Icebreakers and energizers for university and college learning sessions are short, structured activities designed to increase student engagement, reduce anxiety, and encourage participation at the start or midpoint of a class or workshop.
These activities are designed for educators, tutors, and facilitators running interactive learning sessions in higher education settings.
In this guide, you’ll find:
- 50 ready-to-use icebreakers and energizers for college and university learning sessions
- Activities that work for in-person classes and virtual sessions
- Clear guidance for group size, timing, and how to run each activity
- Easy adaptation ideas for facilitated workshops outside higher education
Why Should You Use Icebreakers in College Learning Sessions?
Icebreakers help college students feel more comfortable, reduce anxiety, and encourage early participation, especially in new or unfamiliar learning environments.
They are typically used at the start or midpoint of a class to help students transition into more demanding learning activities.
Freshers Week Fun – Furthermore, if it is Freshers Week (also called Orientation Week) at your college or university and you are organizing the first week’s events, these icebreaker activities can be great for getting the students involved and having fun.
Reduce anxiety – When the students are unfamiliar with each other, many students can feel nervous and apprehensive, especially in a new learning environment. Icebreakers can lighten the mood and create the right atmosphere for socialization.
Icebreakers help to break the ice, as it were, and help the students to engage with others and express themselves.
A comfortable classroom atmosphere enables better participation and enhances the learning experience.
Energize the classroom – icebreaker activities also act as energizers for college students in that they can help generate a more dynamic classroom, where things feel more lively, and one might say, less boring.
What Are the Best Icebreakers and Energizers for College Students?
Many of these icebreakers also work well in facilitated workshops outside formal education, particularly where engagement, communication, or group cohesion is important. If you’re looking for a wider range of group icebreakers for different settings and group sizes, you may also find this guide useful.
Many of these activities are commonly used as part of broader facilitation techniques to improve learner engagement in structured learning sessions.
The following activities are commonly used in college and university classes to build rapport, increase participation, and energize students.
What Are Quick, Low-Prep Icebreakers for College Classes?
These icebreakers require minimal preparation and are ideal for starting a session quickly or re-energising students mid-class.
These first set of activities are ones that are easy to set up and are great for kick-starting a session with minimal effort.
1. Speed Friending
Purpose: This ‘Speed Friending’ activity is designed to give the students an easy way to get to know each other in a relaxed manner.
This activity is a great way to help the students network and get to know each other, especially when running workshops or classes where the students are new to each other.
Number of Students: Works best with larger groups of say 10 to 40 students, so that you can easily pair up the participants.
Time Needed: 30 minutes (but easily adapted to other timeframes).
Items Needed:
- A stopwatch app on your phone
- Pre-prepared questions
- Chairs set up in two rows facing each other, or in a circular layout
How to Run the Activity:
- Put everyone into pairs.
- Now start the stopwatch for 3 minutes and ask the students to exchange names, hobbies, and one interesting/unusual thing about themselves.
- After 3 minutes, they must change partners, i.e., choose the person closest to them who they have not yet partnered with. The easiest way, in fact, is to have two rows and then the students in one row shift one seat down each time.
- Run the activity until everyone has met 5 or 10 people.
Debrief:
- As a class discussion, invite the students to talk about anything at all that they found interesting, such as unusual or surprising facts they learned about the others.
Options:
- Themed Questions: It can be a good idea to theme this activity. So, for example, if you are teaching students studying tourism, you could set specific questions they must ask each other related to travel and tourism.
2. Would You Rather?
Purpose: An activity that I also included in the Leadership training activities, the ‘Would You Rather’ activity is a simple but effective way to create small group conversations so that the students can learn about each other’s preferences, values, and personalities. This activity requires critical thinking skills.
Number of Students: 5 or more students.
Time Needed: 25 minutes.
Items Needed: A list of “Would You Rather?” questions.
How to Run the Activity:
- Beforehand, write down a batch of fairly simple scenarios that have two options, such as “Would you rather have a job you absolutely love for not much money or a job you don’t like but making half a million a year?”
- You will read out the question to the class, and then they must choose to stand on one side of the room for one answer, or the other side of the room if they choose the other option. You will tell them which side of the room represents each answer/option.
- You then ask three people from each group to explain their reason for choosing that option.
- After this, the participants then have the chance to change sides, based on the reasons others gave for their choice.
- You may want to ask 3, 4, or 5 questions, i.e., run this activity a few times.
This is one of the best icebreakers for college students because it combines individual decisions with a nice group dynamic and is a fun activity.
3. Random Question Game
Purpose: This game is great fun as it creates more unusual and unpredictable conversations so that the college students get to know each other better, away from the standard questions.
Number of Students: 6 or more participants. Works especially well in a medium-sized group.
Time Needed: 20 minutes.
Items Needed:
- A list of random questions. Make up a bunch of questions and write them on slips of paper. Questions should be short but open-ended questions, such as “If you could be any celebrity, who would you be and why?”, or “If you could live in any place in the world, where would it be and why?”.
- A small box or bag that the participants can draw questions from.
How to Run the Activity:
- Have the participants sit in a circle so that everyone can see each other (split them into more than one group as needed if a big class).
- Then ask one person from the circle (or from each circle) to pull out one of the random questions.
- They must read the question aloud to their group and then answer the question, giving as much detail and explanation as they can.
