In most trainings, participants don’t know each other. We use ice breakers in trainings to get to know a little about each other and to help participants start to communicate and participate in what activities we will be having during the training. It’s never easy for the trainer when no one else is involved in what is going on.

There are many different ice breakers you can use for this purpose. Make it fun! Change the ice breakers up each training and make it fun for you, the trainer, as well. It is good to have questions that will require a little bit of thinking on the part of the participants. Three suggestions are listed:

1. Two Truths and a Lie: Have each participant tell three things about themselves (with two being the truth and one being a lie). The other participants will then determine which is the lie. This would not be a good suggestion for a large crowd as it would take up a lot of time.

2. Five of Anything: In small groups, participants are asked to share five favorite things on the topic the trainer gives them. For instance, table 1 would have “movies”, they would share their five favorite movies. You could even offer a gold star for naming five things related to the content/topic. Topics are endless and this would be good for a large group.

3. The Deserted Island: The trainer asks what three things would you take with you to a deserted island. Each participant will then answer and give the reasoning behind it.

Whatever ice breaker you use, keep it light hearted and fun. This is a kick off to a great training, you want to start things off right!