The following 'icebreakers' are all short, fun activities to use for energising the group. They are useful when you first start working with a new group to develop a good group feeling and at the beginning of a session to get people warmed up.

The activities have been divided into two sections. The first is a collection of activities which are for warming up and developing a good atmosphere within the group and the second section contains others, which as well as warming people up, will help them to get to know each other and to start working with some of the issues of the campaign.

It must be stressed that they are all intended to be light hearted and fun in order to get people working together before moving on to other activities in the pack. They are only suggestions. If you know others and wish to use them please do so.

If you are starting to use the pack with a new group we suggest that after one or two icebreakers you try one of the activities which help build the group and work with images for example, 'Dreams' (page 74), 'Odd one out' (page 133), 'Me too' (page 122), 'Seeking similarities and discovering diversity' (page 156) or 'One equals one' (page 135).

If the group like playing games, then they might like to work in small groups to invent their own games. Look at 'Sport for all' in Compass. This is a good activity to help people to get to know each other and to learn to work together. They will be active and should have a lot of fun in the process.

Section 1.

The aims of the following activities are to:

• Encourage interaction

• Get the group warmed up

• Develop communication skills

• Encourage people to work co-operatively

• Be fun

When the group is warmed up go on to one of the other icebreakers or on to one of the activities listed above.

Preparation

• Chairs one less than the number of participants

Time:5-10 minutes

Group size: 20 -30

Instructions

1. Arrange the chairs in a circle.

2. Ask the participants to sit on the chairs and the person without one to stand in the middle.

3. Tell the person in the middle to say something like: "I bring a letter for those who ... wear glasses (... have taken a shower that morning ... who wear trousers ... for those wearing a watch, or whatever according to their imagination).

4. All those wearing glasses must change chairs, while the person in the middle uses this opportunity to get a chair for himself/herself to sit on.

5. Tell whoever is left in the middle to bring the next letter.

6. Stop the game after 5 or 10 minutes or when everyone has had a turn to call and everybody has had to change place.

Time:10-15 minutes.

Group size: 5 - 15

You need an odd number of players for this game

Preparation

• Chairs, the same number as half the number of players plus one.

Instructions

1. Arrange the chairs in a circle.

2. Divide the participants into two groups. One should have one person more than the other.

3. Ask the people in the smaller group to sit on the chairs (one of the chairs will be left empty).

4. Tell the people in the second group to stand behind each of the chairs (the empty chair will also have somebody standing behind it).

5. Now explain that the person sitting behind the empty chair has to try to "call" one of the people sitting on a chair by winking at them. The person to whom the call is addressed must try to move to the empty chair without being touched by the person who is standing behind them. If they are touched, then they must come back to their chair and the caller has to try to call someone else.

6. If they do manage to leave, then the person standing behind the now empty chair becomes the next caller.

7. Explain one more rule: the person to whom the call is addressed can't ignore it, they have to try to move.

Tips for the facilitator

This activity is very funny if played quickly.

Time:Approx. 15 minutes.

Group size: 10 -20

You need an even number of players

Preparation

• An empty space

• The same number of chairs as participants plus two

Instructions

1. Divide the players into two equal groups.

2. Arrange the chairs in two lines facing each other, one or two meters apart. Each line must have as many chairs as participants in the team, plus one extra. The lines should both be the same length.

3. Fix a point in the room to be the finishing line equal-distance from the two lines of chairs.

4. Ask each team to choose a line and tell the members to each stand on a chair. The last chair, that furthest from the finishing line, must stay empty.

5. Explain how to play: the person standing nearest to the empty chair must pick it up and pass it to the next person in their team who passes it to the next, and so on down the line. The chairs must be passed from hand to hand. When the chair reaches the last member of the team they put it on the floor, stand on it and all the other members of the team move forward one chair. Then start moving the next chair down the line and repeat until the race is won by the first team to reach the finishing line with an empty chair.

6. Give a signal to start the game.

Tips for the facilitator

Players must stay on the chairs at all times. If someone falls off, they are out of the game and their team will have to pass two empty chairs.

Time:10 or 15 minutes

Group size: 10 - 20

Preparation

• An empty space

• A watch or timer

Instructions

1. Ask for a volunteer to leave the room.

2. Tell the rest of the group to stand in a circle.

3. Decide who is going to be the leader. Tell them to start an action (scratching their tummy, waving a hand, moving their head, simulating playing a musical instrument...) and tell everybody else to copy.

4. Tell the leader to change the action frequently and again everybody else must follow.

5. Call back the volunteer who left the room and invite them to stand in the middle of the circle and ask them to guess who the leader is. They can have three minutes and up to three guesses. If they do not manage they must pay a forfeit i.e. to do something funny.

