On Monday, we published an icebreaker that can be used to help your youth get to know each other better. That’s a fairly quick game, so here’s a Getting To Know You worksheet that can take the whole session if you’d prefer to spend longer on youth group activities like this.
There’s also a link to download a free printable copy of the worksheet below.
Resources
- Worksheet (see below)
- Pens
Preparation
None – there’s nothing quite like a youth work session that requires no planning!
Aim
To help the teenagers get to know each other better by highlighting areas in which they have common ground.
Instructions
Give each of the students a copy of the worksheet and a pen, then explain that they’re going to be doing a “getting to know you” activity.
There are 20 questions on the sheet – in the middle column, they have to write down answers for each of them. Once everyone’s completed that part, they should go around the room and find out if anyone has similar interests, noting down their name if they have the same or a similar answer. (n.b. make sure they write their own name on the sheet in the space at the top as well)
So long as you have time (and your youth group isn’t too big), try to get the students to talk to every other person in the group.
Tips
1. Preventing Bullying / Teasing
As this activity involves young people stating what some of their favorite things are, there’s the potential for some of them to be made fun of.
Therefore, before they start discussing their likes with each other, state that making fun of each other isn’t acceptable. If they don’t like something or disagree with someone’s answer, they can say something like “I prefer…” or “I don’t really care for that”, rather than “You seriously like that band?” or “But that TV show’s crap!”, etc.
2. Finding Common Ground
As the aim of this activity is to get to know each other better and highlight similarities between students, they should note down fellow students’ names if they have similar interests, even if their favorites aren’t the same.
For example, Student #1’s favorite sport is baseball, while Student #2’s is football but he likes baseball as well. Student #1 should write down #2’s name seeing as they still have common ground.
3. Keeping The Sheets
After the discussion, have a volunteer take photocopies of the sheets, making sure that they’re kept in order as the teenagers’ names are only noted on the first page.
Keep these copies so that you can learn more about your youth. Give the originals back to your young people so that they have a lasting memory of things that they have in common with their fellow students. This can also help with team building and youth group bonding in the future, as it’ll give them something to talk about by knowing that they have similarities.
Discussion
Once they’ve had a chance to discuss their interests with each other, sit down for a discussion about what they learned. Here are some suggestions of questions you could ask:
- Were they surprised by how many things they had in common with each other?
- Who did they have most in common with?
- What question did they have least in common with when it came to other people?
- What was the most interesting answer someone else had (reminding them that this isn’t so they can make fun of them!)
Getting To Know You Questions
Here are 20 questions that you can use for this session. Beneath this list is a copy of the free printable worksheet that you can download and use for your group.
- Favorite band/artist
- One thing I want to experience in life
- Favorite color
- Place I’d most like to go on vacation
- Favorite TV show
- Earliest memory
- Favorite celebrity
- The pets I have
- Favorite animal
- Job I want in the future
- Favorite sport
- How many brothers and sisters I have
- Favorite store
- If I could meet one person, it would be…
- Favorite song
- Most fun thing I’ve ever done
- Favorite movie
- Favorite type of food
- Something I’m scared of
- Favorite website or app
Download the Getting To Know You Worksheet
If you liked this idea, check out all our other youth group activities.
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