The first day of school still makes me nervous. And the term “icebreaker” puts knots in my stomach. So I’ve learned to make these digital icebreaker first day of school activities as low-pressure and fun as possible. Now, with the possibility of trying to “meet” our students virtually and develop relationships, we have to consider how to do this online. Of course, if we are in the classroom, any of these digital icebreaker activities can be done in person. You can view my First Day of School blog post here.
We need to hear our students’ voices and see their faces to get to know them. This will require the use of various technological tools with digital icebreaker games. There are countless tools such as Flipgrid, Google Classroom, Loom, Zoom, etc. You can see my top 5 free distance learning resources here.
Remember that your students need to get to know you, too. Make sure that you provide an example of the icebreaker you assign. The teacher-student relationship goes both ways!
Here are my Digital Icebreaker ideas:
Virtual Get to Know You Gallery Walk
I am a big fan of gallery walks and had to improvise with virtual learning so I could keep using them. For a virtual get to know you gallery walk, post questions on Google Slides and have students respond by typing their responses around the question. Just like if you had a huge piece of paper or white board and students walked around with a marker and wrote their responses. Plus, you can have students record audio of themselves talking about their classmates’ responses, too. You can download a Novice or Intermediate version! These questions are great for in-person learning, too!
Would You Rather
Post a list of Would You Rather questions to your virtual classroom. Have students choose a few of the questions, respond via Flipgrid, and then watch and respond to each other’s videos. Or, students can respond to the questions on a Google Slides or Jamboard, like below. This will break the ice in a low-pressure way since you allow students to choose the questions they want to respond to. For 15 fun ways to play Would You Rather, check out this blog post. And if you want some pre-made questions, grab this set!
My Passport
In a world language class, where travel is one of our main themes, starting off the year with a get to know you passport is perfect. This is great for socially-distant classrooms, too, since you can easily print it out and turn it into a bulletin board! Get to know your students’ personalities, travel experiences, and learning styles. The download comes with a digital version or you can assign the PDF and have them type on the document using a PDF editor like Dochub or Kami.
Interview a Partner
Assign each student a partner. Depending on their proficiency level, you can either provide the get to know you questions, have them come up with them completely on their own, or brainstorm a list together as a class. Then, they will conduct interviews on Zoom in breakout rooms. You can require them to record their conversations and submit to you since you can’t be in every room at once. This is a great way to jump right into interpersonal skills on Day 1!
Canva Infographic
If you haven’t experimented with Canva, this free graphic design website should be a resource you keep in your back pocket! It is so user-friendly that your students will have no trouble navigating it. Students will create a Canva infographic about themselves using pictures and clipart that represent their personality, likes, dislikes, etc. Then, they can practice presentational speaking by talking about each image on their infographic (using Loom or Screencastomatic).
Teacher Scavenger Hunt
Make a PowerPoint presentation about yourself. Include pictures of places you’ve traveled, foods you love, your family, etc. Your students will love getting to know you. If you are teaching in a live setting, you will just present this and talk about yourself. Try to stick to the target language! For asynchronous courses, create a video recording of yourself presenting it and share that with your students. Then give your students a questionnaire to fill out as they watch. If you want to make it more challenging, add a virtual classroom background (like mine below) with your favorite sayings, posters, and knick knacks. You can have questions on the scavenger hunt like “Which famous Hispanic artist has a self portrait in La profesora’s classroom?” or “Which stuffed animal was on her desk?” That way they are really paying attention and getting to know your interests.
Padlet or Jamboard Disucssion Board
Pose questions such as: favorite show you binge watched during quarantine, favorite food, what you miss most about school, favorite place, name an interesting fact about yourself. Give them at least 10 options, but only require them to respond to at least 5 so they don’t have to answer ones they don’t want to. Everybody posts their answers and can even reply to each other.
Transportation to School Around the World
How do they get to school? Bus, walking, car-pool? Compare their route to school to students around the world. They will be blown away to see that some students climb ladders on the sides of mountains or take a small boat. There are lots of options in this download to get students using the target language and culture on Day 1. You will get to learn a little bit about your students’ morning routines while tying in culture.
Live Kahoot
Create a Kahoot game with questions about yourself, the school, your syllabus, and some general language questions they should have learned last year. A little competition should ease the nervousness of a first class.
Try out these digital icebreaker activities with your world language students and let me know how they go! Getting to know our students is so important, so make sure to incorporate at least a few of these during your first days!
