Ice Breaker Activities for Teenagers

Things Common and Unique

• Begin this ice breaker activity from Group-Games.com by first dividing the group of teens into teams of about five to eight people. Give each team a piece of paper and a writing utensil. In the first round, each team has two minutes to determine things they have in common. Limit their options to things they can't see, such as personality traits and experiences. After the two minutes has passed, tell the team to find things unique to only one person in the group. This goes on for another two minutes. The game presents the chance for the teams to realize they have more in common with their peers than they had previously thought.

Human Pizza

• Prepare for this game from RoseMary Honnold by coming up with the ingredients of a pizza, such as the dough, the cheese, the pizza sauce, pepperoni and olives, among others. Write down a few copies of each ingredient on pieces of paper. Tape these papers randomly on the backs of your players. Tell the players that they have to assemble themselves to make up several different pizzas. If you, for instance, have five different ingredients with five copies of each piece, you should have five different human pizzas for 25 players. The players have to figure out which ingredient is written on their backs by asking other players questions. Once they figure out their ingredient, they find a group that needs their particular ingredient. The activity ends when all of the groups have assembled themselves correctly.

Phrases Beneath a Plate

• If you have a dinner party planned with teens, this game from the website, Divine Dinner Party, works well to break the ice. Before the game begins, come up with several non sequitur phrases such as, "I never knew apes could smell," or "When does it rain in Africa?" Write each of these phrases either directly on the back of a paper plate or on a note that you place under your china before your party guests sit down. Once everyone sits down for the meal, tell them to look under their plates for the phrase. After everyone's read it, begin a conversation. All the players must try to insert their mystery phrase into the conversation without anyone noticing. If someone suspects another person of using her phrase, he can call that person out. If he's wrong, he gets disqualified. If he's right, the person who was caught gets eliminated. After dinner's over, ask around to see who got their messages in without getting caught.