Home >> Games & Cards >> Party Games

Ice Breaker Activities With Puppets

Icebreakers help people feel at ease in social situations. They include games and questions that guide conversation and offer focus. People focus on the activity instead of the discomfort or intimidation they feel with strangers. Icebreakers get people talking and essentially "break the ice" of shyness. Icebreakers are effective for a variety of group settings. Using puppets as tools when playing icebreaker games is especially helpful with children because the cartoon-like appearance of a puppet puts them at ease.

The Matching Game
- Icebreaker games encourage teamwork and help children overcome feelings of shyness. The Matching Game uses puppets to guide children toward matching objects that are identical. Each child is given a card showing an age-appropriate image. Colors and shapes work well for younger children and animals, food and clothing are better for older kids. The puppet or puppets then show a single image that matches the image of one of the children. As a group, children must determine which child's image matches the puppet's image. Challenge older children with images that match in pairs instead of identically. For instance, the puppet's image of a jar of peanut butter would match one of the children's images of a jar of jelly.
Dress the Puppet
- In this game, children divide into groups and receive a selection of puppet clothing. If you do not have actual doll clothing, use photos of clothing. Each group has several garments in their collection including pants, a shirt, shoes, socks and outerwear. The puppet appears in nightclothes or a towel, asking the children to assist with dressing. Each group of children presents an item from their collection of garments they think best suits the puppet. The puppet encourages the children to choose items that are weather-appropriate, suitable for the puppet's plans for the day and acceptable to wear with pieces chosen by other groups. This game helps children work in small groups, as well as a larger unit, to achieve a single goal. There is no correct outfit for the puppet, as long as the children use teamwork and critical thinking to reach a conclusion.
Personal Bingo
- Personal bingo is suitable for children and adults. Bingo cards are given to each participant describing life experiences. Choose experiences appropriate to the age of the group. For instance, "I have a sister" or "My pet is a dog" for children's cards and "I have been married more than 10 years" or "I have grandchildren," for adult cards. Include a few squares sure to apply to several participants so there is a guaranteed winner. The puppet is responsible for playing master of ceremonies and calling the squares. The game is a lot of fun and can be innocent or raunchy, depending on the age of the group and purpose of the event. Having a puppet call the squares puts kids at ease and helps adults feel silly and lighthearted.
Three Truths and a Lie
- This game combines creative arts, imagination and social skills. Children create puppets resembling themselves out of art materials. When the puppets are finished, divide children into small groups of three to five kids. Using their puppets, children tell their group three truthful statements about themselves and one imaginary statement. The object of the game is to trick the group members into thinking all of the statements are true and guessing the falsehood, so encourage children to make all four statements reasonable. For instance, unless children are very young, try not to choose statements such as "I have a pet dinosaur." If children struggle to think of four statements, supply a list of 20 possible options.

Party Games