Play Ice-Breaker Games with your kid and his new friends!

3 to 5 years

Coping with a large group of children who you don't know can be intimidating for an adult - and it can be very scary for the children, too.

There are some good ice-breaker games which will help the kids get to know each other (and you to get to know them, too).

A Great Wind Blows
This is a noisy, running around game which works well as an ice-breaker. You'll need chairs for all of the kids, and space to play.

How to play: Arrange the chairs in a circle, facing the middle. All the children sit down. An adult stands outside the circle and calls out "A great wind blows for everyone who....", fills in the blank with a statement that will affect some of the group (see ideas below). Anyone who is affected must stand up and find another chair which is at least 2 chairs away from their own.

If a large group of children stand up, the adult should quickly remove one of the chairs from the circle as soon as the kids stand up and begin moving. Any child who cannot find a chair moves outside the circle and helps the adult come up with ideas for the next "great wind blows".

Here are some ideas:

A great wind blows for everyone who has a little brother
A great wind blows for everyone who has a big sister
A great wind blows for everyone who has been to France
A great wind blows for everyone who has a dog
A great wind blows for everyone who ate cornflakes for breakfast this morning
A great wind blows for everyone who likes (celebrity), etc

Flag of Me
This is a useful "quiet" ice-breaking activity for groups of older children. The finished flags also make a fabulous early display for the classroom, before the term's work goes up on the walls!

Simply print off one of our "flag of me" pages for each child and sit them down with some colouring pencils. Ask them to design their own flag - something that suggests what their interests are, where they come from, what they believe in etc.

They might include:

Their favourite colours, animals, sport
Their families or pets
An outline of their country of origin, or their parents'
Languages they speak
Places they have visited or want to visit, etc

Give the children 15-20 minutes to get creative with their flags, then ask them to stand up, one by one, holding up their flags and explaining the design to the other children.

You may need to prompt any shy children.

Make photos and upload the collage of the best ones to the App. Write briefly about your child's new friends and the kids' impressions!