- The others in the group are then allowed to ask questions to the question answerer if they wish to learn more about the answer.
- If time permits, let them answer three questions each.
Debrief:
- After the question session is over, you might wish to give the students 5 or 10 minutes as a class to discuss the concept of open-ended questions vs closed questions.
- Did they notice how all of these questions were open-ended questions?
Options:
- Pass or Play: If, for any reason, a student feels uncomfortable answering a specific question, they may choose to “pass” and pull out a new question.
- Speed Round: A fun version, if you are looking for quick icebreakers for college students, is to run this activity as a speed activity. In this version, they have exactly 30 seconds to answer each question, encouraging quick thinking and responses. Remember to have a stopwatch app ready if choosing this option.
4. Alphabet Introductions
Purpose: This is one of those icebreakers for university students that is a slightly more creative way for them to introduce themselves to each other, making it easier also for them to remember each other’s names.
Time Needed: 15 minutes.
Items Needed: If you wish, you can download this FREE list of 201 Alliterative Names examples to print off.
How to Run the Activity:
- I suggest starting the activity by explaining to the students that they will each introduce themself to the class by using an alliterative adjective (see free examples above – they need to use the same letter as their first name), i.e., ‘Magical Mike’.
- As the teacher, begin by using your own name to provide an example
- Now give the students 3 minutes to think about their own alliterative name, using the example sheet above.
- Then go around the room and ask each student to give their chosen alliterative name, and they should also explain why they have chosen this name.
Debrief:
- After everyone has introduced themselves, see if anyone can recall some of the names and adjectives shared. This can turn into a fun memory challenge and a chance to reinforce the introductions.
5. Common Ground
Purpose: The ‘Common Ground’ activity is one of the best energizers for college students as it is designed to help break down social barriers and build rapport, and is especially good for getting the more reserved and shy students involved.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 20 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
Activity:
- Divide the students into groups of 4 and give them 10 minutes to discuss and list all the things they have in common.
- After the 10 minutes are up, ask each group to explain the commonalities they found to the rest of the class.
- As the teacher, write down any shared commonalities they mention on a whiteboard to see any trends.
Debrief:
- Encourage participants to continue exploring common interests with their peers outside of the activity.
6. Quick Connections
Purpose: A very simple group chat game, but structured to find common interests quickly.
>Number of Students: 10 or more.
Time Needed: 20 minutes (but easy to adapt time-wise).
Materials Needed:
- List of prompts or questions
How to Run the Activity:
- Beforehand, prepare a list of questions that the students will use to find common interests (i.e., “What’s your favorite movie?” or “What’s a hobby you enjoy?”).
- Participants will pair up or form into groups of four (your choice) and discuss the prompts for a few minutes.
- After each round of discussion, participants switch partners or groups to discuss a new question.
Debrief:
- As a class, you can then allow 5 minutes for a class discussion on any common interests or surprising findings.
7. Human Barometer
Purpose: This is a great icebreaker activity to get the college students engaged in discussion and to draw out their diverse viewpoints within the group.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 20 to 25 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- Before the class starts, you will need to write down some statements in preparation. This will be a list of statements such as “College/university should be free for everyone”.
- Allocate one side of the room to represent “Agree” and the other side of the room to represent “Disagree” (you could put up a sign saying Agree/Disagree on each side).
- Now read out a statement and ask the participants to go and stand by the sign that says “Agree” or “Disagree”.
- After everyone has chosen their side, invite the students to share their reasons for their choice.
- Repeat with several different statements to cover a range of topics.
Debrief:
- Discuss the variety of opinions and any surprising insights that emerged.
- Highlight how understanding different perspectives can foster empathy and open-mindedness.
Variations:
- Themed Statements: You could theme the statements to match their topic of study, or to a specific topic, such as to do with student matters.
Several of the icebreakers in this section are commonly used in communication-focused sessions. You may find our communication skills training materials useful when planning longer workshops or structured learning activities.
What Are Effective Get-to-Know-You Icebreakers for College Students?
The icebreakers for college students in this section, the Get-to-Know-You Games, are designed to help students discover and share their interests, hobbies, and some personal facts with each other, to build rapport and trust.
8. Fact or Fiction
Purpose: This activity requires creativity, storytelling, and active listening, all skills that are useful to learn, while also having fun learning interesting things about the other students.
Number of Students: 6 or more.
Time Needed: 15 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- I recommend starting this activity by explaining that each participant will share two statements about themselves. One must be a true fact. The other must be a false statement (fiction). The goal is to stump the group by making the fiction sound believable.
- The students should try to come up with statements that are interesting and not too obvious.
- Everyone else in the class will then try to guess which statement is a false fact, i.e., fiction.
- One person at a time, they will share their two statements with the group.
- After hearing both statements, the group will discuss the two facts and then vote on which they consider to be the true statement of the two.
- The person whose statements it was will then reveal which of the two statements was, in fact, the true one and false.
Debrief:
- It can be fun to have a short class discussion after to ask how they found the activity in terms of trying to come up with creative statements using creative thinking, and how easy or hard it was to guess the others’ true statements.
9. Dream Vacation
Purpose: This is perhaps one of the best icebreakers for college students because it is one of the most enjoyable and fun activities.
