Categories
The perfect ice-breaker – ideal for mixing people in a fun and non-threatening manner
At A Glance
Your group splits into a variety of smaller groupings, according to a series of categories you announce.
What You Need
- 10 – 20 mins
What To Do
Ask your group to separate according to the categories or groupings you are about to announce. For example, if the category is “Colour of your pants,” everyone wearing blue jeans will group together. Sometimes, individuals may find themselves alone, but in most cases, small groupings of commonality will develop. Upon identifying each of the groups, announce the next split. You can keep splitting folks for as long as they are having fun, or you run out of ideas.
For mixing purposes, alternate between two-group splits and multi-group splits. The idea is to invite your group to meet as many new people as possible. To this end, if you have the time and the inclination, as soon as the groups have formed, give the participants a few moments to say hello to one another, or perhaps share something of relevance to the category, e.g., “What was so cool about being the oldest / youngest / in-between child in your family?”
Here are just a few sample and fun group categories. There are simply hundreds of them out there, so please, don’t hesitate to make up your own, or tempt them from your group.
Simple half-half splits:
- Arm that ends up crossed over the top of the other, when folded on your chest.
- Leg you put into your pants, shorts, underwear, etc. first when dressing.
- Preference for cooking or cleaning up.
- Preference for washing or drying dishes.
- Position of your thumbs, that is left or right on top, when you clasp your hands together so that your fingers interlock.
- Last digit of your home telephone number. All the odd numbers – 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9 – get together, and the even numbers do the same.
- When presented with a ‘good news / bad news story,’ which do you prefer to hear first?
- Preference for the way toilet paper spills off the roll – like a waterfall, over the top and forward, or against the back towards the wall.
- Number of street you live at – odds and evens.
Simple multi-group splits:
- Month / zodiac sign in which you were born.
- Number of continents you have visited.
- Number of siblings in your family, including yourself.
- Colour of your eyes, hair, socks, etc.
- Type of shoes you are wearing (not necessarily their brand).
- Which shoulder(s) you hold a carry-bag – right, left or both shoulders.
- How often you shave each week?
- Distance you have travelled to get here (use clumps of distances, such as 0-5 km, 5-10 km, etc.
- Number of items you recycle at home, e.g., plastic, glass, tin, paper, etc.
Variation
Use to divide a large group into roughly random and even teams. If you are looking for an even split, and just don’t seem to find a category that fits, simply use the old scientific method of indiscriminately moving a few people (“Hey, you and you, move over here.”) to even out the groupings.
Taken from ‘Count Me In: Large Group Activities That Work’
If you know of a cool variation to this exercise, please add a comment…
Comments
One Comment on Categories
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Clumps | Ice-breakers, Group Games & Team-Building Activities on Tue, 16th Feb 2010 3:33 pm
[...] Form a group according to a simple, easily-accessible category, such as dark-coloured tops, brand of running shoes, gender, colour of eyes, etc. Similar to Categories. [...]
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