Icebreakers & Projects

I sometimes do school visits where there are about 50 kids and just me in a pretty small classroom and a few things I do every time that work pretty well in terms of ice breakers/games (works best for 1-3/4 grade) are:

1. Start off with Head Shoulders Knees and Toes and make sure they know all the body parts pretty well (eyes and ears and mouth and nose), do this loads, in different voices (eg whispering/shouting/slow/fast, they love it)

2. Move on to Simon Says ([Your name] Says) and use the body parts you just used in Head Shoulders Knees and Toes cus they literally JUST learned them all properly, do a few practice rounds and then have the real thing and anyone who loses has to sit down (kids who are out can help be the 'police' and catch anyone who is out so they're not just sat there bored)

Another thing I do that works like a dream for getting kids to shut up is where i will shout a little melody (don't really know how to type this one, it's pretty famous hope you can picture it: BAP BARA BA BA -- BAP! BAP!) and instead of me shouting the last two BAP!BAP!, the rule is that everyone must clap them. So BAP BARA BA BA -- CLAP! CLAP! and once you CLAP CLAP, you must be silent. So I just shout the BAP BARA BA BA -- a few times and wait until everyone is clapping along to the CLAP CLAP bit and usually everyone is dead silent in 5-10 seconds!!