Ice-Breakers for Medium Groups (5-10 people)

Ice breakers are designed to create a welcoming, open atmosphere. It is an important asset of successful youth groups that they are able to make their members feel at ease, relaxed and comfortable with their peers. Ice breakers can really help to generate that response, as well as often helping people get to know each other.

A group of five to ten people can sometimes be harder to deal with than a larger group. It is more likely that someone new will feel somewhat ostracised if the group is already close-knit; it can also be hard to play active games with a small or a medium-sized group as the difference in sporting ability and athleticism is likely to be more pronounced. However, it is not a lost cause by any means! This article explores just a few of the ice breakers likely to work well with medium-sized groups.

Giants, Wizards, Elves

This is one of the most popular ice breakers in existence. A large-scale version of the popular playground game “Rock, Paper, Scissors”, it never fails to create hilarity and enjoyment for people of any age.

First you should split the group into two teams of equal size. Then, explain the different actions for each character. Giants stand on their tip-toes and growl menacingly; Wizards crouch slightly, wave their fingers, and shout a magical word; Elves crouch down to the ground, cover their ears, and make high-pitched screeches.

If people wish to practice these actions for a while, let them – it will certainly feel like the room is warming up!

Each team should separate into different parts of the room, to confer between themselves as to what character they will play. When they have decided, they should line up opposite each other, about five feet apart, and then the leader should shout, “Three, two, one, GO!” At this point, each team acts out the character they have chosen.

The team which wins should attempt to tag or grab as many of the losing team as possible; these players then join the winning side for the next round. The end of the game happens when there is no one left on the losing side.

Giants beat Elves, Elves beat Wizards, and Wizards beat Giants.

You can make up your own reasons for why this should be!

This is a fantastic game to play and a real favourite with many youth groups as it involves no preparation or equipment. It also allows everyone to let their hair down without any risk or undue embarrassment!

Telephone Charades

This is another hilarious ice breaker which can either be played as one group in front of an audience, or as a team game. It operates very much like Chinese Whispers, except that it is played with charades rather than with the voice. Beforehand the youth group leader should prepare some funny actions to be acted out.

The groups should stand in a line, and the first person in the line should act out the situation to the second person. This proceeds on down the line, until the final person has to guess what is being acted out.

The result is usually humorous because the performance of the situation will vary significantly based on each person’s interpretation – so at the end, it might bear very little resemblance to the first act!

If playing this ice breaker as a team game, the winners will be the people who get closest to the original answer – so leaders may have to step in to judge on marginal decisions.

Shared and Unique

This is a much calmer ice breaker, designed for medium sized groups who are yet to get to know each other very well. It is an activity where people can get to know each other in a low-pressure way. Split the group up into smaller groups of four or five people.

Then each group should brainstorm traits and qualities that the entire group share. This really emphasises a sense of unity and a common bond between kids who may not naturally identify with each other.

The second half of the activity builds on this bond and asks the children to reveal more personal information about themselves – things that they regard as unique to them, rather than to the group as a whole.

Of course, there are many other ice breakers that are great for medium-sized groups to play.

The three mentioned here are, however, some of the best. We hope you enjoy playing these games with the young people at your youth group.