Ice Breakers

One way to integrate skills in your classroom is through ice breakers.  This collection of ice breaker resources can give you some ideas of how to weave reading, writing, listening, and/or speaking into more activities.

1.  Introductory Class Ice Breakers - One activity is a partner interview.  Students can create questions they want to ask a partner, and then the interviewer can ask questions and write the answers while the interviewee listens and answers.  Students could practice using complete sentences and using correct intonation for questions and statements.  The Name Game helps students practice adjectives by matching their name with an adjective that starts with the same letter.

2.  'Knowing Yourself' Ice Breakers -  So, don't be alarmed just because these ice breakers are from a juvenile justice website.  They actually have some good activities that help students understand themselves in various ways (drawing, writing, TPR) and then share in small groups or with the class.  Some activities relate to life changes and finding commonalities between friends.  If your ESL class is very diverse, these ice breakers may help students feel more comfortable and give them opportunities to talk about culture and life experiences that have shaped who they are.

3.  Culture Starter Activities - The ESL Flow website has A LOT of ice breaker activities.  I noticed that many of them have some cultural component.  For example, one of them could be used to teach etiquette for gestures like hugging and shaking hands.  There is a worksheet with pictures on it that could guide this activity.

What is nice about this website, in addition to some cultural-specific activities, is that many of the links have pre-made worksheets, which will save teachers time in preparing for these activities.  For example, there is an interview activity that is suitable for high school students.  There is also a worksheet about restaurant problems.  Not all activities are relevant to high school students, so teachers would want to pick the most appropriate and effective activities for their students.    

4.  New Friends Bingo - This Bingo card will help students meet new friends by asking them about pre-made topics.  Students will practice asking questions, listening, and answering.  There would be a few boxes that may need to be changed.  For example, this was made for a middle school in Minnesota, so boxes that relate to those specifically may have to be changed for your own context.  You could create your own bingo chart based on the format and topics in this one.