One of the biggest challenges facing teachers as they head back to school in the ‘new normal’ of remote learning environments is trying to get to know their new students.
These digital icebreakers–websites, apps, and online resources (in alphabetical order)–offer various fun activities for bringing together teachers and their new students.
30hands – A wonderful site/app that’s easy for students to use to create a digital story describing themselves or what they did over the summer.
BoomWriter – A teacher can put students into groups and have each one write a page of a story and then share with the class using BoomWriter’s innovative writing/voting process.
How Do You Play – A nice site that has a section dedicated to explaining simple games and fun icebreaker activities.
Icebreakers.ws – Offers more than 100 ice breakers, team building exercises, and group games, plus family friendly activities, worksheets, and more.
Read Write Think – A popular, easy-to-use site for creating timelines that students can make describing events and what they did over the summer.
Storyboard That – Storyboard That has lots of resources for teachers to use as digital icebreakers such as KWL charts, conversation cubes, games, and more.
Super Teacher Worksheets – A vast collection of worksheets and other printables for back to school, including scavenger hunts, ‘All about me,’ puzzles, and other fun activities.
Voki – A fun site at which students can create animated and speaking avatars introducing themselves to their classmates.
Wordle – A popular site that students can use to generate word clouds describing themselves.
For more ideas and suggestions, check out Shelly Terrell’s 7 Digital Ice Breakers, which includes Show and Tell, Vision Boards, and more, using resources such as Buncee and Nearpod.
David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K-12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@gmail.com and read his blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com.
