Funny Questions to Ask Students on the First Day of School

We all remember that first-day-of-schoolhouse feeling.

As kids, there was a mix of nerves and excitement on the first day of school. How would the teachers exist? Would our friends exist there waiting for u.s. after the summer? How would we get along with new classmates?

Those showtime few moments in the classroom are total of anticipation and can set the phase for the rest of the year.

So, how can you make certain your students are comfortable and engaged in your classroom, whether they're learning in-person or remotely?

Many teachers point to using icebreaker questions and activities to set a fun, positive temper where kids feel safe to ask questions and are excited to learn.

In fact, according to the Center for Teaching Innovation at Cornell Academy, using icebreakers in the classroom tin can benefit the students in many ways, such as:

Building rapport among the students
Preparing students for cooperative learning
Creating a relaxed environment where students feel comfortable plenty to participate more fully

So, how can yous include icebreakers in your classroom? What are some ideas for icebreaker questions, and how can you get started using them in your classroom? If yous're not returning to a physical classroom this year, how tin you accommodate ideas for icebreakers to a virtual classroom?

Introduce students to Prodigy Math Game, an adaptive math platform where they can explore with classmates, challenge each other and build a dear of math!

In this article, we're going to dive into l icebreaker questions for kids, icebreaker activities you lot tin use for dissimilar ages, and some ideas on adapting these to a remote setting.

l Icebreaker questions for kids

A teacher and a group of students sit outside underneath a tree.

Using the right icebreaker questions, you lot tin draw out the students in your classroom and aid everyone go to know each other a little better.

Here are some ideas for questions that help students get to know one another, start conversations, and spark their imagination.

Getting-to-know-you questions

ane. What kind of music do you like?

2. What's your favorite sport to play?

3. Where were yous built-in?

4. Tell me virtually the pet(s) you accept, or the pet yous wished yous had.

5. What'south your favorite ice cream season?

six. What musical instrument(s) practice you lot play, or do yous want to learn?

7. What'due south your favorite YouTube channel?

8. Which cartoon graphic symbol do you wish was real?

9. What's the weirdest thing you've e'er eaten?

10. What'southward your favorite thing to practice when you're lone?

11. Do y'all have any hidden talents?

12. How would yous spend a rainy solar day?

xiii. Who is your favorite superhero?

14. What's your favorite line from a movie?

fifteen. What's the well-nigh unusual thing in your school handbag right now?

16. Is your personality like or different to someone else in your family? If and then, how are you the same or unlike?

17. What'southward the most meaningful souvenir you've ever received? OR What'due south a meaningful gift y'all accept given?

xviii. What's the bravest affair you've ever done?

xix. What was your favourite book y'all read this summertime? OR What is something that you learned how to exercise this summertime?

twenty. What's the start thing you do in the morn?

Icebreaker questions to start conversations

21. What's one thing that fabricated yous laugh recently?

22. If you could ask your favorite glory one thing, what would you ask?

23. If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?

24. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you lot go?

25. If you could invite four famous people to dinner, who would y'all invite and why?

26. If you lot could visit any planet, where would you go and why?

27. If you lot won a million dollars, what would you practise with it?

28. If you could trade places with a character from your favorite movie or Tv bear witness, who would y'all choose and why?

29. If you had to alter your name, what would you change it to?

30. What practise you retrieve makes a good friend?

31. What's something you have in common with the person adjacent to you?

32. If you were a famous person, what would you be famous for?

Would you rather questions

33. Would yous rather play sports or watch them?

34. Would you rather be part of the Incredibles family or the Weasley family?

35. Would you lot rather live in a world of legos or a world of cartoons?

36. Would yous rather take a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon?

37. Would you rather live in a house fabricated of cheese or a house made of cookie dough?

38. Would you rather exist a mouse or an elephant?

39. Would you rather be invisible or be able to fly?

40. Would you rather live at Disney World or Sea World?

Questions to spark the imagination

41. Imagine you notice a beautiful isle where you decide to build a new order. What is the first rule you lot put in place?

42. If it was raining meatballs, would yous eat them?

43. If you could pick 3 animals to put together and create a new brute, which animals would you option? What would it be chosen?

44. If y'all could be any emoji, which one would you exist?

45. If y'all were a superhero, what would be your superpower?

46. If you had a fourth dimension machine that could only piece of work one time, what point in the past or future would you visit?

47. If you were running for president, what would your entrada slogan exist?

48. If you lot had a TV evidence about your life, what would it be called and who would play yous?

49. If you had to create a nickname for yourself, what would information technology be?

50. If you had a robot to assist y'all with school, but it could only do one job, what would it do?

Using these icebreaker questions, you lot can assist your students experience comfy with each other. Even the shyest students tin have fun with these questions (particularly the sillier ones). This sets the whole form upward for a fun, collaborative school yr.

