so that touch your nose means jump and
so on.

What else can

this be used for?

Each kid was given an object (pencil, elastic band etc) and had to
come up with alternative uses for it. They needed a list of at least five.
Then in pairs, they compared uses and brainstormed more to create
an even longer list.

Each one
presents the one
at the side

In a circle. Each student presents the typical characteristics of the

student at the left. (it works for groups where they now each other
already)

Potato
icebreaker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrWVqLzNywA (to know each

member of the team...)

Team-building
Marsmellow

In groups build a tower of spaghetti, tape, string and a marsmellow

See saw

In pairs hold hands and touch feet. Lean back, stretch arms and sit
down. Variation: four people (??)

Blind cars

In pairs take turns being the car (eyes closed) and the driver
(leading the car by tapping on shoulders and touching mid back).
Variation: blind train with more people.

Toxic river
(IMPORTANT to
collaborate and
to plan)

"IceBreaker: The toxic river" In groups kids have to cross a toxic river
with pieces on their feed that do not attach (only one piece per
member) and without touching the pavement and all the member of
the team have to cross
.
Important to leave a big distance between banks.
The typical...kids start crossing without planning and individually,
without managing.

Names and
displacement
(CREATIVITY)

An alternative is to form groups of 6 and each group has to cross an

imaginary river with 3 chairs. The hint is that they have to collaborate,
do not leave anybody behind, and they have to plan before acting.
Task: in a large circle, say the name of someone else and run to take
their place until everyones name has been said. Continue making it
faster and faster.
Task 2: in smaller groups competing against each other, come up with
how to fastest say everyones name and have everyone move.
Solution. If everyone jumps and says its own name at the same time,
it could take less than a second. But the initial activity confuses
people who are stuck trying to do things in sequence and even
having to touch each other when saying the name of another person.

Monsters /
collaborative
drawing

In blank pieces of white paper each kid draws a head (using their
imagination), then fold the paper and pass it on to the next person
who draws the body (without looking at the head), then folds the
paper and pass it on to a third person who then draws the feet/legs,
and then passes it on to the fourth person who opens/reveals the
monster

Construct the
highest tower
with lego
mindstorms
Pass around
object

In pairs and using only one hand each kid, they have to construct the
highest tower with lego. They can't talk (?)

Team pen
Spaghetti and
marshmallow
I like people
who...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eajjqotwsF4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7ydgchGB4w

Draw a figure
and understand

The kids have an object (a teddybear, a ball, a pencil case) that they
need to pass around in a circle. They must pass the object to another
person who is not their neighbour - and they must say the name of
the person they pass it to and then take their place. The game ends
when everyone has been handed the object.
The overarching idea is that at first it might take a while for them to
pass the object around (as they familiarize themselves with the
activity), but as they actively strategize by first reflecting on what
they are doing and evaluating and testing new ideas, they will realize
that they are in fact able to improve their performance.
Strategies to improve the speed might include knowing the names of
everyone else. Or always passing to the same person. Or running
instead of walking. Or thinking in advance of who you are going to
pass it to etc etc.

(in teambulding0231.pdf) . Arrange charis in a circle, the number of

participants minus one. The person in the center makes a statement
(linke I like people wearing jeans). Everyone who the statement is true
moves to another chair which cannot be the chair close to him. The
person without a chair stands in the center and makes a statement.
One person draws a figure transmitting his actual feeling, each person
of his team writes down what that figure inspires. At the end, the
person who draw the figure looks at the interpretations of his friends
and realises that each one is different, and it is important to
communicate well.

Team body
spelling
Blindfolded
leader game

(in teambulding0231.pdf). Forming with the bodies the letters of the

name of their team.
(in teambulding0231.pdf) Everyone gets in a line and puts their hands
on the shoulders of the person in front of them.
Everyone except the first person in line closes their eyes. The first
person who is the leader leads everyone around, and the group has to
communicate and work as a team to avoid obstacles

Evolution

(in teambulding0231.pdf) Egg- chicken -dinosaur -superhero supreme being...

(in teambulding0231.pdf) Blindfold 8-12 of the group members. Ask
them to hold onto a rope. ( The loose ends of the rope are tied
together so it is a continuous loop.) Ask the other members to observe
the blindfolded group as they do the activity
2. Explain the concept of consensus to the group.
3. Instruct the group holding the rope to make the best possible
square they can. The rope cannot be put down until the group has
reached consensus. (This will take about 5 minutes.)

Blind square

Scratch / Computational
Intro to
Demonstrate a few cool projects (rather than having
Scratch
them explore gets confusing for some) and do a brief
demo that changes costume, sprites, background,
movement.
Interview /
intro to each
other

The maze

Kids interview each other in pairs using worksheets

Questions: whats something you like?
Each kid makes a project that includes a sprite
representing themselves and a sprite
representing the other person.
Idea: It could be done as two truths and a lie where
another pair has to guess the lie.
1) Kids are given a maze (labyrinth) on a worksheet
and asked to write down a sprites path through the
maze (the maze can also be a shopping mall or
something else and they can get to choose the
scenario they want). They can use: 1 step, turn 90
degrees left and turn 90 degrees right.
2) Once theyre done, they guide a friend through the
maze (which has been drawn with chalk outside).
3) Kids create a maze in Scratch using same size
blocks. (This way the sprite needs to move the same
amount of steps from block to block). They program
their sprite to move through the maze/shopping
center/racing track.
Elaborations:
1) At the end of maze, the sprite touches another
object and the backdrop changes or music starts
playing etc.
2) The area around the maze can be colored and the
sprite programmed to return to the beginning of the
maze if it touches the outside color. Obstacles can be
added to make the path through the maze more
difficult.

Demo:
sprites,
background
costumes
movement
Activity:
Event blocks
Sprites
Backgrounds
Appearance
speaking
Activity:
Movement
X and y
Drawing

Music
Backdrop
Conditionals
Forever loop
conditionals

Demos of
kids project

Each day a project from the previous day was shown to

demonstrate how something was done and
sometimes to add on features (the lesson of the day).

Broadcasting etc

Collaborative
story in
Scratch

Each student starts a project with 2 characters and 1

background. After 5 minutes, they rotated to a new
computer and faced the challenge of having to add to
the project of a classmate. After 10 minutes, they
rotated again, and after 10 more, rotated again. Once
back to their original seats, they had to add a title to
the collaborative story.

Remixing

Planning a
project

Each kid is asked to plan a project.

1. Is it clear what the project is about?
2. What are the features used? does it work as
expected?
3. Is it appealing? (engaging, interactive, funny,
original, interesting?
4. What you would like to change or improve?

Planning

Talking to a
computer

In pairs kids have their backs to each other. A has a

piece of paper with a figure they need to explain to B
who attempts to draw a replica.
1. A can explain and B can ask questions
2 A can explain but B cant ask questions
This is for kids to realize how specific the instructions
they give the computer needs to be.

Other useful
We have 2 ears, 1 mouth: listen more, talk less
Hands up, nobody touches the keyboard! Who touches electrocutes.
Who finished first, explains to the rest.
Here we measure if you were happy by the decibels, the noise you make!
Do two circles, an inner circle and an outer circle. Exchange ideas between components
in the inner and outer circles.
Present a long number and ask the kids to memorize it. They will learn that to memorize
it they need to divide it in pieces, the same way that the split goals in programming into
subgoals.