Who Am I? is a fun warmup or icebreaker game which can be used to practice simple questions and answers.

Preparation

Using small cards, write on each one the name of a famous person known to the class, for example:

• Barack Obama
• Lady Gaga
• David Beckham
• John Lennon
• Einstein
• Harry Potter
• Queen Elizabeth

Shuffle the cards and have them face down. One at a time, each student comes to the front of the class and selects a card without seeing what it says. You then stick the card to their back using secure good sticky tape so that it won’t come off.

Play

Once the whole class have chosen, they must mingle and ask questions about themselves to the other students. These questions can only be answered by a YES or NO answer.

During this time you need to circulate as well to make sure the class is mingling properly. You can sometimes enforce this by telling your students that they can ask each other only one question before moving on.

When a student knows who they are, they should come to you for verification. If they’ve guessed early, you can give them another identity to discover.

Help

If the class needs help with the questions, you might like to revise a few ideas before handing out the names. Questions like:

• Am I alive?
• Am I a man?
• Am I a child?
• Am I a fictional?

Rather than just offer these questions to the class, make sure you elicit them from the students.

Variations on a Theme

Instead of using famous people, you can try using stereotypes such as:

• cheerleader
• politician
• football hooligan
• doctor
• lawyer
• homeless person
• teenager
• pensioner
• immigrant
• soldier
• footballer