Virtual Icebreakers for online learning

When learning online or remotely, it is so important to have some fun with the students. It can be a lonely and stressful place to be learning from home, without the face to face interaction of fellow students and teachers in the classroom.

Some of these resources were suggested by members of the Global Educator Collective facebook group and others were responses to a question asked in the ISTE Connects Community discussions re suggestions for icebreakers for online learning. There are some fun and engaging activities for remote learning and also to use back in the classroom.

A fantastic list from Torey Trust on Virtual community building for high school, college and graduate students.

From Rachel Dene Poth: I have done a lot of different ice breakers. Some of the more recent ones involved using Buncee and the many templates available to create About Me, 3 truths and a lie, things I wish my teacher knew, fun facts about me, and many more. Students create and share. Also using Flipgrid for doing introductions or responding to prompts. With Zoom, perhaps using breakout rooms and having each room do an activity to get to know the others in the room.

Laurie Guyon: I’d use BingoBaker to create the Bingo cards and play virtually. I have used Nearpod for games as well. I often will put a draw it slides in as the first slide so that participants have something to do while they are waiting for everyone to join. The draw it could be a word search, a complete the picture, or a drawing game. I also sometimes use a Collaborate board where you ask them to find a GIF about something, a quick intro, or even guess something. It’s great to get them engaged right away!

Jackie Gerstein Virtual Team Building Activities

Jennifer Smith: I generally try to connect my ice breaker activities to the content I will be teaching. I ask students to share the name of their favorite scientist or an example of how they used science that day/week. Pets make regular appearances in class meetings, so having students introduce their pet may be helpful. Students who do not have a pet could describe a pet they would like to have. With older groups of students I have asked them to share their most commonly used emoji or to share the song that best represents how their week has gone.