Quizizz Logo

Fun Ice Breakers: Ideas, Activities, & Templates

Break the ice on the first day of school or welcome new faces with fun icebreaker games on Quizizz!

Image of a young girl holding a rectangular placard with a question and blank spaces for answers.

What is an icebreaker?

An icebreaker is an ideal activity for when your students find themselves in a new environment or in unfamiliar company. True to their name, these activities help break the ice and allow students to get to know each other. They also offer you an opportunity to build a rapport with your learners. 

But a good icebreaker moves beyond making connections. It also creates a learning environment that is welcoming, inclusive, and encourages participation. Icebreakers can put students at ease and dissolve some of the nervousness that accompanies the start of a new academic year. These activities can also be very effective at introducing course material and preparing learners for what lies ahead. 

Why create icebreakers on quizizz?

Quizizz empowers you to create icebreaker games that can be hosted offline, online, and in hybrid settings. You can also host icebreakers in Paper Mode to blend the best of physical and digital learning.

Icebreakers on quizizz allow you to create engaging activities complete with images, audio clips, GIFs, and videos. Once the activity ends, tap into your students’ responses instantly with lightning-quick reports. 

Features like Read Aloud ensure that your icebreaker questions will be accessible even to your youngest learners. Additionally, the different game modes allow students the flexibility of participating as individuals or in teams. On Quizizz, icebreaker questions can be twice as fun with--

A screen displaying a name being selected at random from a list of names using the 'Spin the Wheel' feature on Quizizz

Spin the wheel

Turn your icebreaker into a gameshow by spinning the names of your students so you can pick any one at random.

A screen displaying a leaderboard that shows how students are performing in a quiz

Leaderboard

Encourage healthy and friendly competition as students race to the top of the Leaderboard.

A screen on Quizizz displaying a Power-Up called 'Double Jeopardy' that awards double the points for a correct answer

Power-ups

Transform icebreakers into adventures with exciting power-ups like Streak Saver, Time Freeze, and Double Jeopardy.

A screen displaying a funny meme during a quiz on Quizizz

Gamification

Enable memes, sound effects, music, and themes to double down on engagement and increase participation.

What are some good icebreakers?

Any activity that gets students to interact with each other, their instructor, or their environment is a good icebreaker. But, these activities are most effective when they are adapted to students’ grade groups and learning requirements. There are multiple, customisable ways to break the ice amongst students, including –-

Playing games

Scavenger hunts, Two Truths and a Lie, Pictionary, and Charades are a few popular choices when it comes to icebreaker games.

A blue joystick against a yellow backdrop

Getting creative

Students can be asked to create a short story, poem, song, painting, presentation, or even a joke! The options are endless.

A joyful girl holding a pencil in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other

Answering questions

Good conversations start with good questions. True or False, yes or No, and ‘Would you rather’ questions are sure to get the ball rolling.

A joyful woman holding up balloons with question marks on them

Create fun icebreakers with multiple question types

In this classic activity, learners can complete sentences by filling in the blanks with the right answers.

A screen displaying a question with space to enter answer

Ask your students to reorder a set of jumbled options in ascending, descending, or chronological order.

A screen displaying four options that can be arranged in the correct order

Present learners with the opportunity to select one or more correct answers from a list of options.

A screen displaying question with an option to choose from four options

Gamify your assessment with shuffled text and images that your students can pair together.

A screen displaying question with four options to match

Choose between a plain background or an image and watch as students give shape to their thoughts with colors, highlighters, and more.

A screen displaying a question with an option to draw

Motivate learners to think critically by dragging and dropping the right options to complete a sentence.

A screen displaying a question with four options to drag and drop

Let students take center stage with video responses so you can assess their presentation skills.

A screen displaying a question with an option to video record

Check the pulse of your classroom with a fun poll or vote.

A screen displaying a question with two options to click

Use Lessons to create an instructor-led experience where slides and multimedia are combined with quiz and poll questions.

A screen displaying a slide with a picture

Engage your students’ higher order thinking skills and encourage them to dig deep with open-ended questions.

A screen displaying a question with space to write answer

Analyze speaking skills by allowing students to voice their answers using the audio response feature.

A screen displaying a question with an option to audio record

Prompt your students to choose between a set of drop-down options to fill out the blanks in a piece of text.

A screen displaying about Question type on Quizizz

Craft icebreakers for every need

Quizizz enables you to mix and match its different question types to create icebreakers that address different needs. Assemble fun icebreaker questions on Quizizz to –-

An illustration of two students interacting with their teacher.

Increase participation

Combine Multiple Choice, Match, Reorder, and Drag-and-drop questions to gather responses from all your students, not just the loudest and the fastest. 

An enthusiastic girl raising her hand

Double engagement

Sew together Video Response, Audio Response, and Open-ended questions to boost engagement and spark conversation.

A girl wearing glasses and two pigtails stands against a backdrop that displays the different question types on Quizizz

Improve creative thinking

Opt for the Draw question type and enable the Live Whiteboard to get your students’ creative juices flowing.

Kids using different devices, smiling

Feel the pulse of your class

Use the poll question type to conduct a fun survey or tap into how your students are feeling.

Try an icebreaker!

Our Quizizz Library consists of over 30M quizzes and lessons created by teachers just like you. Browse through the library to find and host fun icebreaker games for your classroom. You could also sample one of them right here!