Social Distancing Friendly Ice Breakers

Everyone is in uncharted territory this year when it comes to teaching. Hybrid, simultaneous zooms while teaching, asynchronous videos, all in-person! There are so many variables and things to take into account. With all of the challenges and obstacles that we are dealing with this year, getting to know your students seems like an epic challenge. So, here are a few ways to conduct ice-breakers and get to know you activities with your students, no matter the situation in which you find yourself teaching.

2 Truths and A Lie
This classic game can be transferred to our virtual situation by using video! Flipgrid (mentioned later as well) allows students to record a video and respond to videos with their own. Post the directions and record your own 2 truths and 1 lie. After all videos are posted, go through them with the class and decide which is the lie together!

Bitmoji Lockers/Hydroflask/Computer/Room
These are all the rage right now and can be a great activity to get to know your students and for them to get to know you! Grab a copy of one of the templates in the folder linked at the bottom of this page, add your about me content and then share the document with students. For them to edit you will have to allow them to create a copy just like you have. 

Jamboard - My Interests
Jamboard is an awesome resource for many different kinds of lessons. It is a collaborative whiteboard that will allow students to work simultaneously no matter their location. To conduct an interests jamboard you have to open jamboard and share the link with your students. Then, you can ask a student to share something they are really into right now. Once a topic has been selected, it is the focus of the jamboard. You can give students a few minutes to use the tools provided on the jamboard page to contribute their thoughts on the topic! You can always expand the discussion afterwards by asking questions and sharing your own thoughts.

Selfie Scavenger Hunt
This activity is perfect for virtual classes. Make a list of selfies the students has to take and give them a time frame to capture them. Then, have your students start their hunt.
 
Word Art Selfie
Have students share information about themselves through text with this activity. Direct students to a word cloud creator like wordart.com where they can upload their image for the words to be shaped to fit. When they're done adding words describing themselves they will end up with an image that looks like them made up of words! Check out the directions and template in the folder linked at the bottom of this post.

Flipgrid Videos
Flipgrid is an amazing resource for student created videos. They can respond to a video you post and respond to each others videos. Kick off the activity by posting your own video and let students record and post theirs. Once everyone has contributed you can go back and review videos together with the class and have a class discussion.

Would You Rather?
You can create a presentation with various "Would You Rather" questions, share your presentation screen and conduct a discussion with your students. Additionally, you could make this asynchronous by posting questions using a google form, jamboard or google slides presentation for students to answer on your own. Add audio to make it even more interactive.
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Question Wheel
There are various sites where you can customize a spinner with your own content. Use this to create questions to ask your students. Spin the wheel for each student and then they answer the question on which the spinner stops. This spinner is a great choice!

Design Your Own Mask
Students can share a lot about their interests and personality when given a creative task. This icebreaker takes advantage of our current circumstances by allowing students to decorate their own face covering. You can give specifics or just let them go crazy. Find the template in the Ice Breakers folder shared at the bottom of this post.

The Class is Lava!
Students are dividing into teams and must complete 10 different activities before the end of class. The best part is that ALL of the activities are setting them up for learning in your room like joining google classroom, bookmarking your website and other tools and more! They get comfortable with each other by working together in person or in break-out rooms AND they know how the class functions! Genius! Get the template from the folder and read more about it here.
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Social Distancing Ice Breakers

​​What other ideas do you have? Please share in the comments and good luck on the first week back!