But how tin can you introduce these icebreaker questions to your students? And how can yous arrange the questions to suit different historic period groups?

Let'southward discuss some fun icebreaker activities for different ages that can assistance you bring the correct questions into the classroom:

Get students excited to acquire with Prodigy

Looking to suspension the ice with your math content? Get elementary and middle schoolhouse students ready to dive into learning by playing Prodigy Math Game!

Want to know the best function? The Placement Test volition run in stealth so students volition feel like their playing a video game while you lot collect insights and data into their current level in specific domains.

Screenshot of a question in Prodigy Math Game.

Plus, y'all'll go access to a teacher dashboard where you can differentiate content to meet your students' learning needs.

Icebreakers for elementary students

Excited students raise their hands to answer ice breaker questions for kids in their classroom

For your youngest students, icebreaker activities should help guide conversations and let kids see how much they have in mutual, every bit well every bit how each student is unique.

Here are ideas for games that make asking icebreaker questions a fun action for anybody, as well as some specific icebreaker questions for your uncomplicated students:

Marco Polo with icebreaker questions

This fun twist on the classic game Marco Polo allows your students to get up and move around the classroom while getting to know i another.

In this game, one student closes their eyes and, instead of proverb 'Marco', asks an icebreaker question from the getting-to-know-yous list higher up.

And so, the other students must answer the question honestly, allowing the pupil whose eyes are closed to figure out where they are and tag them.

When a student is tagged, they accept a turn endmost their optics and request an icebreaker question.

Getting-to-know-you concatenation

This game helps students see how much they have in common with their classmates.

1 educatee starts by request who else in the classroom shares a quality, like, dislike, etc. with them. For example:

Who has an older blood brother similar me?
Who likes baseball similar me?
Who is an only kid like me?
Who likes chocolate water ice foam like me?
Whose favorite superhero is Spiderman like me?

The student asks these types of questions until they find at to the lowest degree ii other students who accept something in common with them. These ii hold easily with the first educatee on either side to course a chain.

So, the students at the end of the 'chain' must ask similar questions to find students who share something in common with them.

This continues until the whole classroom is linked together in the chain.

(For a socially-distanced version of this game, take the students stand up in a row with infinite in between them instead of property hands.)

For more online getting-to-know-you icebreaker activities, check out the video beneath:

Favorite animal sounds

Every lilliputian kid has their favorite animal. But how many students in your classroom have the same favorite animal?

In this game, ask each student to remember of their favorite animal. And then, they must brand the sound of that animal.

As the students all brand animal sounds, each student must group together with the other students in the classroom making the same brute sound. While some kids may be shy about this at start, before long your classroom will erupt in a cacophony of crazy animal sounds.

This fun creature game gets kids moving and being silly together, helping them milkshake off those beginning-day jitters and feel comfortable with each other.

Icebreaker questions for uncomplicated students

If y'all could go rid of one food forever, what would information technology be?
What's i food you love that most people detest?
What'due south one food you hate that nigh people love?
What's your favorite matter to do afterward school?
If you could keep any animal every bit a pet, what would it exist?

Icebreakers for middle school students

Group of five middle school students completing an icebreaker activity.

Center schoolers are a bit older, a bit wiser, and a flake more cocky-conscious. Those first-24-hour interval fretfulness may be even worse for middle schoolhouse students, significant you'll demand to work fifty-fifty harder to make icebreaker questions a fun first-solar day activity (not some other embarrassing middle school moment they'll recall forever).

Here are some fun icebreaker games you can play with middle schoolers, as well as a few questions that are specific to this age group:

Flake in

This game helps students respond questions by making it a game, but as well gives students the pick non to answer if they're embarrassed or shy.

You can also permit students to submit questions they would like to reply themselves or know almost their peers — vetted by you, of form. This could assistance give them greater comfort knowing what questions could be asked.

Start past printing off your called icebreaker questions on cards and putting them all into a lid or box.

Students assemble in a circle, and each starts the game with ten of something, such as marbles, coins, or game chips.

The goal: Get rid of all your fries as soon as you can.

The first player draws a question from the box and reads information technology out loud. If they answer the question, they put a chip in the centre of the circumvolve. If they cull to pass and not reply the question, they must take a chip. Whenever a student passes on a question, another student can "steal" the question by putting their fleck in the middle of the circle and answering the question themselves.

Whoever gets rid of their fries start wins, which helps encourage all the students to respond questions and thus get to know each other better.

Fidget spinner icebreaker game

Dear them or hate them, fidget spinners have become more than pop than e'er. Merely now you tin use them to break the ice with your heart schoolers.

Have your students sit in a circle in the classroom with the fidget spinner in the middle. I educatee gets to spin the fidget spinner. Most spinners have three wings, and then when it stops, it will exist pointing at three students in the circle.

The student who spun the spinner gets to choose an icebreaker question (or pull one from the box, if you've printed them out), and the iii students the spinner is pointing to must respond the question.

