Community Building / Ice Breakers / Energizers

Community-building activities give participants the opportunity to tell about themselves and learn about others in a fun, positive non-threatening way. Other activities are simply fun and meant to break up the day, or to energize the group.

Show & Tell

“Turn off your camera. Take 3 minutes to find an object that you want to show and tell about. When you are back let us know by turning your camera on.” Allow for some text-based contribution for those whose camera does not work. Have all students share in a random order. *Notice no follow up questions are asked during this. Whatever they share is enough. (In an observed sample session it took 15 minutes for 30 people.) [ From UpperlineCode ]

True About You

Have everyone fill out an informational card when they join the class at the beginning of the week, answering 3 questions: 1. What is true about you and also about half of the rest of the class? 2. What is true about you and a small handful of others in the class? 3. What is true likely only about you?

Have everyone put their camera on. Read the questions one at a time from a participant’s card. Have everyone keep “standing” (leaving their video on) if what is read is true about them. On the last question, have the unique person (if they want to) explain their answer to this final unique description of them. [ From ECS: Jessica Jarboe ]

Three Word Intro

Have each person give a three-word intro about themselves, with no explanation. [ from ORD Camp's Brian "Fitz" Fitzpatrick ]

Me in Three

Using a shared Google slides document, have students customize their own slide, providing 1. A picture representing a story about your name, 2. A picture of a character you or most like or want to be like, 3. One thing you just started to learn (skill/interest/hobby). See an example at Me in 3. [ From Nicki Anselmo ]

Debugger

Two people (start with a leader and a participant) select a rule "difficult level 1..5" and then they "leave the room" (mute themselves, honor system).

Those remaining verbally converse to choose some "rule" (e.g. those wearing glasses tell the truth, non glasses always lie.)

Those who went out come back in and ask questions to try and find out what the rule is, asking questions such as: What day is it? …or… what is 2+2

CS tie-in: This is what it feels like when you are trying to debug your programs. Emphasize that this is a collaborative, not competitive game. [ From UpperlineCode ]

Future Self

Create a Google slide show, where each slide is a mock-up of a newspaper front page, and all participant names are listed on one of the pages. Prompt for participants: What might be the headline about you 10 years from today? Find your name, and write down your headline. [ From Johnnalee Kutzke ]

Story Maker

In a shared Google slide show provide four pictures. Have breakout groups on their page put them in some order and tie them together in a written story. One possible twist is to request the stories have some theme or area of focus, such as being a children's story, explaining something about computers, or are a news story with a hero.[ From Symmondsresearch ]

Fifty Photos

Pick a picture from the Fifty Photos Folder that best describes your journey in CS so far. Make sure to view the folder in "grid" view to see all of the images. [ From Nicki Anselmo ]

GIF Tournament

Choose a common phrase or saying (e.g. let the cat out of the bag) and everyone tries to find a GIF that best represents that saying, posting it on a shared Google slide. Vote to see which one is best. [ https://www.mural.co/blog/online-warm-ups-energizers ]

Replicate

Divide participants into breakout groups. Give everyone access to a drawing, asking each group to collaboratively replicate it on a Google slides page, without talking, communicating using only the chat window. Afterwards reflect on how the communication went, what issues arose, and how being able to talk verbally might have helped.

Question Wheel

Spin the wheel to select a question to answer. [ From Nicki Anselmo ]

Blast from the Past

Have each participant (who wants to) post a picture of themselves from when they were a child. Take turns trying to guess who's who. [ https://www.mural.co/blog/online-warm-ups-energizers ]

WhatsIt

Participants choose an object that looks mysterious but has some practical function. Participants take turns showing it to the group, and the group tries to guess what it is used for. [ Modified from Symmondsresearch ]

Two Truths and a Lie

Participants make 3 statements about themselves, where 1 of them is false. The group holds up 1,2, or 3 fingers to indicate which one they think is the lie. Could also be done in breakout groups of 5-6 participants, where there is time given for explanations and questions.

Food Color

If you had to eat only food of a particular color for the rest of your life, what color would you choose? [ Tirzah Reed ]

Glad You're Here

In a breakout room with a partner, greet them and tell them you're glad they're here, then try and find:

1. Something you both have in your house, that you think no other groups will pick (e.g. picture of the pyramids in Mexico)

2. Something that unifies your two names (e.g. Laura and Reshma, choosing first and last name letters gives "lama" which is a picture they show). Report out using a shared Google Slides document. [ From UpperlineCode, Symmondsresearch ]

Table Topics

In breakout groups participants can answer one of a set of questions, or all can answer the same one. Questions could be drawn from "36 Questions that Lead to Love" or come from other sets such as "Ten Questions to Ask Your Partner".

Scavenger Hunt

This could be an online hunt, or a picture taken with their phone.

Walk around and find _____. Could include items such as "Find a blue cat and put in shared Google doc" [ From Shanon Reckinger ]

Alike

Write down as many things as you can think of that you and your group have in common (have a pet dog, live near a body of water, have always lived in IL, etc.) A variant is to also allow listing things where all group members are all different. [ From Symmondsresearch ]

MindReader:

This is a version of Luis von Ahn's ESP game. Participants are put into groups. A picture is revealed to each group using a shared google slide show, where each group has a page of their own. In a limited number of minutes each group writes out as many words as they can think of for their picture. They get points for any matches to a preset list of words, or matches to a partner group's list of words.

Charades:

Divide into two groups. Each group brainstorms the names of commonly known movies, books, or TV shows. Each group takes turns choosing a member to do the acting. That person receives a chat message with the name of the movie, book or TV show, and they must silently act it out for their group to guess.

Stretch and Share:

Have participants suggest a stretch, which everyone can do within their comfort level. The person suggesting a stretch also shares a book/movie/show/craft/song, or an answer to a question such as "What are you a beginner at?" [ From UpperlineCode ]

Credits: Ideas came from or are modified from Exploring Computer Science (ECS) Professional Development, Shanon Reckinger, UpperlineCode presentations, a Symmondsresearch.com list, ORD camp, https://www.mural.co/blog/online-warm-ups-energizers, and personal experience.