Materials
Deck of normal playing cards. Additional decks can be added for larger groups.

Icebreaker Activity
Ask students to pick cards from the deck that represent something about themselves. These repesentations can be as shallow or deep as the students’ imaginations. Have youth mingle and share with one another their names and the cards they have chosen and why. One might choose a two because they have “2 parents” or “two feet” etc. Another student might choose an ace because they strive to “be an ‘ace’ at everything they do… The opportunities are limitless.

Variation
Force specific combinations of youth by telling them to group themselves in groups in which the face value their cards add up to a count of “20.” Choose another sum to rearrange the youth. (Count facecards as 10 or as the corresponding numerical value up to 13) You may also designate groups of 5 and specific poker hands to form…. (e.g. flush, straight, 2 pair-with one extra person to make 5 cards, 3 of a kind, four of a kind, etc.)

Variation
Get the youth to randomly split into two teams and play “go fish” using the remaining cards. The largest team at the end wins. You can also play your favorite game of cards with a little creativity.

Variation
Before the activity, write a question on each card to be shared when the youth are mixing together. (e.g. what is your favorite icecream, most embarassing moment, favorite musicial, favorite scripture, etc.)

Variation
Use the mixer as a game of elimination. When you call out specific groupings of cards, if groups do not meet the specified criteria or are the last group to form meeting the criteria, they are eliminated from the game. Last remaining group is the winner.

Variation
Remove 10s and all facecards. Have students choose a partner who card added to theirs will result in a sum of 10… the combinations are numerous (1-9, 2-8, 3-7, 4-6, 5-5)

Variation
Ask the youth to split into two teams and build the highest house of cards.

Variation
Play a variation of “stratego” between two teams. Remove cards from the deck so that there is 1-ace, 2-two, 3 three’s, etc. Designate jokers as bombs. Leave only one king. The king can be captured by any card. Use the jack with the sword to his head as the spy. Play the game just as you would “stratego”, but have teams send representatives to a person on the opposing team to do battle. Do not reveal the card numbers to teams, but merely who is the victor of the battle. Those who lose battle cannot reveal the victors total to their teams and are removed to a graveyard area. First team to kill the king wins.

Icebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.

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