Check out this video for even more virtual icebreakers for your center schoolhouse students:

Ice breaker questions for middle schoolhouse students

If you started your own YouTube aqueduct, what would information technology be called and what would your videos be almost?
What's ane affair you lot want to acquire this year (either in school or outside of information technology)?

Classroom icebreakers for high school students

A teacher and high school students in school uniforms sit in a classroom.

Your high schoolers are getting older, and they're preparing for life equally adults. With that in mind, they're probably not interested in some of the sillier icebreaker activities nosotros discussed for younger students (although the Marco Polo with icebreaker questions and Chip In games can easily be adapted to a high school setting if the students are willing).

What other icebreakers for high schoolhouse students volition help the whole grade experience comfortable and willing to go to know each other?

Hither are some ideas, and some questions adapted to loftier schoolers:

Jenga questions

Because who doesn't love Jenga?

For this game, get a Jenga ready and write out an icebreaker question on each piece.

Then, assemble your students to play Jenga! Whenever someone takes out a slice, they must answer the question that's written on information technology.

Although Jenga has no maximum number of players, you may make up one's mind to use more than ane prepare and then that your students have a take chances to answer more questions.

Introducing: Yous!

This icebreaker activity helps your students get to know each other correct from the get-go.

Showtime by pairing up your class into teams of ii. And then, each pair spends some time request each other questions and getting to know each other. To help get the ball rolling, you can provide a list of getting-to-know-yous icebreaker questions that your students tin can use.

And then, each student gets to introduce their teammate to the class using the information they gathered while chatting.

This is a fun manner to assist your class get to know each other and get the school twelvemonth started on the correct pes.

Icebreaker questions for high school students

What's the all-time piece of advice someone has given you?
If coin was no object, where would y'all choose to alive?
What's the strangest career you've ever heard of?
What's one book you read that had a big impact on you, and why?
If you had to spend a month without your phone, what would you exercise?

Icebreaker ideas for a virtual learning setting

Young girl waves at a computer screen while participating in online learning.

Unfortunately, many schools will not be able to start classes in a physical classroom this twelvemonth. So, how can you introduce icebreaker activities to a virtual classroom?

Here are some ideas to assist your students get to know each other and experience like they're office of the class, fifty-fifty when they're not physically together:

Would you rather game with emoji responses

Using our listing of would you rather questions above (or your own listing!), you tin create a virtual game to go to know your students.

If you lot're using a platform similar Zoom where students can send emojis, take your students respond to the would you rather questions with emojis. For case:

"Would you rather go skydiving or scuba diving? If skydiving, respond with the thumbs-upwardly emoji. If scuba diving, reply with the center emoji."

During the game, keep track of how students responded to each question. Then, at the end of the game, have your students guess which answers were more popular.

Muted go-to-know-you questions

This is for those kids (and teachers!) who never remember to unmute their microphones on a video phone call.

In this game, pick a student and inquire them one of your icebreaker questions. Then, have them respond the question while they're however on mute.

As they reply, have the remainder of the students endeavour to guess what they're saying by reading their lips and typing their guesses in the conversation. Take the pupil repeat the answer a few times slowly, then run across how many students got the answer right!

(For the best result, cull questions that have curt or i-word answers, such equally: How many siblings do you have? What's your favorite pizza topping? How many different places have yous lived?)

Respond to icebreaker questions with memes

Oprah meme that says you get an icebreaker You get an icebreaker Everyone gets an icebreaker.

For older students, make icebreaker questions fun past allowing them to respond the questions with their favorite memes.

Of course, you'll need to set rules for what makes a meme inappropriate, simply there are plenty of funny, clean memes that students can apply to share their thoughts and feelings on icebreaker questions.

This also separates them slightly from the question, since they won't be on the spot answering the question themselves. That slight separation could help encourage shyer students to participate more than.

Respond to icebreaker questions with charades

This is a fun way for younger students to stay engaged during remote learning and feel similar part of the classroom even though they're apart.

Similar to the muted questions mentioned above, play this game by request a educatee to answer an icebreaker question while muted. In this instance, though, they need to human activity out their answer.

As they human action out their answer, the rest of the students can utilize the conversation to guess what they're acting out.

Make back-to-school a success with fun classroom icebreakers

Whether you're in the classroom practicing social distancing or teaching a virtual form, it'southward articulate that 2021 isn't a normal school year.

Even and then, these icebreaker questions and activities will help your students of all historic period groups become to know each other and be more comfy participating in the class throughout the year.

Make math class heady and innovate students to Prodigy Math Game, the online learning platform that transforms math practice into an epic risk!

Students will explore new worlds, collect pets and earn ballsy in-game prizes — all while answering curriculum-aligned math questions that build key skills and address learning gaps. They tin even play as a team and challenge other classmates to a math boxing!

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Source: https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/icebreaker-questions-for-kids/