Fun Icebreaker Ideas for a Ladies Retreat at Church

I am over hospitality of a MOPS group and I have to come up with ice breakers all the time. One of my favorites is get rolls of toilet paper. Make each person get off how much they use when the pee. For each square of the toilet paper they pulled off, they have to tell one thing about themselves. It's a great way to get to know people especially when people pull off a bunch!!! If you need more I ideas I can email them to you. I have tons!

You can do something called "Truth or fantastic lie". You ask each person to write down two statements about them. One is a fact that isn't well known about them (the truth) and one is "lie". It works best if the lie is a stretch on the truth. :) Then have everyone guess which one is the truth and which one is the lie.

Another variation is to have everyone write the little known truth down on a piece of paper and put it in a hat. Then draw a "truth" and see if you can guess who it "belongs" to.

And yet another thought would take some research on your part. But if you have a list of everyone who is attending, you can find out what their name means. And then put the meanings on a piece of paper and have everyone try to match up the names.

I recently attended a holiday function and the icebreaker game was called "2 Truths and 1 Lie". You would have to request these responses in advance but the gist is that each person writes 3 "facts" about themselves--2 of which are true and 1 that is not true and the others try to guess which one is the lie. It is just a show of hands vote as to which one is the lie. You wouldn't have to do everyone if you want to keep it short, just randomly pick some people ahead of time and get their responses prior to the event. Have fun!

I've done most of the ones mentioned, the one about the animals someone mentioned we did the same one with tv moms. You put a tv mom's name on their back and everyone has to tell you things that will make you guess who you are. Since this is a church retreat you can use women of the Bible instead. Anyway you may want to pick a couple of these games to play. Good luck and God bless your time with the ladies.

One thing that was done at a party I went to is everyone got a little cup with a few m&ms (different amounts in each cup) and had to tell one thing about themself for each M & M in the cup. Of course no one can know what the m & m's are for before you begin, then they grab one with 6 instead of, say, 2. The party I was at we broke into small groups first.

On the first day of school, I have my kids play four truths and a lie. You tell four true facts about yourself and one made up fact... people must guess which is the lie. You actually learn some interesting stuff about people you even already know- because they're more inclined to tell "odd" information, hoping people will think the true odd thing is the lie.

One exercise I did once that was fun and funny. Each person is given a piece of paper and pencil. They are to write on the front a major problem in the world or their family that needs to be solved.

And then the papers are passed around so that no on has their paper. And on the back each persons writes down what they think is the answer to their original questions. Then these are read. question or need on the front and answer on the back and of course they don't match. You can also, take up the original papers and give everyone a new paper for the answer and put them in a hat and then, read one quesiton and draw out an answer from the hat.

Ours was really funny. example. How can I get my husband to put down the toilet seat...answer: Be active in politics and get elected official that will appreciate and help solve our basic needs.

lol

oops, I hit some button...
Ice breaker Truth Cards.
Have each person write their name, two interesting things about themselves that are true, one that is not, on a pretty index card, and drop them in a basket on the table. At some point during the day, at the beginning if you want, have someone read the cards aloud, and have the ladies guess which item is not true. It is a fun way to get to know different things about each other, and have fun in the process.
Once during this game, we found that one of the ladies had been a nude model in Paris one summer in college. We thought that it was the false statement. Her false statement was "I bake bread." It was alot of fun. People can get as deep as they are comfortable with.

One might be to make a list of things or items with a space out to the side for a name to be written on that you give out to the ladies when you're ready. They will have to mix and mingle to find someone who can validate that item on the list. (i.e.)

1) Someone who has a pair of scissors in their purse
2) Someone who has a pair of sunglasses in their purse
3) Someone who filled up with gas on today
4) Someone who has 6+ grandchildren
5) Someone who has a new baby
6) Someone whose middle initial is "R"
7) Someone who has been married for 20+ years

The list could go on and on, but you get the idea. The person preparing the list will probably know some little facts like that about the people coming. Try to include some fun fact about all those who might be coming so that they'll have to get around and find out something about all the people. The first one to fill their list could win some small token or prize.

Another fun icebreaker is to have the ladies to break into maybe two groups and give them a 100 piece puzzle to put together as a group or team. You'd have to have two card tables or spaces and then just give them the puzzles and let them go at it. You can find all types of fun puzzles that are very inexpensive at the dollar store. It's fun and the winning team can be first to be in line for food or the other team can bring them beverages or something. After it's over, you can donate the puzzles to the children's ministry at your church.

