Collaborative Icebreaker Activity for Middle Schoolers
A few years back, I was at a PD session at NCCAT (North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching) when I heard the words all adults dread: "We're going to start with an icebreaker."
Internally, I'm thinking, can't you just give us the information and let us go? I don't want to talk to anyone or get to know anyone. I want to learn, implement, eat, and relax.
I was in a room of about 20 teachers, all from different schools, all total strangers. We could have easily sat at our tables, taken notes, eaten lunch, and gone back to our rooms without ever talking to each other. Adults are just as capable of the silent, avoid-eye-contact thing as middle schoolers are.
But our presenter had other plans. He knew that social interaction helps our brains grow, form connections, and retain information. So he handed each table a container of random supplies and gave us one job: work together and invent a game using what's in front of you.
Within minutes, the room went from polite silence to voices overlapping, everyone leaning in just to hear each other. People debating scoring systems for a game involving paper plates and cotton balls. Genuine laughter when we attempted to play our game.
By the end of ten minutes, I had people I recognized. People I could sit with at lunch. People I actually talked to for the rest of the conference.
So I thought, if it worked on a room full of grown adults who didn't want to talk to anyone or do a lame icebreaker, it'd work on my middle schoolers too.
And Game Craft was born.
How it works:
Step One: Establish Groups
Put students in groups of 3-4. I have my students work with their table groups since this is who they will be collaborating with for the first couple of weeks.
Step Two: Distribute Supplies
Each group gets:
4 paper plates
4 popsicle sticks
4 cotton balls
A mystery bag (a brown paper bag with one surprise craft item inside, toilet paper tubes, cardboard scraps, bubble wrap, tape, pipe cleaners, whatever you've got lying around) Try to make each mystery bag different.
Step Three: Explain the Rules
1️⃣ Work together to invent a game.
2️⃣ Every supply has to be used somewhere in the game.
3️⃣ The game has to be playable sitting down.
Step Four: Let the Collaborating Begin
Set a timer for 10 minutes. Then just watch.
This is the part where you'll see kids problem solving, negotiating, and laughing at their own creation without any prompting from you.
When time's up, groups demonstrate what they created. If time allows, let groups swap and play each other's game.
Tips for Success
✅ Don't over explain the rules. Part of the fun is watching kids figure out how to make popsicle sticks and cotton balls into an actual game.
✅ Circulate while they work. This is prime time to hear kids talking, laughing, and negotiating without realizing you're taking mental notes on who works well together.
✅ Let the games be ridiculous. The sillier the game, the more the ice actually breaks.
Resources to Help You
No need to build this from scratch!
I put together the instruction slides already, everything you need to run Game Craft with your class.
Fill out the form for a FREE link to the instructions and slides!
Want Instant Access to More
Creative and Engaging Activities?
Building relationships is just the beginning of the school year. If you want the rest of the year covered too, done-for-you lessons, weekly plans, and everything else, ELA Unlimited has you covered.
