At the beginning of the year, there’s usually an icebreaker that I love to use. Many of the teachers that I teach with in middle school typically use the same one, and it’s Find Someone Who.

I’ve use multiple versions of this. I’ve used it as a get to know one another activity for those students who have not known one another. Especially when I worked at a middle school where 6th graders came to us from several schools. I also used it when we combined our middle school with that of another. It’s a great way to have students talk to one another and find out things about each other.

I’ve also used it as a review when teaching my procedures. At the beginning of the year it is so important to teach procedures and classroom/school rules. Using this is a way to have a review and have some fun doing so. Instead of random activities, I change up my document to include things like, “Knows procedure for sharpening pencil,” “Knows the procedure for going to lunch,” and “Knows the procedure for Independent Reading.”

To complete the activity, students are given a handout and a time limit. During the time allowed, they go around the room and try to get their card completely filled. A block is filled when a person signs their name in a block for something that corresponds to them. In an icebreaker, I will even participate and sign a block, especially for students who are apprehensive about approaching others. Generally, when a student sees me sign a block, they will gather around giving the shy student an opportunity to pass their paper to someone else while they wait for me to sign. I’m kind of sneaky that way.

If you’d like a copy of my word document, just go to my Resources page and download it. Feel free to use as is, or update it. I think Fortnite is not as popular now as TikTok, so it could use some updating.

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