Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Shattered Ice

I received a great comment from Karime Diaz, and she wants some ice breaker ideas. She is working with 2-5 year-old children, teaching English to Spanish speakers.

Getting to know you...
Have students sit in a circle and go around having everyone answer one simple question each round. Questions that ask their name, favourite colour, number of siblings, what they had for breakfast, etc. Since Karime is teaching English, she can translate some of the answers and actually teach something during the game.

Name tags.
Have a piece of bristolboard (or similar sturdy paper) about the size of letter paper for each child. Have the students fold their page in half (smaller children will need help) and write their first name on it (oriented so the name tag will stand up and you can read their name). On the underneath of the paper have them draw to represent their favourite game in one corner, something exciting they did recently (What I did this summer...) in another corner, maybe their favourite animal, and their favourite food in the other corners. When this is done, the students can share what they drew on their name tags, and the name tags can be used until you get to know their names.

Yes, no, maybe...
Put three posters up on different walls of the room (or different areas) one will say 'Yes', one will say 'No', and the third will say 'Maybe'. You can also use smilies so they are :) :( :| (but not sideways). Explain that you will ask questions and the students are to move to the area of their answer (you may want to emphasize walk vs. run, or else make sure there is nothing in the way). Then ask a bunch of questions that have yes, no, or maybe answers. ie: I LOVE chocolate. My favourite colour is blue, I have two sisters (start to wonder about kids who answer maybe to that).

Two great sites I found are Kim's Korner and icebreakers.ws; many of these games may need to be simplified/modified for younger students.

Do YOU have any ice breaker ideas for Karime?

Please comment or send your questions to me at organizingteacher@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :)
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9 comments:

Brandie said...

I am going to add you to my blog ..thanks for the great ideas :)

Brandie said...

I am going to add you to my blog :)

Anonymous said...

ohh thank you very much! I really appreciate your help! tomorrow is my first day so I´ll tell how was it
cheers
Karime

Valerie McInall said...

Karime: I look forward to hearing about your adventures in your new class.

Brandie: Thanks for adding me.

Anonymous said...

Dear Valerie thanks for your support!
Today was great I just had to introduce myself to all the classes. Now I have one week to plan, they are starting whith Christmas time, I think is too soon but nothing to do! :)
Ohhh something to share!
www.beemp3.com lots of free children music! I had the pleause to know Raffi!

cheers!

Karime

Valerie McInall said...

Karime: I'm glad your first day went well. My suggestion is to become friends with all of the teachers whose classes you will work with. with so many children, it will be nice if the teachers don't mind making you a copy of the seating plan every time they change it, so you can keep on top of the names.

Anonymous said...

Dear Valerie, so far I´m doing well I´m under pressure ( I have the princepal looking at me all the time )but is ok with me.
I have already all planned but I still think I could do something better, do you know a very simple and fun game, song or activity about x-mas?
I hope to heard you soon!

Valerie McInall said...

Hi Karime!

It's so good to hear about your wonderful progress.

Since you're teaching English, you could find the lyrics to some Christmas Carols in Spanish and English, and have a singing time each day in December. (This would also help with their vocabulary.)

Another idea is making up a song and each verse is 'Santa filled the stockings with presents, in the first stocking he put a...' Then the first present would start with the letter A, the next with the letter B, and so on.

There are some websites in my "Good links to share" section of my blog that should have some great ideas and possibly free printables. Check out Teachnology, and Teacher Planet.

Anonymous said...

thanks a lot I´m going to check those websites out!!!!
See you later!