What Kind of Animal are You?

Activity

Introductory activities

What Kind of Animal are You?

Irene Maweu

Fun introductory or warm-up activity.

Tech needed: Breakout rooms

Duration: 5-30 mins

Student preparation: None

Educator preparation: None

ACTIVITY PURPOSE

This is a light, inclusive icebreaker that helps participants start connecting without needing to share personal information. It works well for groups of any size and helps set a relaxed tone for the session.

USEFUL FOR

Doing introductions in any size group without asking people to reveal too much about themselves if they don’t want to.

PREPARATION

None.

INSTRUCTIONS

Ask participants to go around and say ‘if you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be?’
This can be done in a large group or in smaller groups via breakout rooms.

DURATION

It could take anywhere between 1-5 minutes per participant, so if it is a large group, you may want to limit each person to 1 or 2 minutes.

ADAPTATIONS AND EXAMPLES

If it is culturally inappropriate, or you face resistance from the notion of being asked ‘what kind of animal are you?’, you could modify the activity. For example, Irene Maweu who contributed this activity once had to do this and she asked people ‘what kind of car would you be?’

You can also make the activity more memorable by inviting folks to change their profile picture or rename themselves to represent the animal they would be.

Contributed by Shanali Govender: In some contexts asking people to take part in this activity might be triggering, due to the dehumanising metaphors connected to their national experience of coloniality (e.g. in South Africa). In situations where this might make for a difficult interaction, you can change the activity to focus on cars, colours, patterns, or hats – whatever feels most appropriate for the group. For example, you could ask ‘what type of hat would you choose, and why?’