Introductions Icebreaker: Training Game To Get to Know Your Fellow Participants

Introductions Icebreakers 

Introductions Icebreaker 1: Assess my Name (NEW)

I created this game when I had to train a group of teachers in student assessment. Not that they didn't know how to assess, but the aim of the session was to encourage participatory assessment.

Also, the participants were strangers to me and I wanted to know them by name before beginning the training. So, the game was to introduce themselves by name and assess the ease of spelling their first names. The scale was from 1-5 with 1 being difficult and 5 being easy.

For instance, if my name is Leena, then I would give the spelling of my name a rating of 3.5. The rationale would be: I would have to clarify that my name begins with an 'L' and not 'M', 'N', or 'R'. Also, quite a few would probably use an 'i' rather than 'ee' after 'L'. Hence a rating of 3.5.

Instructions: Answer the following questions when it's your turn to introduce yourself:

• What's your name?
• Assess the spelling of your name on the basis of difficulty. Use a scale of 1 - 5 with 1 being difficult to spell and 5 being easy to spell. 

Then participants take turns to answer these questions in addition to other need assessment questions. The responses are interesting and as a facilitator you get an easy opportunity to remember the names of your audience.

Introductions Icebreaker 2 

This game is called Interesting Introductions.

Preparation: Make out slips with common nouns like: chair, lion, peacock, knife, telephone etc. There should be one slip for each member of the group. Fold this slips and put them in a bowl.

Process of this training game: Invite the group to stand in a circle. Hold the bowl of folded slips to the participants and ask them to pick up one each. Tell them not to read what's in the slip until further instructions.

Once each of them has picked a slip, allow them to open it and see what's written on it. They are not to speak it out aloud.

Their task is to introduce themselves by name and find similarities between themselves and the common noun written on the slip of paper. They have to reveal these similarities with the rest of the group.

For instance, in this training game, if someone is called 'Jay Lord' and has picked the slip with 'knife' written on it, his introduction will be: 'I am Jay Lord. I am like a knife because I am sharp and I can cut through loads of information to find the pattern hidden it it.'

This training game is played until everyone has introduced herself in this manner. The idea is for the participant to find an attribute in the common noun which highlights a positive characteristic in himself/herself. Negative characteristics are unacceptable.

The training game should take half-an-hour to play with a group of 35-40.

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