Breaking the Ice

This is a unit from the Relationships Initiative Curriculum. See the full resource collection on the curriculum’s homepage.

The activities in this section include fun icebreakers and name games that help students get  comfortable sharing with each other while learning each other’s names. After all, it’s pretty hard to build relationships with someone whose name you don’t know! All of the activities in this section require very low levels of vulnerability but pretty high levels of fun—a great foundation for deeper relationship building. Plan to use these early in the year and feel free to return to them throughout the semester any time your class is in need of a bit of energy!

Supplemental Videos

Browse videos below by age group. Do you have a video or activity that might help other teachers practice breaking the ice? Share it using our submission form.

Signing Time: Practice the Alphabet
For Preschool – 3rd Grade

Lessons from this Unit

You can also download the full Relationships Initiative curriculum as a PDF.

Zoom/Irk

Name Action Adjective

Do Nothing

Get in Order

Group Brainstorm

Name Dash

Name Warp Speed

Name Matching