3 Respectful interaction

3.3 Ice-breaker Exercise

Dominos

• Do you know dominoes?
• Let's play dominoes with our bodies!

Microsoft images, Creative Commons, edited by Monika Gigerl

Objectives

- To encourage physical contact.

- To help participants get to know each other.

- To make participants aware that within a group there are differences and commonalities between individuals.

Basic information

Time: 10 minutes

Group size: Any size

Preparation

- No specific materials

- A list of characteristics to suggest to participants if they have no idea

- Sufficient space

Instructions

1. Ask one member of the group to start by thinking of two personal characteristics and then two personal characteristics, and then state them to the group, such as for example, "On my left 'I'm a girl', on my right 'I have two brothers.
2. Ask another member of the group who shares one of these characteristics to take the right hand.
3. Ask another member of the group who shares one of these characteristics to take the right or left hand of the previous one the (depending on which characteristic is shared), and then add a characteristic to the side of free hand. For example: "On my right hand 'I am a girl', on my left hand 'I have brown eyes'".
4. Ask each person in turn to take a seat, until a closed circle is formed.
5. If a stated characteristic is not shared by anyone in the group and the dominoes cannot be validated If a stated characteristic is not shared by anyone in the group and the dominoes cannot be matched, ask the players to negotiate another characteristic to continue the chain.

 

Tips for the facilitator

The characteristics listed above are only examples; participants are free to choose and can even opt for "invisible" features. It is important that group members make physical contact, as this will reinforce the group feeling. Contact can be made by touching heads, standing arm in arm, putting feet together, etc. Players can stand or lie down. If the characteristics tend to be too repetitive, encourage participants to be creative and not imagination and not make them too simple. Encourage them!