Miss the Pillow: Icebreaker Game

Icebreaker Game - A New Icebreaker Game

An icebreaker is a facilitation exercise intended to help a group to begin the process of forming themselves into a team. Icebreakers are commonly presented as a game to "warm up" the group by helping the members to get to know each other. They often focus on sharing personal information such as name, hobbies, etc. Examples of these kinds of facilitation exercises include:

The Little Known Fact - Participants are asked to share their name, department or role in the organization, length of service, and one "little known fact" about themselves. This "little known fact" becomes a humanizing element for future interactions.

Two Truths and a Lie - Participants introduce themselves and make three statements about themselves - two true and one untrue. The rest of the group votes to try to identify the falsehood.

Interviews - Participants are paired up and spend 5 minutes interviewing each other. The group reconvenes and the interviewer introduces the interviewee to the group.

They are particularly popular in the university setting, for instance among residents of a dormitory hall or groups of students who will be working closely together, as orientation leaders, perhaps, or peer health educators.

A New Icebreaker Game

Miss the Pillow

Divide the group into small groups of five/six. Ask one volunteer to step out and stand at the head of the room. Ask the small groups to stand in front of the volunteer. The formation will look as below. You will need a small cushion or pillow to play this game.

" x " means participant

The task for the group is to miss the pillow that the volunteer throws at them without leaving the line. (They can duck and dodge the pillow). Whoever the pillow touches has to introduce himself/herself (in an interesting manner) to the group and leave the game. The game goes on until all players are out. You can change the volunteer after every five throws. The game is fun to play and allows the participants to be creative about introducing themselves.