8 Creative Icebreaker Games for Kids with Easy Printable Activities

Supplies Needed:

Paper
List of Questions (Icebreaker Toolkit)

Prep Needed:

1. Print out our Ball Fight Questions from our Icebreaker Toolkit and use them as is or as inspiration for your own questions.
2. Write one question on each sheet of paper. You will need as many papers with questions as players in the game.
3. Crumple each page into a ball.

How To Play:

1. Split your group into 2 teams. Send the teams to opposite sides of the room.
2. Separate the 2 teams with a line in the middle they can not cross over. At this line, you will put all the crumpled balls of paper you made.
3. When you say go, the players will run up to the balls and throw the balls to the opposite side. Let this continue for 30-60 seconds. If you do not have space for this, you can give each child one ball and have them just have a fun “snowball” fight in the room for 30-60 seconds.
4. When the time is up, have each kid pick up a ball near them, open it up, and one by one they will answer the question on the paper.
5. The game can be repeated until the kids get tired of it.

2. M&M Icebreaker

Supplies Needed:

M&M’s
M&M Icebreaker Printable (free sample from our Icebreaker Toolkit)

Prep Needed:

1. Hand out colored candy.
2. Print out enough of our free printables to spread throughout the group

How To Play:

1. Hand out the M&M’s to the kids and have them group their candy by color.
2. Go around the room and have each person answer the questions on the printable according to the color and quantity of their candy. For example, if the player has 2 green candies they will give 2 answers to the green question, then if they have 3 yellow candies, they will give 3 answers to the yellow question. They will continue until all of their candies are gone. Once their turn is over they can eat their candy if they wish. Play continues to the next person in the group.

Sit and stand is a fun game that gets kids really involved and helps them learn about each other. It is pretty much a game of “This or That” but in an active form. Kids will sit or stand according to their choice in the options you offer.

Supplies Needed:

Sit Or Stand Printable (Icebreaker Toolkit)

Prep Needed:

1. Print out our list of topics and you are ready to go.

How To Play:

1. Have all the kids start by standing up.
2. You are welcome to use our Sit or Stand printable or any ideas that you can think of. The first one on our list is “invisible” or “can fly”. You will tell the kids to sit if they would like to be invisible or stand if they would like to be able to fly.
3. Continue down your list until kids are tired of the game.

Supplies Needed:

Dice (2)
Dicebreaker Printable

Prep Needed:

1. No prep is needed. Just print our Dicebreaker Printable and grab some dice.

How To Play:

1. Have the first person roll the dice. The first die will point you to the category which on the printable you will see it as “If You Roll A 4” or “If You Roll A 1”. The second die points you to the number of the question. For example, if you roll a 4 and a 1 you will go to the section, “If You Roll A 4” and then answer question number 1.

5. Peak-A-Who

Before playing this game the kids should have already had a chance to get to know each other’s names. A good introduction game is our Find-A-Friend Bingo game or SPUD.

Supplies Needed:

Flat Bed Sheet

How To Play:

1. Split the group into 2 teams.
2. Have them stand on either side of the room.
3. Have 2 people hold up a sheet between the 2 groups so they can not see each other.
4. Have 1 person from each side face the sheet while the rest turn away from the sheet.
5. Drop the sheet and the first person to say the name of the opponent wins. The losing player joins the winning player’s team. If this method is too hard for the kids you can make it a team activity by having the entire team say the name.
6. The team that has the most players at the end of a time limit you set wins.

A super fun way to help kids talk to each other without being uncomfortable is by using our Find-A-Friend Bingo. Kids can walk around the room asking the other kids questions from their Bingo Card. Find a kid whose Name Starts With a “C” or Has An Older Brother and have them initial the card. This friendly game will bring lots of fun and laughter to the room and will instantly help everyone feel comfortable.

Supplies Needed:

Bingo Cards (Icebreaker Tooklit)
Pencils

Prep Needed:

1. Print out Bingo Cards.

How To Play:

1. Hand out a Bingo Card and pencil to each player.
2. Set a timer for around 15 minutes and allow players to talk with each other and fill out the squares on their Bingo sheet. You can play until each person gets a bingo or until the entire card is filled out depending on your group size and how much time you have. If you have a large group, I recommend that a person can only initial 2 of the squares, this will encourage more conversations between the group.

I am sure many of us grew up playing the game of SPUD but in this version, we are going to work on learning the names of the people in the group.

Supplies Needed:

Playground Ball
Large Space (gym or outside)

How To Play:

1. This game is best played in a gym or outside.
2. Pick a player to have the ball. This player will throw the ball up into the air as high as they can and then catch the ball. When they catch the ball they must yell “SPUD” (or any other word you choose). While the ball is in the air the rest of the group will run away. When they hear the word SPUD they must freeze immediately.
3. The person with the ball gets to take 3 large steps toward anyone in the group and throw the ball attempting to hit them. If the player is hit, they are out of the game.
4. The twist is while the player with the ball is taking the 3 steps the rest of the group will count off the steps and repeat the player’s name. For example, if the player’s name is Ryan they are going to yell, “1, Ryan – 2, Ryan – 3, Ryan -THROW” When the word THROW is yelled Ryan can throw the ball and try and hit their target. This twist to the game will allow everyone to start learning the players’ names in a fun and exciting way.

Four Corners is a game that can be done in any size space. You will pick 4 areas of the room and label them 1-4. The leader will then read out a question with 4 possible answers and the kids will go to the area that represents their answer. As the kids stand together they will quickly make friends with similar interests.

Supplies Needed:

Four Corners Printable (Icebreaker Toolkit)
Scissors
Tape

Prep Needed:

1. Print out the Four Corners Printable
2. Cut out the numbers & tape them in 4 different corners or areas.

How To Play:

1. Read out the question and have the kids go to the corner that represents their answer. Give them a few minutes to talk with each other about what they just discovered they have in common before asking the next question.

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