Back to School: Hello, Hello Icebreaker and Song

Getting to know each other, or getting reacquainted, is a big part of going back to school. This simple icebreaker activity and song will smash that ice and warm up the classroom in no time! No diva singing expertise necessary!

Feeling comfortable in the classroom

There are such a variety of personalities in any classroom and it can be a challenge to find an activity that the most gregarious and the shyest of kids can enjoy. This Hello, Hello Icebreaker is an easy way for kids to share something about themselves with the group.

It is not personalised, but has been created so that hopefully every child can find one or two things they can do to share with the class. You can download this Hello, Hello Icebreaker here.

What I can do!

Firstly the kids look through the pictures on the Icebreaker printable, decide which ones they can do and colour them in. They might choose only a few things or they might decide they can do everything! Hopefully they’ll take time to chat with the kids around them while they’re doing this.

Then, as a group, ask the children what they can do. They might like to add other special abilities such as break dancing, jumping like a frog or going cross-eyed. For the song they’ll each need to choose two activities (that have one or two syllables) or one activity (with more than three syllables) to fit into the ‘I can….’ line of the song. For example, ‘I can click and hop,’ or ‘I can build a sandcastle.’

Singing Hello, Hello together

This kind of song is a call and response song as it goes back and forth between two groups. In this case we have one child singing and the rest of the class responding. The children will pick up the song quickly. Don’t worry if your singing is less than spectacular, kids don’t seem to mind! Use the Hello, Hello Icebreaker poster to teach the words of the song, pointing out the spaces they will need to fill in.

At first the teacher will need to sing along with the soloist to give them confidence and reassurance. Some children will be too shy to sing even with the teacher. In these cases I like to ask the child privately what words they would use for themselves, then ask permission to sing their verse for them. I find even the shyest children are happy when I sing for them as they feel included.

Do you know how Frère Jacque goes? It’s the tune that goes along with the words. I’ve recorded a sample below in case you’re not sure.

Want the kids to get moving?

If it’s not too disruptive take a break between each verse to act out what the previous singer could do while humming the tune or singing ‘la la’ instead of the words. This will make the song exponentially more fun and will probably inspire even more ideas about what they can do, for example, stamping and growling or climbing a tree.

Did you grab the printable yet?

If not, here it is again! Hello, Hello Icebreaker!

What are your favourite icebreaker activities? Let us know in the comments!

I wish you happy singing, teaching and learning!