Team Building Activities

I believe there are many factors that allow my classroom to be a successful learning environment for students and one of those key characteristics is team building. Team-building activities help establish a positive community atmosphere in my classroom. When my students get to know me and each other in a fun and supportive environment they are able to establish the kind of rapport that will enable us to have a trusting relationship with each other throughout the year. I spend the first two weeks of school mixing in team building activities as the students are learning classroom routines. I continue to use team building activities throughout the year to support a positive environment and to address issues that naturally come up when living in a school community. Parents will probably hear about our team building activities as students share what we do in class. But, I wanted to include many of the team building activities on my blog site so parents can see what we do.

Team Building builds the following group and individual characteristics:

Community and Belonging

Mutual Trust and Support

Shared Purpose and Direction

Motivating Goals

Commitment to Individual and Team Roles

Multi-Directional Communication

Authority to Decide or Act

Reliance on Diverse Talents

Resource Citations:

Cynthia Clay. “The Seven Characteristics of a High-Performing Team”. Ezine Article. NP ND. PN-NA. Web. 07-26-13.

Elizabeth Stover. “Indoor Team Building Activities for Elementary Students”. eHow. NP ND. PN-NA. Web. 07-26-13.

Lisa Kihn. “Establish a Positive Community Atmosphere in Your Classroom Through Team Building Activities”. Teachers Network. NP ND. PN-NA. Web. 07-26-13.

Venture Team Building. Ventureteambuilding.com. NP 2012. PN-NA. Web. 07-26-13.

Team Building Activities in My Classroom

Look, Go, Create

This activity requires students to use observation and communication skills to create an object or picture together. Decide on an object or picture for the activity, and make a sample for each team. Place each team's sample inside a box where it cannot be seen easily.

Only one team member views the sample, and he must relay what he sees to a designated communicator. The communicator relays the information to the rest of the team who must create the object or picture based on the communicator's directions only. The communicator only relays information. He cannot help build or draw. Teams may send questions back to the viewer through the communicator. Give team members supplies for creating the object or picture in advance, or have a general supply table where teams send one member to gather supplies as needed. When teams complete the project, reveal the samples and compare the results.

Human Chain

The Human Chain activity helps students see that they have things in common. Finding commonalities, helps a child feel safer and promotes team spirit. One student stands and begins telling students about himself. As soon as a student hears something he has in common with the speaker, he gets up and goes to stand by the speaker, linking arms, and begins to tell about himself. This continues until all students have linked to the chain.

To prevent students racing to join the chain over common elements such as someone stating that he has a sister or brother, ask students to use details. For example, a student might state that he has an older brother in high school.

Blind Obstacle Course

In the blind obstacle course activity, students assist team members in navigating a simple, safe obstacle course while blindfolded. Set up a simple, safe obstacle course for each team to use. Clear the middle of the room and arrange small or flat objects such as sheets of paper, small blocks, stuffed animals and small pillows in an obstacle course for each team.

Blindfolded team members navigate the course using the assistance of one other team member who stands nearby giving directions for getting around the objects without touching them and to the other end of the course. If the team member does not succeed, he goes to the end of the line and tries again. Play continues until all team members navigate the course successfully.

Mouse Trap

In Mouse Trap, teams must keep a group of same color balloons in the air while weeding out the different color balloons or "mice" to a "mouse trap." Give the team one balloon of the common color per member and three balloons of a different color to keep in the air.

One at a time, teams send one member bouncing a balloon in the air to a trashcan "mouse trap" at the other side of the room. Meanwhile, the other team members keep all the balloons in the air. Teams work to be the first team to get the three different color balloons into the trap.

ZIG ZAG ZOP

Everyone is in a circle. One person starts by saying, "zig" and looking at another person.

That person now says, "zag" while looking at another person.

Now the third person says, "zop" while looking at another person and pointing to them with a fully extended arm. Only "zop" has the arm motion. If a person moves their arm on "zig" or "zag" he/she is out and must sit down. If a person does not move their arm on "zop" he/she is out and must sit down.

Advanced -- Speed it up. If a person hesitates, he/she is out.

Skill -- Concentration
COUNTING

Class forms a circle, looking down with no eye contact.

One person at a time, but in no preplanned order or pattern, the group needs to count from one to ten.

If two people speak at once, they have to start over.

If you get past ten... see how high you can go!

Skills -- Ensemble, Giving and Taking Focus
KOOSH BALL

Everyone stands in a circle. One person starts by throwing the Koosh ball to another person.

