Written by Kevin Chao, WyldLife Coordinator for Metro North Region and Area Director, Greenwich, CT
Icebreakers! Discussion Launchers! Discussion Grenades! Getting everyone involved with a question or activity that is non-threatening and fun is an important part of any WyldLife Campaigners.
Ideally, I try to make my “discussion grenades” relatable to the lesson. I’m all for funny questions, but it’s an even bigger win if the icebreaker is applicable to the Campaigners discussion.
For example, if it’s on Mark 6:30-44 and Jesus feeding the 5,000, I may start our time with the question: What food are you craving the most if you are starving? What are you like when you are starving?
Or I would do an activity – break up into groups and each group must figure out how they would feed everyone in their school with a Lunchable. Then we’d share our ideas with the larger group.
Each of these questions or activities relates to the account in Mark. The disciples were hungry and were given a task, so I want kids to begin to think about what it could have been like for them. That’ll help make the scripture come to life more easily during our discussion.
Make your discussion launchers easy for anyone to answer. We want kids to feel comfortable sharing later in the discussion about Scripture, so it’s important to give them something easy to answer or do at the beginning.
Quick and Easy Icebreaker Questions
- Which animal would you be?
- Which animal do you think the person to your right would be?
- Who’s a role model you have and why?
- What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever slept?
- How far in the world have you been from this spot right here?
- If you had to be missing one body part…nothing inappropriate…which would you give up and why?
- If you could only have one of your senses, which would it be and why?
- What’s the weirdest or grossest thing you’ve ever eaten?
- What’s been the best tasting food you’ve ever eaten in your life?
- Describe a quality of you when you were little that is no longer true of you now.
- How do you want to be when you get older? (Not what and who… how?)
- What’s the longest you’d be willing to go without showering?
- You can travel to one place in the entire world…where do you go?
- If you could time travel, would you go forward or backward? And why?
- Who’s been the biggest influence in your life?
- Who’s a famous person you look up to?
- What do you think is going to be the best thing of being an older person?
- What do you think is the best part of being a baby?
- What are you looking forward to tomorrow?
- What are you dreading about tomorrow?
Here are 100 more Campaigners questions.
