Getting to know each other and ice breakers

The name and gesture: each person says the name, the country from where is coming and make a gesture. The other participants hafve to reepeat 3 times the name and gesture.

The ties: on a paper tie, the participants had to write 2 truths about them and 1 lie. After they hang the ties and go to interact with the others, guessing which is the lie and which are the truths

Speed dating: the participants are divided in 2 equal parts, standing in 2 circles, face to face. Each participant from the exterior circle has a correspondent partner in the interior circle. The moderator instructs the participants that they have 2 minutes to discuss (name, country, what do they do for living etc). When the moderator says “change!) the participants from the exterior circle make a step thus each participant has a new correspondent partner in the interior circle. The process repeats until each participant from the exterior circle had the opportunity to chat with each participant from the interior circle.

Expectations tree: the participants had to write on post its their expectations, fear and contributions. After, the trainer/ facilitator reads them and discuss them with the participants.

The country rules: divided in smaller mixed teams, the participants discussed about the rules everybody has to follow in order to have successful project

Secret friend: Every participant picks a note with a name of another participant who becomes his secret friend. During the entire project, everybody has to take care of his friend and to stay secret. In the last day, each participant has to guess, being blinded, by touching, who was his secret friend and to thank him for taking care of him.

The Facebook page: starting from the socializing network, each participant had write on a paper information about himself like birthday, studies, hobbies, favourite things etc. The papers with these information were posted on the walls of the activities room so anyone could read them any time and leave comments each others.

Energizers

Hey yo, my name is Jo: the leader sings a song and make a gesture and the participants have to repeat

“Hey Yo, my name is Joe

And I work in an iron factory!

One day, my boss came to me:

– Hey Joe, are you busy?

I said : <NO>

And she said: give me a hand!”

The participants have to shake the hand. The song repeats for the other hand, legs, hips and tongue.

“7 up”:

In circle, the participants he to count from 1 to 7. When they say the number they have to indicate right or left, direction for counting. When arrives at 7, the participant has to say “7 up” and has to indicate the direction for restarting the counting. Everyone who mistakes, is eliminated.

Eu am o casa mica : The facilitator say a poem in Romanian and make some gestures and the participants repeat the lyrics and the gestures.

Eu am o casă mică

Așa și-așa (it is shown how is the house)

Și fumul se ridică

Așa și-așa (it is shown how is going up the smoke)

Și-mi lustruiesc pantofii

Așa și-așa (it is shown how are clean the shoes)

Și bat la ușa casei

Așa și-așa (it is shown how to knock to the door).

Fruit Salad

The participants are requested to form a circle with their chairs, except one person who has no chair and must stand up. The participants are divided in 4-5 (depends on the size of the group) groups, each group being named after a fruit (lemon, orange, banana etc). When the facilitator calls a fruit (or more), all the participants from the respective group(s) has to change the sit, including the person standing. One person will run out of chair. When the facilitator call “fruit salad”, all the participants have to change the seats.

Follow the leader

The participants are requested to form a circle.  One volunteer is asked to leave the room. The participants choose one group member to be the leader. Whatever movement/ gesture the leader does, the rest of the participants have to follow. The person who was asked to leave the room, has to guess who the leader is.

Working in small teams

Small group work (also known as cooperative or collaborative learning) involves a high degree of interaction. The effectiveness of learning groups is determined by the extent to which the interaction enables members to clarify their own understanding, build upon each other’s contributions, sift out meanings, ask and answer questions.

Flashmob

A Flash Mob is a very short duration gathering of people, in a public space, the participants performing an unusual action for a short period of time (usually a few seconds / minutes), after that, the group spreads as if nothing had happened.

The flashmob is a “presentation” for accidental viewers, in order to arouse feelings of misunderstanding, interest. The flashmob is a mass action, a way of self-expressing and transmitting a message to the society, a message that may not otherwise have reached the target group and / or the general public.

A flashmob is not:

– an action aimed at promoting a commercial product or involving the production of profit following the action

– an event in which participants are paid to do the action