Intended for:
This free icebreaker is a very easy activity to set up. You will just need a bit of room and a soft ball. It works well as an icebreaker but can also be adapted to help consolidate key learning
Training course contents:
Instructions to help you run the icebreaker activity can be downloaded in Word format from the link at the bottom of this page, or you can follow the notes below.
Resources Needed – a soft ball
Instructions – ask participants to arrange themselves into a circle, make sure that you join in.
Throw the ball at someone in the circle and explain that on catching it they are to disclose something about themselves, before throwing it to someone else in the circle. The information they disclose may be something unusual or unique to them or may simply be something that they are sure nobody else in the group already knows.
If participants do not already know each other explain that they are not allowed to reveal their first name until the second time they catch the ball, when they will then be able to take a step back out of the circle.
If participants do already know each other then the second time the catch they ball the must reveal another piece of information about themselves.
Keep going until everyone has had the opportunity to catch the ball twice.
Variation – instead of using this activity as an icebreaker you could adapt it to consolidate key learning points at the end of a session. To do this simply ask participants to share one piece of information from the following list:
- One new thing I learned today or
- Something important I was reminded about today or
- One thing I will do differently as a result of what I learned today
Objectives:
To help break the ice at the beginning of a training event or to help consolidate key learning points from a training session.