It involves the need for lots of creative thinking and imagination, and is great for vibrant and fun conversations between the students. In a sense, this helps the students to reveal their future dreams.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 15 to 20 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- Ask each participant to spend 5 minutes thinking about their dream vacation (holiday in British English). Where exactly would they decide to go, what types of things would they do there, and why? Ask them to provide as much detail as possible.
- I’d suggest to them that they write all their notes in bullet point form to make it easier when they do the next stage.
- Have the students, one at a time, share their idea of a dream vacation with the rest of the class (if you have a very large class, then break them into smaller groups).
- After each person has explained their dream vacation, allow 2 minutes for the other people to ask questions to learn more if they wish.
Debrief:
- If you wish to extend this by another 5 to 10 minutes, you can run a class discussion where you look at any common themes or interesting insights, as a class.
10. Bucket List Challenge
Purpose: Another great energizer for college students that focuses on sharing aspirations is the “Bucket List” icebreaker.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 20 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- Ask the students to spend 5 minutes writing down 5 things that they would like to achieve, accomplish, or experience before they die.
- Now place everyone into groups of 6 (or whatever-sized groups you wish) and have each student take the opportunity to explain their 5 choices to the rest of their group.
- They should explain each in detail, giving the reasons, and when they would like to achieve each choice.
11. Mix and Mingle Activity
Purpose: What I like about this icebreaker is that it is very flexible, i.e., more fluid in that the students walk around and “Mix and Mingle”.
The emphasis, though, will be on the students having to talk with others that they have not talked to before or who they do not know very well.
Number of Students: 14 or more ideally.
Time Needed: Adapt as needed, but 15 minutes works well.
How to Run the Activity:
- I suggest putting on some soft, relaxing music in the background to create a positive atmosphere.
- Now ask participants to all walk around and then begin mingling and introduce yourself to someone you have not talked with before or do not know very well.
- They must continue talking with that person until you pause the music and ask them to now re-mingle and meet another person.
- I suggest doing this for 5 to 7 rounds, i.e., so they meet 5 to 7 new people.
- If you wish, you can ask the participants to talk about specific things, i.e., their interests, or about something related to their work.
12. Memory Lane Activity
Purpose: This activity is based on sharing personal stories and finding common ground through important and memorable life events.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 20 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- Ask the students to think about a memorable or important event from their past. This might be a personal achievement, an amazing holiday they took, or some kind of important milestone. It might even be the day they started college or university!
- Put the students in groups of 5 and ask each person at a time in their group to share their memory with their group.
- They should explain why this memory is important and memorable, and what they learned from it.
Variations:
- Photo Sharing: Encouraging the students to bring in a photo related to their memory to show to their group can add flavor to this activity. Just tell them in advance to think of their memory and to choose a photo ready for the coming class.
- Themed Memories: You could add a theme, such as travel and the best trip or holiday.
13. Mystery Person
Purpose: Another great ‘Get to Know You Game’ that encourages the students to get to know each other.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 20 minutes.
Materials Needed: Pre-prepared mystery clues or facts about each participant.
How to Run the Activity:
- You will need the students to provide you with some interesting facts about themself (digitally or on a form they can write their answers on). You’ll need these facts before you commence the activity.
- In the activity itself, each participant will be given a fact, and they must then try to find the person it describes.
- They will do this by walking around the room and asking questions, mingling, and trying to find their “mystery person.”
- Once they believe they have found the person who matches their clue, they confirm the match with that person.
14. Famous Pairs
Purpose: A Get to Know You activity that gets participants working together in pairs on a task, revealing their knowledge of famous duos.
Number of Students: 12 or more.
Time Needed: 15 to 25 minutes.
Materials Needed: As the teacher, pre-prepare a list of famous pairs or duos (e.g., Batman and Robin, Simon and Art Garfunkel, Fish and Chips).
How to Run the Activity:
- Prepare pieces of paper or cards with one name from each pair written on it. So one card will have ‘fish’ written on it. There will be another separate card with ‘chips’ written on it.
- Hand out one card/piece of paper to each student.
- The students must now walk around the room and find their “pair” based on the card they have. For example, someone with “Batman” must find “Robin.”
- Once pairs find each other, they should spend 2 minutes discussing anything they know about their famous pair.
- You can theme this activity if you wish, i.e., to have only famous film stars, foods, or perhaps something related to their topic of study, i.e., places and countries for Geography or tourism students.
15. Emoji Introduction
Purpose: Emojis are a part of communication these days, and so here is one for the games for college students that brings tech to the classroom.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 15 minutes.
Items Needed: Access to emojis on a smartphone, or they can use GetEmoji.
How to Run the Activity:
- Ask the students to introduce themselves using a combination of emojis that represent their personality or interests.
- They should briefly explain the emojis and give some insight into why they chose the emojis.
- The students should take turns sharing their emoji introduction one at a time
- After each person has provided their emoji introduction, the other students may ask questions.
16. Who Am I? – Wild Edition
Purpose: A version of the classic Who Am I energizer for college students, but the wild version. Good fun and easy to organize.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 15 to 25 minutes (adapt as needed)
Materials Needed: You will need some sticky notes, and on them you will write on them wild or whimsical identities (e.g., “Alien from Mars,” “Superhero with the power of telepathy”)
How to Run the Activity:
- Write various wild identities on sticky notes.
- Have someone stick a note on each student’s back without the person whose back it is put on, seeing what is written on the note.
- Participants now have to walk around and ask yes-or-no questions to their fellow students, to try and figure out their identity (which is written on the sticky note).
