It’s hard to decide what games to play at a welcome party for new students, isn’t it? Everyone’s meeting for the first time or feeling nervous, and it’s hard to know what will get people excited.
So here, we’ll introduce games that are likely to liven up a new-student welcome party.
We’ve included plenty of games that help you learn everyone’s names and encourage communication.
We’ve focused on games that everyone can enjoy, even those who aren’t comfortable with self-introductions or speaking in front of others.
Most of them don’t require any props, so feel free to give them a try!
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Get close in no time, even on your first meeting! Icebreaker games to energize welcome parties (1–10)
Gesture GameNEW!
This is a game where you convey the prompt using only gestures without speaking.
Split into a gesturer and a guesser, and enjoy the game.
You can simply enjoy guessing, but it’s also fun to divide into teams, set a time limit, and compete to see how many you can guess.
If it’s too hard, you can pass and move on to the next prompt.
Try to guess as many as possible within the time limit.
It’s a recommended game that everyone can enjoy, even when meeting for the first time.
I’m Sato. My favorite onigiri filling is ume (pickled plum).NEW!
Break the ice with new people! It’s a self-introduction quiz game.
In this game, you’ll first take turns introducing yourselves using question cards.
For example, if the question card says “What’s your favorite sushi topping?”, each player says their favorite sushi topping in turn.
Then, everyone should remember each person’s favorite topping.
After all introductions are done, draw question cards again one by one.
If the card drawn is “What’s your favorite sushi topping?”, the player who drew the card must answer with their own favorite sushi topping.
Repeat this, and the person who answers correctly the most times wins.
Body Clock Game
The internal clock game, where you rely solely on your own sense of time, is exactly what it sounds like: you trust your internal clock to count 30 seconds.
Let’s have participants wear a blindfold and take part.
The host will start a stopwatch at the same time as giving the start signal.
Participants should raise their hand when they think 30 seconds have passed.
The person who raises their hand at the most accurate timing wins.
The longer the target time, the higher the difficulty, so it’s fine to start with a short duration and gradually make it longer.
Reverse Playback Telephone Game
Guess the prompt from reversed audio in the Reverse Playback Telephone Game! Use an app to record your voice, play it back in reverse, and pass along exactly what you hear to the next person.
Record the last person’s voice and reverse it—if it matches the original prompt, you win! Unlike simple backward-speak, both consonants and vowels are reversed, so the reversed audio hardly resembles the original.
Accurately hearing and pronouncing these nonsensical sounds is far harder than you’d imagine.
Participants desperately relaying these strange words—and everyone listening—won’t be able to hold back their laughter.
It’s a guaranteed laugh-out-loud party game.
Who am I? game
A game where one person pretends to be someone or something, and everyone else guesses what they are—“Who am I?” First, without telling anyone, one person becomes something.
They then give hints about its characteristics and what category it belongs to.
People listening can also ask questions! Using those hints, the listeners try to guess what the person is pretending to be.
During the game, attention focuses on the person giving the prompts, so to help everyone get to know each other, it’s recommended that, time permitting, everyone takes a turn as the prompt giver.
One-minute exactly self-introduction
A steady, matter-of-fact rotation of one-minute-on-the-dot self-introductions.
People vary: those who aren’t good at self-introductions finish too quickly, while those who love to talk can go on forever.
But with the one-minute-on-the-dot format, everyone condenses their introduction into one minute.
With a stopwatch in hand, each person wraps up exactly when the minute is up.
People who are usually brief will think about how to fill the time, and those who tend to ramble will focus on what key points to convey.
Setting a strict time keeps things moving smoothly, so this is especially recommended for large welcome events!
NG word game
The NG Word Game is a conversation game where everyone tries to get others to say their assigned NG (no-go) word.
Each participant is given a different word, which they can’t see themselves and is stuck somewhere like on their head.
While looking at others’ NG words, you steer the conversation and ask questions to make each person say their NG word.
The NG word can be a noun, verb, adjective, or even a filler response! Anyone who says their NG word is immediately out.
The last person who doesn’t say their NG word wins.
As you desperately chat to win, you’ll naturally grow closer with each other!