Icebreakers/Group Activities for GLAM Camp

Questions: This game allows the girls to learn more about one another, by asking/answering questions in a group. Have the girls get into a circle. Give each girl 2 scraps of paper and a writing utensil. Have the girls write down one silly or funny question, and one more “serious” or thought-provoking question. But all of the questions in a bucket or a basket and take turns selecting a question and then providing an answer. If a question is REALLY good, someone can shout “all play” and then everyone must answer the question.

Match the Animal to the Machine: This game is a silly, physical activity that requires a clear open space for it to work. Have the girls pick a partner. Partners get together and choose an animal and a machine. One person will make the animal noise and one person the machine noise. Have animals line up on one side of the room and machines on the other. Everyone has to close their eyes and mix up their order. When you say "Go!", the girls have to find each other based on recognizing the sounds that they're making.

Two Truths and a Lie: This game is a fun, low-key game that can be played in the morning, or after a long day of training. Self-explanatory... people make three statements: two are true and one is a total fib, and everyone tries to guess which one it is!

Abstract Guessing Game: This is a fun guessing game that allows the girls to be creative and inquisitive. Have everyone sit in a group. Choose one person to leave the room. After that person has left the room, choose someone in the group to be “described”. Once this has been done, call the first person back into the room. The object is for them to select who was chosen by asking abstract questions to each of the girls around the circle. Some examples include, “If this person were a color, which color would they be? If this person were a city, which city would they be? If this person was a type of clothing, which type of clothing would they be.”

Celebrity: This game is a fun activity, and can also spur a conversation about who they consider to be “famous” and why. Divide the group into 2 teams. Give each girl 10 slips of paper. Have them write down a “celebrity” on each slip of paper. Fold up the slips and place them in a bucket or basket. Set a timer for 45-seconds. The first girl draws a slip of paper and tries to get her team to guess the celebrity written on the piece of paper by giving them certain clues, i.e. he is an actor, he played the lead in “Forrest Gump”, etc. Once the name is guessed the girl may draw another slip of paper and give clues until that celebrity is guessed. The goal here is speed. Each girl wants to get through as many slips of paper as possible during her turn.

Storyboarding: This game is a fun low-key game that can be played while the girls are still getting to know each other. Everyone starts out with a piece of paper. On the top, each girl writes a sentence that could be represented by a picture. No names or places. Then, the girls pass the paper to the person next to them. That girl draws a picture representation of the sentence. Then, the illustrator folds back the sentence so the only thing showing is the picture. She passes the picture on and the next girl writes a sentence to correspond with the drawing. The drawing is then folded back and the next girl draws a picture of the sentence, etc. The cycle continues until the papers get back to the original sentence-writers. They then unfold the sheets and giggle about the hilarious sequences of nonsense. Go around the circle and have each girl share her creation.

Little Sally Walker: This game allows the girls to get up, move around and be silly. Does not necessarily work as well with a REALLY shy group. Everyone should get into a circle with one person in the middle. The person in the middle walks around inside the circle while everyone else sings, "Little Sally Walker walking down the street. She didn’t know what to do so she stopped in front of me. (At this point, the girl in the middle stops in front of someone in particular and does a dance/silly move while the group proceeds to sing: "Hey girl, do that thing do that thing and switch!" Then the person that got “picked” repeats that same dance move while the group continues to sing, "Hey girl do that thing do that thing and switch!" Yet instead of switching, the person now in the middle walks along the inside of the circle and the game keeps going.

Dance/Stretch: This activity gets the blood flowing again and gives everyone a laugh. Again, may not work as well with a really shy group. Get up and stretch! Be really goofy about it! Play cheesy 80s music.