17. Desert Island
Purpose: You might have heard of Desert Island Discs, the Radio show where celebrities choose what music and books they would take onto a desert island. This activity is a classroom-based desert island activity that gets the students thinking creatively.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 15 minutes to 25 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- Ask the students to pretend that they are stuck on a tropical island and they are only allowed to take five items with them. What will they take and why? Will they choose essential items for survival, or will they take items related to comfort?
- Allow everyone 5 minutes to write down and consider their 5 items.
- Each student will read out their list of 5 items and give a brief explanation of why they chose those specific items.
- Then have a class discussion about the choices, any common themes and thoughts, and any general thoughts.
What Are Physical Icebreakers for College Learning Sessions?
This next batch of icebreakers for college students focuses on more physical activities to get them moving, laughing, and mixing with the other students.
18. Human Knot
Purpose: One of the best icebreakers for university students in Freshers Week, which involves a mix of team-building, problem-solving, and some physical interaction.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 20 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- Ask the students to stand in a circle and then reach across the circle and take hold of two different people’s hands.
- Next, the fun part. They must keep hold of the hands they have hold of and while doing so, find a way to untangle themself. They must not let go of each other’s hands while they work together to untangle themselves.
- As the teacher, you might want to explain and emphasize the importance of teamwork.
Variations:
- Timed Challenge: This is all about having fun while learning to appreciate teamwork, but if you want to add an edge to the activity, you can set a time limit, such as 15 minutes.
19. Dance Like No One’s Watching
Purpose: Another great icebreaker for university students in Freshers Week, this activity is all about the students having fun and getting to know the other students.
Number of Students: 10 or more ideally. The more the better.
Time Needed: 15 or 20 minutes.
Materials Needed: Music and a playlist.
How to Run the Activity:
- The idea behind this activity is that everyone has to try to find the most unusual and craziest dance moves possible.
- Together, the students will dance in an open space to the music you play.
- The emphasis, though, is to come up with the craziest move that the other students, after the 10 minutes of dancing, will vote as being the wildest and craziest.
Variations:
- Group Choreography: You can choose if you wish to make this a group exercise, putting them into groups of 4 or 5.
20. Reverse Scavenger Hunt
Purpose: A slightly different version of the classic Scavenger Hunt activity.
Number of Students: 10 or more.
Time Needed: 30 minutes.
Materials Needed:
- List 20 common objects such as elastic bands, paperclips, forks, and spoons, i.e., relatively small singular objects.
How to Run the Activity:
- Hand out a list of the objects. Provide participants with a list of common items.
- Now put the students into groups of 4 and ask them to come up with the most creative ideas they can for how they could use these items, i.e., they will brainstorm and try to come up with some new, creative, and inventive ideas for using these items.
- After the allocated time (I suggest 15 minutes), I would then suggest allowing another 15 minutes for each group to explain their idea/s and for the class to vote on the best idea.
21. Balloon Pop Questions
Purpose: This activity guides students to engage in relaxed conversations to learn more about each other.
Number of Students: 10 or more.
Time Needed: 20 – 25 minutes.
Materials Needed:
- Balloons
- Slips of paper with open-ended questions (One example question is “Where would you go for a dream holiday/vacation and with whom if you had the chance (anyone in the world)?
- Something to pop balloons, i.e., a pin.
How to Run the Activity:
- Just before the start of the activity, prepare a batch of balloons by inserting small slips of paper with questions inside each balloon. Then blow up the balloons and place them around the room.
- The students will take turns popping a balloon with a pin. They will then proceed to read aloud the question that comes out of the balloon. They then have to answer the question to their group or the class.
- Give everyone the chance to answer one or two questions.
Variations:
- Theme-Based Questions: You could choose to theme the questions more specifically to the type of courses the students are taking or more relevant to their interests.
- Group Answers: You can also have a balloon popped, and then the question is a group question to answer and discuss.
22. Human Sculpture
Purpose: A wonderful college student icebreaker because this activity involves a lot of creativity, and the team really has to work together to be the winning group.
Number of Students: 8 or more (so at least two groups of 4)
Time Needed: 15 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- Start by dividing the students into groups of four.
- Have some sculpture ideas written down on paper that the participants can choose from. Examples might be a type of animal (i.e., an elephant), a landmark (i.e., a pyramid), etc.
- Now give the groups 10 minutes to work out how they will do the shape they have chosen to create their human sculpture using their bodies as a group.
- Each group presents its sculpture and explains its creation to the rest of the class
- One group is voted the winner by the rest
Variations:
- Theme Changes: Change themes throughout the activity for varied challenges.
- Individual Sculptures: Have individuals create solo sculptures using props or furniture.
What Are Creative Icebreakers for College Classes?
23. Pictionary
Purpose: In this section are several creative and artistic icebreakers, and we start off with the Pictionary icebreaker activity, a fun and easy-to-run, light-hearted activity.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 15 to 25 minutes.
Materials Needed:
- Whiteboard (or large paper) and markers
- Prepare a list of things the students will need to draw. Simple things they can draw.
How to Run the Activity:
- Start by dividing the students into teams of 4 or 5.
- One student in the group takes turns to draw a word or phrase from a pre-prepared list while their group members try to guess what the drawing is of.
- Allow one minute for each drawing, and if they have correctly guessed what it is in the group, then they earn one point.
