Mingle

Materials:

Instructions:
 * None.

Example:
 * This is a type of activity which is highly customizable to suit many different classroom needs. The basic idea is simple: Students will walk around the classroom in various directions, looking around to other students. Whenever they make eye contact, there is something the two students must immediately do. Once that task is finished, the two students continue to walk randomly around the classroom until they make eye contact with another student. This usually goes on until each student has completed the task with at least three students.

Alternative cue: Sample Tasks:
 * The teacher may want to use mingle to practice speaking by having students share stories from their vacations. So whenever two students make eye contact, they must stop, facing one another, and share a vacation story, like a micro-interaction complete with turn-taking and appropriate expressions.
 * Instead of waiting for two students to make eye contact, the teacher may just give the students some time to walk around so they are in different positions and at a random time call out for students to find a pair. Then, once paired up, the students do the activity.
 * Straight Face: This is used as a warm-up in theatre classes. When students make eye contact, they must keep looking at each other for ten seconds without laughing or smiling. You'll find that it's surprisingly hard!
 * Killer: This can be used as a just-for-fun game. Before the mingle, a student is secretly selected as the "killer" (they can draw short straws, pieces of paper or the teacher can whisper to all of them, etc). During the mingle, the killer will wink at any player who makes eye contact with him, and that player must immediately act out his death and sits out, unable to speak. Other players must try to identify the killer before he kills over half the group.
 * Grouping: Students must mingle to find another player who has a similarity with them. The first player they find that has a similarity (such as number of siblings, dogs or cats, favorite type of music, etc. / Nothing too easy) becomes their partner for an upcoming activity.
 * Spelling: Once students find a pair, they must challenge one another with a word to spell. If you want to make it competitive, have students count the number of "duels" they have won by being able to spell their partner's word while their partner was unable to spell their word.
 * Vocab. Review: Challenge students to have a conversation when they mingle, and give each student a few target vocabulary words they must use in their mini-conversations. You can even make it similar to Word Sneak and tell students they must use the words naturally so their partners can't guess what it was.