Icebreakers are activities used by teachers during the first week of class to get acquainted with students. Such activities can be particularly useful with lower secondary students like seventh graders, as such students are often driven by their transforming bodies and minds to distrust authority figures. In addition to thawing out any potential chilliness with students, these activities give teachers a chance to assess individual students' work ethics and general attitude toward the class, which can be useful in planning out units for the rest of the semester.

Constellation Activity
Give students some background on constellations: patterns of stars in the sky that ancient peoples believed were people or animals who had been placed in the heavens by the gods. Pass out pieces of plain white paper and have them randomly place dots across it with a pencil. Instruct students to connect the dots on their paper to make a constellation. Give students visual examples of real constellations and some of the stories behind them. Instruct students to make up a story about their constellation and share it with the class.

Ball-Passing Introductions
Give students a softball and instruct them to pass it around the room as they introduce themselves to you and the class. Also ask them to tell the class one interesting thing about themselves. as well as another category of question of your own choosing. This can be anything from their favorite food, to their ideal vacation destination, to what they did during the summer.

Design a Toothbrush
Pass out blank sheets of paper and coloring tools, such as markers or colored pencils. Instruct students to design their own ideal toothbrush. Tell them they can make their toothbrush look any way they like and do anything they want it to. They should include both a written description and a colored illustration. Include an example of your own for students to get ideas from. For example: a pure-white toothbrush that can make teeth so clean they never need to be brushed again.

Repeat After Me
Have students stand in a circle and get in the circle yourself. Tell students you are going to recite a line from a TV series, movie or other similar medium, and each of them will repeat it one at a time going around the circle. At the end, ask the student standing immediately to your right if they know where the line came from. If this student cannot guess it, go down the line until someone guesses correctly or everyone has guessed incorrectly. Repeat the process with students picking their own lines, pointing out that they need to be school-appropriate.