- Run this for say 10 drawings, with the drawings being rotated between different people in the group.
Variations:
- Themed Pictionary: Use a specific theme for the words or phrases.
- Digital Version: Use online Pictionary tools if you’re in a virtual setting.
24. Story Cubes
Purpose: Another activity that involves creativity and teamwork.
Number of Students: 6 or more.
Time Needed: 20 minutes.
Materials Needed:
- Dice or cubes with different images on them (easy to buy on Amazon or in a craft store)
How to Run the Activity:
- Divide the class into groups of 5 or 6
- Each student will roll a set of story cubes (or dice with images) and, based on the images on the cube, they need to create a short, interesting, and perhaps humorous story.
- Each student will share their short story with their group.
- As the teacher, encourage the students to be creative and humorous in their storytelling if they can.
Variations:
- Collaborative Stories: Form groups and create a story together using a shared set of images.
- Themed Cubes: Use cubes with specific themes (e.g., fantasy, sci-fi) for more targeted storytelling.
25. Reverse Charades
Purpose: This is one of the most popular icebreakers for university students in the U.S., according to feedback. It’s great fun and a good activity for Welcome Week.
Number of Students: 10 or more.
Time Needed: 15 to 25 minutes.
Materials Needed:
- Pre-prepared list of words or phrases that the students can act out to try and portray, without speaking, a term such as the name of a movie, a celebrity’s name, etc.
How to Run the Activity:
- Normally, this would be one person acting out the expression and the rest of the group guessing what term they are acting, BUT in this reverse charades, the group acts out the phrase and ONLY one person is the one trying to guess the phrase.
- Start by dividing the students into groups of 5.
- The person guessing will be rotated after each correct answer, and the team gets one point for each correct answer.
- Keep track of how many words or phrases are guessed correctly.
26. Upside-Down Drawing
Purpose: A good problem-solving activity where the students have to draw with the paper turned upside down. An easy and fun activity.
Number of Students: 10 or more is ideal.
Time Needed: 15 minutes.
Materials Needed: Paper and drawing materials.
How to Run the Activity:
- Hand out paper and drawing materials to the college students.
- Give the students 10 minutes to do a drawing, but with the paper upside down (you might need to think beforehand about what you will ask them to draw).
- At the end of the 10 minutes, ask the students to turn the paper the correct way up and to look at their drawing.
- They can also walk around and compare drawings.
27. Emoji Storytelling
Purpose: We cannot escape emojis, and college students tend to have great fun with this emoji storytelling activity.
Time Needed: 15 minutes.
Materials Needed: They’ll need access to a smartphone or GetEmoji.com on the Internet.
How to Run the Activity:
- Explain to the students that they have 5 minutes to write a short story using only emojis.
- The story should describe the happiest day of their life (although you can change the story theme as you wish)
- The students must either draw the emojis on paper or create the story on a digital device.
- After the 5 minutes, they should form small groups and share their emoji story with their group, and see if the group can work out what the story is before the student who wrote it then explains the story.
28. Dramatic Readings
Purpose: This is one of the most fun icebreakers for college students because of the way in which this is a very exaggerated and dramatic activity, as you will see below.
Number of Students: 6 or more.
Time Needed: 20 minutes.
Materials Needed: As the teacher, have a bunch of printed materials that might be considered fairly boring or mundane (such as some instruction manuals, shopping lists, or terms and conditions documents).
How to Run the Activity:
- Put the students into groups of 4 and then hand one printed item to each group.
- Each student will then spend 3 minutes each to read out a section of the text BUt they must do so in as dramatically as they can, to their group.
- Ask them to try to exaggerate emotions, use accents, or, if they wish to act out the text as they read it.
29. Future Headlines
Purpose: This is one of my favourites as it involves creative and imaginative thinking and is focused on future goals and dreams.
Time Needed: 20 minutes
Materials Needed: Paper and pens
How to Run the Activity:
- Ask the students to write an imaginary, fictional newspaper headline about themselves 10 years in the future. The headline will reflect what they believe they can and will accomplish or be about an important event they can imagine doing, attending, or being involved in, in the future.
- After allowing them 10 minutes to think about and to write their headline (and up to 200 words explaining the headline), the students will then share their headlines with the rest of the class (or group if there are a lot of students)
- It can be a good idea to allow 5 to 10 minutes also for the class to discuss future dreams and ambitions at the end of the activity.
Variations:
- Collaborative Headlines: You can choose to allow the students to work in pairs if you wish to create a joint headline.
- Visual Headlines: An option is also to ask the students to create a drawing of their headline.
What Are Talent-Based Icebreakers for College Students?
30. Talent Show
Purpose: A great icebreaker activity for university and college students, particularly during Freshers’Week. This activity gives the new students a chance to show off their talents to everyone and to win over new friends.
Number of Students: 10 or more.
Time Needed: 30 to 60 minutes (depending on class size).
Materials Needed: You might well need a microphone and possibly a music system (or smartphone with a WiFi connection, i.e., for access to apps such as Spotify).
How to Run the Activity:
- This is an icebreaker that you are best off informing the students of beforehand, in case they need to bring any props.
- Each student (or group, if you wish to make this a group exercise so that no one feels under too much pressure) takes turns performing their talent in front of the others.
- Encourage supportive and positive feedback from the audience.
