Fun Ice-Breakers For Your Youth Group
A good teaching experience with students usually involves three key elements: an introduction, a main teaching time, and a wrap up. Different folks have called these different things over the years, but they are all pretty much the same. The introduction is when we help our students get excited about the subject for the lesson; it’s vital in helping connect the student to the lesson’s aim or purpose.
In youth leader jargon, this is the “ice-breaker” time, the energy-drink minute, the ramp-up to the good stuff, etc.. Whatever you call it, here are some cost-efficient ice-breaker ideas to get your meeting or study started with some energy.
FUN WITH 3×5 CARDS
I love the simplicity and the cost effectiveness of the plain old 3×5 card. Here are a few of the ways I have used this card as an ice-breaker.
- Put portions of the Scripture for the lesson on the 3×5 card. If you have, let’s say, twenty students, divide the Scripture verse into four parts and make five sets. Give each student a card to start the session and tell them to find three other students who help complete the scripture.
- Use the same technique as above but put the cards on the walls, ceiling, doors, etc. of your youth area. Divide your group of twenty into five teams and have them search for the portions of Scripture to make a complete verse.
- Tape a 3×5 card on the back of every student. Tell them when you say “Go” to find a student and write on the card their favorite thing or something nice about that person. Allow about one minute, and then say “Switch.” Repeat five or six times then wait until the end of your session and allow students to look at their cards. This is great for lessons on love, encouragement, group unity, etc. Another way to do this is to let each student put their name on a card then collect the cards and pass them out randomly in the group.
- Ask the students to write their birthday, favorite color, favorite subject, school grade, and favorite book of the Bible on their card. Tell them to start looking for other students who match their answers and have them write names on each other’s cards. Use this to point out how much students have in common with each other, and to help students bond with others in the group.
- If you have a list of students’ birthdays, this one is a lot of fun. Make twelve cards with the names of students who have birthdays in January, February, March, etc. Let the oldest person on each list be the leader and tell that person to get all the students who are on the list together in a circle. You should have twelve circles. Next say that in each group every student has something in common with everyone else in the group and give them five minutes to try and find out what they all have in common. If your group is smaller you can divide them up by whether they were born in spring, summer, autumn, or winter. This really gets the students talking about what they have in common.
CELL PHONES
I know you probably don’t let your students play with their cell phones during your group time, but here is a nice ice-breaker that lets them use their phone.
- Give them your cell phone number and say, “The first person to text me with the answer to this question will win a small prize.” Give them the question, maybe a Bible question from your Scripture text, and then watch your phone light up. This is also a great way to get cell numbers of the students in your group. (Be careful how you word your question. Once I told a group of middle school students I would give $5 to the first student to text me the names of the four states that border Alabama. The very first text I got had these words, “The names of the four states that border Alabama.” And, yes, I gave her the five bucks!)
These are just a few ideas to get your teaching time started. As you can see, it doesn’t take an elaborate supply list, just a little creativity.
Richard Parker has been a student minister for the past thirty-one years, serving at First Baptist Church in Russellville, AL since 1989. He has written a three volume set of Character Education curriculum for schools and has written “Character,” a year long devotional book for students. Richard speaks in schools as well as at various church and civic conferences.
Share your thoughts with the youthministry360 community:
I really like the cell phone idea. What a creative and positive way to incorporate cell phones into the lesson! Thanks for sharing!
Drew, I agree! I loved Richard’s idea, here. It’s an unexpected twist, one that I’m sure resonates with students.
Thanks for stopping in!–Andy@ym360
The cell phone idea was great.
I use cell phones every couple months for a mixer. The idea is that at the beginning of the night I tell students that whoever gets the next student to come to youth group (via a text or a call) that night will get a free pizza for their small group. They will get the pizza that night. It usually doesn’t take long for a student to come running it. As a matter of fact many students actually come as a result of this because nobody knows who will be the first in the door. We will have the pizza ready for them that night (not the next week).
Another great mixer that I want to share with all of you.
Get a good guitar hero song (from youtube) and play it on the screen. First pass out different colored balls (I used the ones that you find in ball pits – you can get them at many stores). The audience will have the different colored balls spread out. Play the song and when their color comes up they raise the ball. It is fun to see the different colored balls being raised. If you have enough give every student two different colors. Have a video camera read to watch from the back.
*Be sure to pick the right level of song for the different colors – Medium level works best for all the colors to be used.