6. If the person guesses correctly, the person who was leader leaves the room and the group chooses a new leader. And so on until the end of the game.

Tips for the facilitator

Since time is one pressure factor in this activity, it is important that you use it to speed up the dynamic of the game by saying things like "One minute has already gone and our friend looks confused", "will they manage to guess?", etc.

Group size: 10+

Time: 5 -10 minutes

Preparation

• Chairs, one per person

Instructions

1. Ask everyone to sit in a circle.

2. Explain that the rule of this game is that 4 people should be standing at any one instant and that no player may stand for more than 10 seconds, though they may stand for less if they wish.

3. There should be no attempts to communicate between players, but everyone in the group has to watch what is happening and share the responsibility to make sure that 4 people, no more, no less, are standing at any one time.

Tips for the facilitator

It will take a few minutes for people to get the hang of this game but once they do they will get a good rhythm going of people standing up and sitting down and all working together. It is very exciting and gives a good feeling to the group.

You may like to ask players to say how they knew when to stand up?

Section 2

The aims of these icebreakers is to:

• Get the group warmed up

• Help people to get to know each other

• Encourage people to work co-operatively

• Introduce some of the ideas about the campaign

• Encourage interaction

• Be fun

Time:20 minutes

Group size: 8+

Preparation

• Make copies of the question sheet below, one per person

• Pencils - one per person

Instructions

Explain that the aim is for each person to talk to as many different people as possible, to find out something different about each one and to write a different­ name in each box.

Human Bingo

Find someone in the group to ask 'are you someone who...? '

Try to get a different name in each box:

• has recently painted or decorated their home

• likes cooking

• has travelled to another European country

• lives together with other members of their family

• reads a newspaper regularly

• makes their own clothes

• likes football

• keeps animals

• can play a musical instrument

• has parents or grandparents who were born in another country

• can speak any Esperanto

• has travelled outside Europe

Tips for the facilitator

If you want to have a brief discussion about what people found out start by asking if people enjoyed playing. Then talk about the diversity of skills and interests in the group, and what cultural influences they can detect in the way people replied E.g. Do equal numbers of men and women cook and make clothes? But don't make it too heavy - go on to another activity which will enable people to look at the similarities and differences e.g. 'One equals one' (page 135)

Time:15 minutes

Group size: 10+

Preparation

• Make copies of the sheet, cut round the boxes and put the slips of paper in a hat.

• You will need one 'greeting' per person.

Instructions

Ask participants each to take one slip of paper then mingle in the middle of the room and greet each other by saying their own name and using the action described on the paper.

• Greet the other person by embracing and kissing them three times on alternate cheeks

• Greet the other person by embracing and kissing them twice on alternate cheeks

• Greet the other person by embracing them and kissing them four times on alternate cheeks

• Greet the other person by placing your hands together in prayer position and bow forward

• Greet the other person by rubbing noses

• Greet the other person very warmly with a big hug.

• Greet the other person with a very strong, firm handshake

• As you greet the other person keep a distance of about 2 foot between you and shake hands, but only with a very light grip.

Tips for the facilitator

This is meant to be a light-hearted icebreaker to use with a group of people who don't know each other. We stress most strongly that it is not intended to reinforce stereotyping. A short discussion about people's reactions should counter any tendency to stereotype and could be a useful step into the next activity. You could ask:

• Can you guess where the different greetings come from?

• To what extent are they stereotypes? E.g. do all German's have a strong hand grip?

• Which greetings did you feel comfortable/uncomfortable with and why?

• Have you ever been in the embarrassing situation when in another country, someone greeted you warmly with three kisses and you fumbled and stepped back after two because you didn't know the correct social code?

Then move on to an activity which explores stereotypes such as 'First impressions' (page 83)

Note: Players will ask where the different customs come from. Ask them to guess, otherwise suggested answers are:

• As you greet the other person keep a distance of about 2 foot between you and shake hands, but only with a very light grip.(England)

• Greet the other person by embracing them and kissing them three times on alternate cheeks.(Netherlands/Belgium)

• Greet the other person by embracing them and kissing them twice on alternate cheeks. (Portugal/Spain)

• Greet the other person by embracing them and kissing them four times on alternate cheeks. (Parisians)

• Greet the other person by placing your hands together in prayer position and bow forward. (Japan)

• Greet the other person by rubbing noses. (Inuit)

• Greet the other person very warmly with a big hug. (Russia/Palestine)

• Greet the other person with a very strong, firm handshake. (Germany)

From the Co-operative Studies Manual, Co-operative Union Education Department, Stanford Hall, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE-125QR, UK