11 Icebreakers for Teens

Icebreakers are great for facilitating new relationships with strangers and to help ease the stress of meeting that new person. Although teenagers are social by nature, it can be stressful meeting other teens. Icebreakers can help ease the tension and anxiety that comes with meeting new people.

Icebreakers are not only good for helping teenagers learn how to get to know each other but also show teenagers how to cooperate and promote teamwork. If you are at a loss for some icebreakers, here are some new and fun icebreakers you can try out with your teens.

Time Bomb

This is a great introductory icebreaker for your teenagers not only because they will learn each other’s names, but because it is an active icebreaker. This game will allow your students to move around and keep them on their toes so they don’t get bored.

You will get your group of teens to stand around in a circle. If you have a large group, you can split it into two circles. You may even want to start with small groups and then grow your circle as a challenge. Teens love a challenge.

The tennis ball will represent a “bomb” in a sense. The person with the tennis ball has 2 seconds to call on someone using their name. If they do not say the correct name to the person they throw to or just can’t think of a name, the “bomb” figuratively goes off and you are out.

The round ends once everyone left knows the names of everyone in the circle and no one else can get “bombed.” You can even entice your teens with some candy for those who are the last ones standing. I suggest giving bonus candy to any teen that can name everyone in the room correctly.

Pass The Candy

This fun icebreaker is more for those to get to know each other. It assigns a specific question to a color of either skittles or M&Ms. They get to pick out the color of the candy that corresponds with the question they want to answer. 

You can even assign skits or charades for each color. So if you are with a group of choir kids, you can have them sing their favorite country song for one color or have another color be assigned with singing the most annoying song you know. You can change the theme of your questions and instructions, which is perfect for different groups of teenagers.

If you are at a loss for what type of questions and instructions you should assign your teenagers, here are a few you can pick:

• What is your favorite movie and why?
• Give us your best impression of a celebrity.
• Name as many states as you can.
• Tell the group your cheesiest joke.
• What is a career you would like to go into and why?

Making Appointments

For this icebreaker, you will need to have appointment cards. One side will have some basic questions while the other has slots to fill out a few names. You will want to give them each these cards and these instructions:

• Find 3 to 4 people in the first ten minutes.
• Set up appointments with them.
• Once the appointment card is filled out, wait until the instructor announces it is time for the first appointment.
• You will get 5 minutes for each appointment to ask the questions on the back of the card.

Once the appointments are over, have the instructor ask the teens some information they learned about another person in the group. This will reiterate the information they have learned as well as help other teens get to know another teen they may not have spoken with.

Pictionary People

This getting-to-know-you icebreaker may take a little longer than the rest, depending on the number of teens within your group. You will split everyone into two groups. Everyone will write on a piece of paper their name and three things they like to do. 

Once they figure out their activities, each group will put their pieces of paper in a bowl. Swap bowls between the two groups. The first group will draw a card out and sketch one of the things. Their group not only needs to guess what the activity is but figure out who chose the activity.

The group that has the most guesses correctly wins the game. For a large number of teens, you may want to consider breaking out into more groups. This is especially true if you don’t have a lot of time for the introductions.

Three Things In Common

With this icebreaker, teens will have a blast and get to know what they have in common. You will break the group down into groups of 3 or 4, then the teens need to find what three things they have in common.

To add a little more fun, you can give a prize to the group that finds the weirdest commonalities than the rest. Weird and unique will not only make it more fun, but the kids will not feel so stressed about sharing more personal facts about themselves.

Destination Charades

Destination Charades is exactly as it sounds. Each person will then act out their destination and have others try to guess what they were thinking of. Ensure each person has three clues that they can give the group if there isn’t any progress. 

Additionally, you can even make this a themed game. They can only choose from a specific continent or maybe choose the destination they dream about going to to make it more personal.

Two Truths And A Lie

Every teen has either played this introductory game or seen the movie, either way, they will know the rules before you even explain it to them. Have each person announce their two truths and a lie to the group. The group has to guess which one is the lie. This one is such a fun one to do, especially if you have some great poker faces amongst the bunch.

Sit Down If…

The name is quite straightforward. You or another instructor will ask yes or no questions. If they would answer yes to the question, then they would sit down. If their answer is no, they remain standing. This is a great method to visually see answers since everyone speaking would be a jumbled mess.

People Bingo

For this one, you will have to prepare a little bit. You will create a bingo card where each square has a question. Each person needs to go around the room to find someone that answers yes to the question. They can then mark off that square.

You can choose if you want the bingo to be one line marked out or if you want to do blackout bingo. The choice is yours but this will help teens to gain the courage to ask strangers questions and get them to mingle.

Team Engineers

Team Engineers is the perfect icebreaker not only for people to get to know each other but to practice teamwork. Have teens get into groups of 4 to build something with objects you give them. The items you can give them are as follows:

• Sticky tape
• Glue
• Popsicle sticks
• Straws

You will want to give them a limited amount of items and you can even set a challenge like the structure must be able to support a book. It is best to have some sort of objective to motivate the teens to try and make a decent structure.

Fireman’s Relay

If you are outside, this would be one of many fun icebreakers to do. It will require a little more muscle and there is a chance that you may need some towels. But in groups of five, teens will transfer as much water from one barrel to another in 10 minutes.

You may give each group access to some items that may help them. You can even throw some random items to see if each group will have creative solutions. Teens will surprise you with their ingenuity. 

Outro

Icebreakers can be so much fun and as much as teenagers may seem like they hate it, it will get them talking with their peers. You just have to feel the room and see which activity may be the best fit for your group of teens.