Variations:
- Themed Talent Show: Set a theme for the talent show, such as “comedy” or “artistic performances.”
- Group Acts: Encourage participants to form groups and perform together.
31. Mystery Food Taste Test
Purpose: A fun icebreaker that is something different.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 30 to 60 minutes
Materials Needed: A range of unusual or mystery food items (e.g., exotic fruits, unusual snacks)
How to Run the Activity:
- Check first for anyone with any specific food allergies in case they match the foods you are using for this activity.
- Organize a selection of mystery foods and lay them out on a table, but with the food covered to start with.
- Distribute small samples of each food item, without the students being aware of what the foods are.
- They must write down what they think each food item is.
Variations:
- Themed Foods: Use foods related to a specific theme (e.g., international cuisine).
- Blindfold Challenge: Participants taste the foods while blindfolded for added fun.
32. Whacky World Records
Purpose: If you need icebreakers for college students that are great for team building and/or creativity, this is a good choice.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 30 minutes
Materials Needed: Items that the students can use to set records (i.e., some ping pong balls, balloons, plastic cups, pieces of strong material, etc.)
How to Run the Activity:
- Explain to the students that they will be working in small teams to create their own fun world records using the items you provide, i.e., involving a balloon obstacle course or a ping pong ball challenge that they create.
- So start this activity by putting the students into teams of 6 and then give them 10 minutes to think of a challenge and the rules.
- Then, 20 minutes for the teams to compete in the challenges.
Another example: Most Balloons Batted in the Air as a Team – The teams will compete to see which team is able to keep the most balloons in the air for one minute.
33. Improv Prop Challenge
Purpose: Another activity for using creativity.
Number of Students: 6 or more.
Time Needed: 20 to 30 minutes.
Materials Needed: A bunch of random props (i.e., hats, some kitchen utensils, sports equipment such as balls)
How to Run the Activity:
- Start by dividing the participants into groups of 5.
- Each group should grab 6 or so items from the pile of props and then spend 10 minutes as a group to plan a short improvised skit using their props.
- They then need to perform their skits to the rest of the group.
Variations:
- Theme-Based Props: Use props related to a specific theme or scenario.
- Solo Acts: Participants perform individual improvised scenes with their props.
34. Mystery Box Challenge
Purpose: Another fun energizer for students, this acts as a team-building activity that is always an enjoyable one.
Number of Students: 12 or more.
Time Needed: 30 minutes
Materials Needed: A box filled with a variety of random items such as some everyday office items, some kitchen gadgets, etc. You’ll place the items in a box, i.e., you’ll need to prepare this beforehand.
How to Run the Activity:
- Place the box in the centre of the room.
- The students will take turns to pull an item out of the box without looking.
- Whatever item a student pulls out, they must then come up with an imaginative and interesting use or story for the item they picked out.
- They must explain to the class their ideas with the group (or as a team if you decide to make this a team game).
What Are Problem-Solving Icebreakers for College Students?
35. The Great Debate
Purpose: Problem-solving skills and public speaking skills will both be useful, making it an extremely handy icebreaker and teaching activity for college students.
Number of Students: At least 12 students.
Time Needed: 30 minutes.
Materials Needed: Pre-planned debate topics or questions.
How to Run the Activity:
- Prepare a list of debate topics or questions related to various subjects. You might want to make it something fairly light-hearted, such as something directly to do with college or university, i.e., morning classes vs. night classes: Which is the better option?
- Divide the students into teams
- Assign each team a position on the topic of debate (i.e., for or against an issue).
- Give each team 10 minutes to prepare their argument
- Each group then needs to present its model to the group.
- The teams will then debate the topic in a controlled manner.
Variations:
- Rotating Roles: Have participants switch roles (e.g., from for to against) to explore different perspectives.
- Timed Debates: Use a timer to keep the debates short and focused.
View the Problem-Solving Teaching Materials
36. Alien Invasion
Purpose: This is another fun icebreaker for college students that is also great fun.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 15 to 20 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- Divide the students into small groups, i.e., of 4 or 5 in each group, and assign each group a specific aspect of human life to explain to an imaginary alien. The aspects of life can include food, fitness, work, fashion, and technology.
- Each group needs to spend 5 minutes working together to create a plan and a list of bullet points to explain how they would explain to an alien what their topic is. They have to realize, though, that an alien would not understand anything at all about human life.
- After the 5-minute planning stage, they must then inform the rest of the class of their human topic and then present their explanation to the rest of the class, as they would an alien.
- They can use humor, and they should think creatively.
- At the end, the class can vote for the best presentation, i.e., the one that was most creative and amusing.
Variations:
- Alien Q&A: Have participants role-play as aliens asking questions about human life.
- Reverse Roles: Groups present as aliens explaining their own culture to humans.
37. Alien Interview
Purpose: Another fun alien-related activity that draws out the problem-solving skills and creative thinking from the students.
Number of Students: 6 or more.
Time Needed: 20 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- Split the students into groups of 4 and explain to them that one person will be the alien, and the other 3 must interview them about their life (the alien).
- The person being the alien has to remember to think very creatively because their life and way of seeing the world will be very different.
- The interviewers, on the other hand, have to remember that aliens will not understand our way of thinking, or name for things, or our way of living.
- Allow 5 minutes for each interview.
- Rotate roles so that everyone gets a chance to be both an interviewer and an alien.
