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You are here: Home / Uncategorized / Back-to-School Ice Breaker

Back-to-School Ice Breaker

July 29, 2016 by feelgoodteaching Filed Under: Uncategorized

BTS Ice Breaker, grades 4 -8

I have a confession to make: I hate ice breakers, and I have always hated ice breakers.  When I see those dreaded words at the top of a meeting agenda, it sends an icy chill down my spine — apropos to its name I guess! Always desperate to escape this forced bit of “fun”, I start to plan a way out. Perhaps I really need to use the restroom, or there’s an important call that simply can’t wait a second longer!

To my mind, these are the biggest ice-breaker offenders:
  • – They are forced and unnatural
  • – If you get stuck in an uncomfortable conversation with someone, you’re trapped until time is called … and doesn’t that always feel like forever?!
  • – The questions are tired and old. They frequently yield information I don’t find interesting and don’t find interesting to share about myself. 
  • – There’s too high an expectation that they’re going to be a big hit, so when it falls flat, it feels a little like the birthday scene from Office Space:

So I set out to make a better mouse-trap, as they say, to minimize the things I hate about the typical ice-breakers. What I’ve made is a little like speed dating, with a lot of moving around, and quicker interactions that feel a little less stressful. 

Plus, kids actually get to talk to everyone in the class and it comes with a set of 40 questions, so no one has to listen to the same answers over and over! Another thing that’s great about it is that students will hear a lot of different questions they can keep in their “back pocket” for if/when they need to break an awkward silence at lunch or in the halls!  

As a public service to all those who have felt my pain, I’m sharing it for free in my store. 🙂 

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREEBIE


But … where are the BTS STEM Challenges? 

You make an excellent point. STEM challenges are a fantastic, organic way for kids to get to know each other, so why on Earth wouldn’t I mention them in a BTS blog post?! Especially since that’s almost solely what I write about??? And since I’ve made a set of challenges especially for the season??? 

It’s killing me, actually, that I can’t tell you more about it here, because I wrote about my Back-to-School STEM challenges as a guest post for a colleague’s blog that goes live August 4th. This means I really can’t post about them here too. 

Two things to tide you over: I will link the product below, and as soon as the guest post is live, you can check back here for a link to that post! You can also get a sneak peek on my YouTube channel!

Full of awesomeness! Click here!

I’m linking up this month with some of my favorite bloggers! Check out their great ideas!

An InLinkz Link-up

Credits:

photo credit: Social via photopin (license)
photo credit: Friends via photopin (license)
Clipart: Hidesy’s Clipart 

Fonts: Khyrs Bosland
  • Comments

    1. Lisa Robles says

      July 31, 2016 at 10:33 pm

      Love me some STEM!!

    2. MooreResources says

      July 31, 2016 at 11:59 pm

      Thank you for sharing this wonderful freebie!

    3. Kathie @Tried and True Teaching Tools says

      August 6, 2016 at 6:17 am

      These questions are terrific; they'll be great for conversation starters. Thanks, Kerry!

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