Submitted By: bushn@hartfordschools.net

Affiliate Group: LT I Upper Valley, 2010/2011

School District: Hartford, VT

Grade Level: This activity can be adapted to middle and high school levels

Intended Audience: Students

Curricular Connection:
This activity can be designed to support/review/practice information and learning in any subject across the curriculum. (Focus activity)

It can also be used as an exercise to introduce new members of a group to more established members, or it can also be used at the beginning of any new learning experience where you want members to learn a bit about all the members of the group. (Team Builder, icebreaker, relationship introduction or builder)

Objectives:
*Communication
*Break the ice
*Become better acquainted
*Provide focus on a topic
*Reinforce old learning though a different means
*Provide an exercise for introducing a new topic
*Engage all students within a group and help to develop relationships

Schedule:
This activity can be done either by individuals or by teams. Business cards can also be designed, rather than license plates. The group can be any number; subgroups of five to seven works well. Allow 10 to 15 minutes for the activity

Vocabulary:
Relevant vocabulary or terms associated with the lesson can be used to build the license plate. Phonetics can also be employed.

Preparation:
Determine the use of the activity: is it to be used to introduce new students to a group, as an ice breaker to help group members learn a bit about each group member, or to reinforce a previous lesson?

Have enough copies of a blank license plate and pencils for all the participants. Remind the participants of the limited space available on a license plate. The presenter can display several sample license plates if desired.

Background Information:
Customized License Plates is an activity that can be used for any age group: elementary to high school, community groups, work groups, etc. The activity consists of using a blank license plate and a group of letters or numbers to ‘mimic’ a word or phrase that tells something about the creator or refers to a term/concept learned in a class. For example, if the exercise is to be used to tell the group about an interest of a member, the license plate creator could use: HRLYRDR (Harley Davidson motorcycle rider) or GR8ONE (Great One – Wayne Gretsky- for an ice hockey enthusiast). If the use of the exercise is to illustrate a professional goal, the creator of the license plate might use TOPMGR (Top Manager) as the plate letters.

Teaching Suggestions:
1. Photocopy a blank license plate template
2. Provide a pencil and a template to each participant
3. Trainer asks everyone to create a personal message to share using only six to eight letters or numbers
4. If this activity is done in teams, the trainer emphasizes that all participants should contribute to the effort
5. License plate message can convey a desired goal, a value held, a favorite saying, a learning point from the course, or something personal for sharing either in small groups or with the entire class

Discussion Questions:
Who can interpret the meaning of the license plate message? What message or characterization is the creator trying to convey? Has the license plate hinted at any special interest or skill that this person has? Have you found other people in the group having a similar interest to one that you have? What does this tell us about our similarities?

Reinforcing Activities:
If this activity is used to reflect and review a learning point from a course, the activity leader (teacher) can ask participants to forms groups by learning categories. For example, if reinforcing medical terminology, individual license plates can be grouped by systems of the human body (digestive, nervous, etc).

SOURCE:
50 Creative Training Openers andEnergizers
Bob Pike, CSP, CPAE and Lynn Solem
Jossey-Bass/Preiffer, A Wiley Company 2000.

<-Back

Back to top