Variations:
- Interview Themes: Focus on specific aspects of alien culture.
- Group Interviews: Conduct group interviews where multiple “aliens” answer questions simultaneously.
38. Time Capsule Debate
Purpose: Debating and decision-making skills are needed here to decide on what future university students will get to experience when a time capsule is opened.
Time Needed: 15 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- The students are going to pretend that they are creating a time capsule to be opened by students from the same university or college, in 100 year’s time.
- Put the students together into pairs and ask them to write down 2 pieces of information that they think should be included. They should also include a brief explanation of each item.
- The pairs will then explain to the rest of the class their ideas.
- As the teacher, you might want to list the items on a whiteboard, as some items will inevitably repeat.
- As a class, they will then discuss and debate to come up with the final list of 15 items.
Variations:
- Themed Capsules: Create time capsules based on specific themes (e.g., technology, culture).
39. Extreme Role Reversal
Purpose: Empathy is always a great skill to develop, and this icebreaker gives students the chance to switch roles in exaggerated or unexpected ways.
Number of Students: 6 or more.
Time Needed: 15 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- As the teacher, prepare a list of exaggerated or humorous roles. These could include:
– A reality TV star explaining why they deserve a crown… for doing nothing.
– A sports coach motivating a team of turtles.
– A lost alien trying to understand how to use a vending machine. - Divide the students into pairs and then hand them a scenario or role to perform.
- Students swap roles with their partner or group members halfway through.
What Are Guessing and Deduction Icebreakers for College Classes?
40. Name That Tune
Purpose: This is a classic activity and works great if you are looking for icebreakers for college students, as it’s very simple to run and organise this activity, and everyone seems to enjoy it.
Time Needed: 15 minutes.
Materials Needed: A way to play music to the class and a song playlist that you have pre-prepared.
How to Run the Activity:
- The students will need a pen and paper (or a digital device to make notes on).
- As the teacher, play the first 10 seconds of a song and then ask the students to write down what they think the title of the song is and who the artist is.
- (Students can work in pairs if you wish, as some students might not be into the music you play, so that will at least make it a nice icebreaker, i.e., to chat with a fellow student)
- Play a set number of tunes, i.e., 10 or 20.
- After playing all the songs, play the clips one more time.
- Then give the participants a minute or so to finalise their list, and then replay the list and ask the students to call out who they think the artist was and the song title.
- They award themselves one point for each correct answer.
Variations:
- Genre-Specific: You might wish to focus on a specific genre or decade for the playlist, such as classical, if you have used this icebreaker in Fresher’s Week for music students.
41. Guess the Sound
Purpose: Similar in part to the above ‘Name that Tune’ activity, this uses everyday sounds that we might hear but take for granted, but struggle to recognize when we hear these sounds in isolation.
Time Needed: 15 to 20 minutes.
Materials Needed: Pre-recorded sound clips such as the sounds of animals in the garden, household noises such as a fridge closing, and animal sounds. You can go to a site such as Spotify and use a playlist of everyday sounds.
How to Run the Activity:
- Spend 5 minutes playing a series of sound clips of everyday sounds for the group and ask them to work in pairs (given that this is an icebreaker) and to write down what they think the sounds are.
- In between each sound, give the students a chance to chat for 30 seconds to discuss what they think the sound is.
- At the end of the clips, play the clips again and say what they are of
42. Speed Trivia
Purpose: One of the classic icebreakers for university and college students that involves quick thinking and can be quite inclusive because you can use fun facts based on a wide range of topics.
Number of Students: 12 or more.
Time Needed: 30 minutes.
Materials Needed: A list of trivia questions.
How to Run the Activity:
- Organise a list of trivia questions in preparation for the activity.
- Divide the students into groups of four and ask them to choose a team name.
- The focus now will be on you asking the questions QUICKLY, i.e., they have only 30 seconds to discuss and write down the answer for each question.
- At the end, you might want to provide the winning team with a small surprise reward for winning. Or give a gift to the losing team for sporting behavior.
Variations:
- Theme-Based Trivia: If the students are all from the same course, then you could tailor the questions to match their area of study.
43. Two Truths and a Lie
Purpose: This is a very popular activity for workplace training (hence why it’s included in the virtual team-building activities), and it also works brilliantly as a college student icebreaker.
Number of Students: 10 or more.
Time Needed: 20 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- Each student has to think of two comments that are true about them and one comment that is false, i.e., not true about them. They should write these three comments down.
- One at a time, each student must read out their comments, and the other students must discuss and decide on which comment they consider to be false. If the class is large, then split it into groups of 8.
- The other students then need to try to guess which comment is the lie.
- The student who gave the truths and lies will then reveal the lie and also give some insight into the two truths.
- The important rule with this activity is that the truths and lies have to be somewhat interesting facts, i.e., not too obvious.
If you want more ready-made prompts, see these Two Truths and a Lie examples.
44. Unusual Pairings
Purpose: This is a fun icebreaker activity that the students can do in pairs and have a lot of fun with.
Time Needed: 25 minutes.
Materials Needed: A list of unrelated items or concepts (such as “penguin and smartphone,” “cacti and yoga”, “gardening and space travel”). The wilder the better!
How to Run the Activity:
- Divide the students into 3s or 4s and then allocate them (or ask them to choose) one of the unusual pairings, i.e., “penguin and smartphone”.
