I ran a programming camp for middle school students this summer. We played a couple of different ice breakers with them.
- Everyone sits in a circle. The first person says their name with an adjective that starts with the same letter. The second person reintroduces the first person and then says his/her name with a different adjective, and so on.
For example:
Person 1: "Hi, my name is Nice Nandeeka."
Everyone: "Hi Nice Nandeeka."
Person 2: "Hi, my name is Amazing Alisha, and this is Nice Nandeeka."
Everyone: "Hi Amazing Alisha."
Person 3: "Hi, my name is Silly Sarah, and this is Amazing Alisha and Nice Nandeeka."
Everyone: "Hi Silly Sarah."
...and so on.
- Everyone stands in a circle with their places marked (with chairs, shoes, water bottles, etc) except one person who stands in the center. They introduce themselves and say something they enjoy. Everyone else who also enjoys that thing has to move to a new spot. Since there is one less spot than person, someone else is in the middle and the process repeats.
For example:
Person 1: "Hi, my name is Nandeeka and I like programming."
Everyone who also enjoys programming switches places and Sarah ends up in the middle.
Person 2: "Hi, my name is Sarah and I like to do math."
Everyone who also enjoys math moves to a different place and someone else ends up in the middle.
... and so on.
We also played games like Human Knot, Pictionary, Hangman, Charades, and Telephone as team building activities. Please let me know if you have any other questions.