When people come together for the first time, there’s usually a period of uneasiness or apprehension.  Therefore it’s important that activities be planned for the first group meeting.  These activities should be geared to help them get acquainted and comfortable.  Mixer materials, name games, and other “icebreakers,” such as the following can be adapted to groups of any size.

Group Recall

Everyone is asked to think about who they would want to be if they had to be another person who has lived or is living.  It must be a real person.

After they have chosen someone, the children are next asked to reflect upon why they selected this person.  When all are ready to share, the leader explains the process:

1. Ask for a volunteer to go first, or you can start it off.
2. The first person says their name and then shares the person he/she would like to be and why.
3. Moving in a clockwise direction, the person to the left goes next.  First they say their name, then they repeat what the previous person shared, and finally the share who they would like to be and why.
4. This continues on around the circle.  Depending on the ages of the children, you can decide how many people back they have to go during the recall portion.

Trust Walk

Divide the group in half.  Half the group is to be blindfolded; the other half becomes the leaders.  One leader then leads one of the blindfolded people in a walk around the area.  After a few minutes reverse the roles.  Process afterwards by asking questions such as:

• How do you feel as the leader?
• How did you feel being blindfolded?
• Did you trust your partner to take care of you?
• Did you feel responsible to take care of your partner?

The Public Interview

Sit in a circle and ask a volunteer any questions that interest you.  Each of the group members may participate in this by asking questions of the volunteer.  Anyone asking the question must be willing to answer the same question.  The volunteer always has the option to pass on any question.  Then the next person in the circle is asked the questions, and the game continues on in this fashion. 

The M&M Game

You need a bag of M&M’s for this game.  Give a handful of M&M’s to each child.  Identify what each color stands for.  For example:

• Red is love
• Green is family
• Orange is the future
• Yellow is friends
• Blue is hobbies
• Brown is school

You can change these to anything that makes sense for the group you’re leading.  Sitting in a circle, you go around the circle and each person picks an M&M out of their pile.  Before they can eat the M&M they must say something about themselves that relates to the color of that M&M.  Keep going until all the M&M’s are gone.