- Now explain to them that they need to design and create a product or service that combines the two items, and the item needs to address a specific challenge.
- Give the groups 15 minutes to come up with their idea,
| Chef + Architect Challenge: Design a building inspired by culinary principles. Solution: The Culinary Tower: A skyscraper where each floor represents a cooking station or culinary theme. The foundation is inspired by the layering of a cake: each “layer” of the building serves a specific function (i.e., storage, preparation, serving). The ventilation system copies a chimney used in traditional ovens, ensuring excellent air circulation throughout. A rooftop garden grows fresh produce such as tomatoes and herbs, making it both a sustainable resource and a place where customers see rooftop views and learn about food production. The building is aesthetically very attractive and is shaped with cutlery-shaped columns and spoon-like balconies. This solution is good for sustainability and is interesting architecturally. |
45. Memory Lane
Purpose: A storytelling icebreaker for the students that is great for learning something about each other.
Time Needed: 15 to 25 minutes.
How to Run the Activity:
- Ask the students to think of a memorable or significant event in their lives.
- One at a time, they will then explain and talk about their memorable moment.
- As the teacher, emphasise the need for everyone to use active listening skills, i.e., they should really listen carefully to what is being said and take in the experiences.
- While this is perhaps not the most dynamic of the icebreakers for college students that we have listed, it is often one of the most powerful because of the sharing of important experiences.
46. Random Karaoke
Purpose: This is a good option depending on the type of college students the icebreaker is for (for performing arts college and university students, this can work well, for example).
Number of Students: 10 or more.
Time Needed: 30 minutes.
Materials Needed:
- Karaoke machine or music player with karaoke tracks
- The students will take turns singing random karaoke songs chosen by the group or drawn from a hat, so they will perform the song title they picked out, regardless of familiarity or skill level (which is what makes this more fun than a normal version of karaoke).
- Ask the students to fully support each other.
47. Animal Kingdom
Purpose: If you are looking for university student icebreakers for Freshers Week, this is a great option because it’s a bit silly but fun and ideal for the first week of university (or college).
Time Needed: No limit.
Materials Needed: Cards or slips of paper with a type of animal listed on each piece (i.e., giraffe, kangaroo, pelican, elephant).
How to Run the Activity:
- Each student will pick out one of the pieces of paper or cards from a box to select their animal.
- They will need to act out the animal they choose, but with a scenario for the animal (the other students can choose the scenario).
- So instead of a kangaroo, it will be a kangaroo trying to jump up a mountain.
48. Future Headlines
Purpose: This college icebreaker game brings creative thinking and humor together in a fun way.
Number of Students: 8 or more.
Time Needed: 20 minutes.
Materials Needed: Paper and pens.
How to Run the Activity:
- Start by asking the students to imagine a headline about a significant or humorous achievement they might have in the future.
- They will spend 10 minutes thinking of the headline and writing down or drawing their future headline on a piece of paper.
- I like to get the students to do this in pairs so that they can bounce ideas around between them, and in the true spirit of this being an icebreaker, it’ll mean more of a chance to chat and meet a fellow student.
- At the end of the 10 minutes, each student will share their future headline with the rest of the class, taking a minute or two also to explain the reasoning behind their headline.
49. Human Bingo with a Twist
Purpose: A brilliant college student’s Freshers activity for giving the students a chance to mix and get to know each other.
Number of Students: 12 or more, and the larger the group, the better.
Time Needed: 15 to 20 minutes.
Materials Needed: Beforehand, as the teacher, create bingo cards (I suggest a 5 x 5 card, but 4 x 4 if the class will be small) where each square contains a unique, funny, or unusual description. Examples include:
- “Knows how to juggle.”
- “Can say ‘hello’ in five languages.”
- “Has eaten something they regret.”
- “Can make a convincing animal noise.”
- “Has a funny party trick.”
It is important, though, that each option is unique but also something they might realistically have done.
How to Run the Activity:
- Hand a bingo card to each student
- Now ask the students to walk around the room and to ask each other if they fit any of the descriptions on their card. If they find someone who matches an item on their bingo card, they should ask the person matching to sign that square on their bingo card.
- The first person to complete a straight line, column, or diagonal on their card yells “Bingo!” and wins a small prize. Then there will be a prize for the person who completes the full card.
50. Reverse Q&A
Purpose: The final one of the best college students’ icebreaker activities is always a great option for getting the students to mix and laugh.
Number of Students: Good for any-sized class.
Time Needed: 30 minutes.
Materials Needed: Slips of paper or sticky notes.
How to Run the Activity:
- Ask the students to write a fun or unusual question on the piece of paper you hand them.
- Examples can be things such as “What’s your go-to karaoke song?” or “If you could swap lives with a famous person in the world for one day, who would it be?”
- After a few minutes, collect all the questions, shuffle them, and then redistribute the questions.
- Each student will then read their question and answer the question as if it were their own.
- Encourage creativity and honesty in responses.
- If you wish to, as the teacher, you can put the students into small groups (or into Breakout rooms if doing this online), and they answer within their group, allowing more time for them to expand on their answers.
- If time allows, have students guess who originally wrote the question before the answer is revealed.
You may also find our free training activities eBook useful for planning sessions.
If you regularly facilitate longer workshops or training sessions, you may also find our ready-to-use training materials helpful for structuring these activities into complete, professionally designed learning programs.
