A Game To Play With Your Staff

As a play advocate I am a big fan of adults playing as well.  This is the reason behind my constant quest for a good "ice breaker."  I like to start our opening staff orientation with a fun group activity that let's us get to know each other more and most importantly makes us laugh!

Last year we played Co-Worker Bingo.  I was tempted to do this again as we had some new additions to our staff and that is a great way to get people up and moving and getting to know everyone in the group.

I didn't want to repeat it the very next year, so this year I came up with our own version of Mad Libs the game where you fill out missing parts of speech without knowing the text of the story you are "writing."  I wrote a very short story about arriving at our staff meeting leaving out many blanks.  I then created a template for the parts of speech on a separate paper.

CCNS Staff Ice Breaker 2012-3

I ______out of my ____ bed this morning and shouted, "______________!"  

Summer had once again _______________by and it was time to get CCNS ready for the new year. 

This filled me with ________________.

I quickly threw on my ________  _________ and my _________ ________ and had a quick breakfast of __________.

I put my _________ in a to-go cup and headed to my trusty __________ to get to work.  

I _________  __________ up the long driveway to the little red school house 

and exclaimed, "________________________" to my coworkers.

It was ________ to see them after a _______summer apart. 

I found a comfortable spot on a _______  ________ and got ready 

for our _________ staff orientation.  This was going to be _________!

"______________________________________!" I shouted.  

We're starting with a _____________ ice breaker!

During the beginning part of the meeting when people had time to fill out forms and order lunch and gather materials, they filled in the list of words.  They guessed right away it was a MadLibs activity and so several got quite creative with their word choices.  I collected the filled in sheets, mixed them up and then handed out the words with a copy of the story to each person.

We filled it in and then took turns reading the story, trying to guess who it was "about" and YES!  laughing.


Ice broken, our newest staff members felt at ease and part of the group and we were able to get down to the business of our day.  Give it a try at your next meeting.

I would really love to hear about the    _______(adj.) ___ ice breakers and _____(adj.)____activities you use with your ______(adj.)_______ staff or to start off workshops.

Have a fantastic, productive and playful school year!