Hi M.,
one fun icebreaker is to give out bingo cards with say six sections to check off, or more if you like, the areas all require the ladies to gather info from the others until they have someone who allows them to fill all sections. For example, the areas might be -has a pet- so they have to find someone who has a pet, another might be -was born in a foreign country- and so on. Typically you allow about five mintues for the ladies to mingle and come up with a different person for each section on their cards.
A different type of ice breaker is to get the ladies to line up according to their birth month and birthj date (that is everyone in July together but in order of the dates 1-31)until the whole room is in a line from the earliest birthday in January to the last birthday in December. You can do it in twpo stages, getting everyone together in months first, then looking at re-ordering the group according to dates. It's less of a mixer but usually in a large enough group, people will discover they have a birthday in common.
good luck!
D.

HI, M. a game that we play in order to get to know others goes like this....

Break up the ladies into small groups if you have 20 then 4 froups of five. Give them all paper with room for the five names in there group. You will time them for one min. One person from each group will be talking about themselve sharing who they are anything they like from favorite color to were they want to retire. You will do this untill all the ladies have spoken. 5min total for your 20 ladies.
When this is done then they have to write down everything they remember about the other 4 in there group. which you have also only given them 1 min to write down. once this is done they pass the sheet around to the ladies on there list for grading 1 point for every correct answer we usually give a small gift to the winner. The one who remembered the most.

i.e if someone remembered the names of the children and there are 3 then this would be 1 point each. etc..
feel free to contact me if you need more clarification. Great ice breaker for me when I attended military womens function were I knew no one you learn how much in common you have with others.
God Bless
Have fun
A.

We use this one with our speech class at school. Everyone gets a questionaire to fill out - about 10-15 general questions and then 3-5 specific questions. Each person fills it out and (here's the fun part) it gets handed off to someone else! Then we sit in a circle and you have to 'introduce' your new friend by describing them off the questionaire. You can't introduce someone you're already close to, but that's the only rule. As an added bonus, we play Memory as we go. You repeat back each person's name and the the one before them.... continuing to the last. The frist person to remember everyone's name in order gets a cheesy door prize. Good luck!

I just went on a church retreat and the organizer did something really fun. She had asked husbands or good friends of all the ladies attending to disclose an embarrassing experience about the attendee. When we got to the retreat there were name tags out on a table labeling everyone by their embarrassement...(e-harmony honey or sleepwalker) We all tried to guess which name tag belonged to who and later we all talked about our experience. I think it was great because we all were talking about embarrassing moments and we laughed and got to know a little more about each other.
Have Fun!

My favorite is the toilet paper game. It's fast, easy, and inexpensive. Take a roll of toile paper and ask each woman to take what 2 or more squares. Then you will go around the circle and have them tell 1 fact for each square. It is funny to see the ones who take a huge roll and then try and come up with something for each one. I alsways tell them to take the amount they would use in the bathroom. This will keep them from trying to get away with using just one. Who wants to be known as not clean right?

have a theme like animals, or whatever slips of paper and pin it on thier backs. They have to go around and ask 20 questions to see if they can figure out who they are by asking the other ladies in the room questions..
This force them to start talking. Lots of fun too.

another game is everyone has to tell one thing about themselves, but before they do they have to repeat what the one just said about themselves then add a new one. So the 3rd lady will have to say what # 1 and #2 said about themselves then add her comment. By the time it gets around the room, they remember something about someone, and you see who will remember the longest.

It seems as if you got alot of good replies so have fun at the retreat.

i am trying to start a ladies' retreat at my church..this will be the first time for this to happen with our women.....we are a very family oriented church, and i would like ideas for icebreakers too, please. Thanks Much

J. R.

Set up a grid like you would use for bingo. Everyone gets a sheet. In the free space each person writes their own name.
In each square you list a characteristic like; a) purple is favorite color, b) cannot swim, c) carpooled to get here etc.
The object of the game is be the first person in the room to get everybody elses signature on your paper to answer each clue. You cannot write someone's name on your paper - they have to write their own name. And you can only use each person's name ONCE. The first person to get five in a row horizontally, vertically etc. wins. Have a prize for that person.
At the end of the game everyone should learn something interesting about someone else in the room.
K.