Ask Any Question..

A warmer to discover something you didn't know about your classmates.

Think of a question to ask somebody you've never met before.  The idea is that the answer to this one question will give you a lot of information about the person.  So it's not things like: 'Where are you from?' or 'What's your favourite colour?'

Some examples include:
- What period of time would you most like to visit?
- What's the greatest invention ever?
- What person from history would you like to sit beside on a long-distance flight?

You get the idea.  It's a good way for a class who have been together for a while to find out something new about each other.  Probably not advisable for a new class, as they may feel a bit uncomfortable about asking/answering questions like these honestly, but great for a class you've had for a while and who know each other a little bit.

Rocket Game

There are a few variations of this game.

In this example, the world is about to end, and a rocket is taking off to begin civilisation again on a new planet.  Places are limited, so only the best and brightest can get a ticket to a new life.  Students (6-8 is a good number for this exercise) get cards giving their occupations.  Don't make it too obvious, as something like 'doctor' is always going to get through.  Try occupations like: 'police officer', 'carpenter', 'lawyer', 'scientist'.  Students have to argue their case, followed by a secret vote to decide who gets onto the ship.  Each student gets to vote for 2 people, excluding themselves.

If you want to add an extra dimension, you could give students a separate paper with some negative character trait 'jealousy', 'rage', 'fear of outdoors' for students to guess, which may influence the final vote.

Battleships

Give students a blank grid of squares - maybe 8 x 8, with the horizontal and vertical axes marked with numbers and letters.  Tell them they must write five adjectives (or irregular verbs, nouns, or whatever else you're teaching) somewhere on the grid without showing their partner.

Now, as per the traditional game, students aim 'torpedoes' at their opponent in the slightly less dramatic fashion of calling out grid numbers (B4, C8 and so on) in the attempt to hit one of the words.  Winner is the one who finds all of his/her opponents words.