Continue passing the ball around so that everyone gets the ball once. The ball should end up with the person who started it.

Remember the order and then time how fast the group can get the ball through everyone.

See if the group can beat their fastest time!

VENTURE TEAM BUILDING: Excellent Website http://www.ventureteambuilding.co.uk/freeteambuildingexercises.html

MAGIC CANE

Participants will be given a ‘magic cane’ which they must lower to the ground, using just their index fingers, making sure that they all remain in contact with it at all times. Sound easy? It’s not! The ‘Magic Cane’ stick is only interested in going up, not down, so only first class communication skills will help you with this challenge. http://www.ventureteambuilding.co.uk/magic_cane.html

MAGIC CANE

Traffic Jam is a real, "Brain Buster" that requires much thinking and communication. This exercise is very similar to a human chess game. Group members are split in 2 groups and have to cross each other in this challenge based Team Building activity. Cooperation is essential to complete this task. http://www.ventureteambuilding.co.uk/traffic_jam.html

HUMAN KNOT

Standing in a circle, group members reach across and grab other participant’s hands. The group then tries to unravel the "human knot" by untangling themselves without letting go of each other’s hands. http://www.ventureteambuilding.co.uk/human_knot.html

BLIND COUNT

Participants face away from each other and they have to count as high as they can out loud with only one person saying a number at a time. This challenge encourages active listening skills and helps participants build in confidence. http://www.ventureteambuilding.co.uk/blind_countoff.html

BIRTHDAY LINEUP

Participants line up in a straight line side-by-side. Ask them now to get in order of their birthdays (month and day, year isn't necessary). The challenge is they cannot talk at all. You'll find they resort to sign language, nudges, someone might try to start leading. You can also adapt this so they a couple of group members are blindfolded to make it more difficult. Variations to this game include: names, shoe sizes, height etc. This exercise is great for improving communication and leadership skills.

BLIND TENT BUILD

The team gets 5-10 minutes to practice and sort out a plan for this challenge. They must then use one sighted person to instruct the team in putting the tent up whilst everyone else is wearing blindfolds. Excellent for developing leadership and effective communications skills.

BLINDFOLD SHEEPDOG

A shepherd gets chosen from the group and must direct all the sheep into the pen as quickly as possible using only noises. They cannot talk to the sheep nor touch them. The sheep need to be blinfolded and placed at a start point. Between the start point and the pen (where the sheep need to be guided) will be a number of obstacles. Everytime a sheep touches an obstacle they will be removed from the exercise and the achievement rate will be decreased. Great exercises for developing trust, communication and creative thinking skills.

SCRAP TOWER

Split the group into smaller teams (3-5 people). The team is given a newspaper and a roll of tape to build a freestanding tower to hold a weighted item off the ground. The team with the highest freestanding tower wins the challenge. Careful planning, identifying roles and responsibilities as well as creative thinking are essential for this exercise.

LOOP DE LOOP

Group members stand in a circle and hold hands. Start one hula-hoop hanging over one pair of joined hands. Each person in the circle must pass the hoop/loop over him/herself and on to the next person without letting go of hands.

Name Games and Ice Breakers:

ANIMAL NAME GAME

Participants sit in a circle, someone starts by saying their name, and animal that begins with the same letter as the first letter in their name (i.e. Chris the crocodile).  The next person in the circle would say, ‘Chris the crocodile’ and then add their own name and animal. This carries on all the way round the group until the last person has to state everyone’s name and animal and then add their own.

THE LAST LINE

Split everyone up into groups and give them a silly sentence on a piece of paper. Tell the group that they have to make up a story, act it out, and have the story end with the sentence that you have given them.

WHO AM I ?

Write the names of famous people (or places) on post-it notes and put the post-it notes on the back of the participants. Have the participants go to different people and have them ask each other yes/no questions to figure out who their person is. The person who finds out who they are first wins…

GUESS MY PROP

Form standing circle with object in middle. Person goes to middle & uses the object as a prop. People on the outside have to guess what the prop is. They call out their guesses. If correct that person goes to the middle & invents a new prop. Examples could be using the chair as a bicycle or trumpet or hat etc.

GROUP STORY

Form a circle. One person starts to tell a story. They can pass the story on the person next to them at any time. All they have to do is include the words "and then" in the context of the story. The next person in line carries on the story from where it had been left.

ANIMALS*

Write down the names of animals that makes a distinct noise on different slips of paper. Give the slips out to everyone and tell them that they have to find the people that have the same animal without talking. Most members will start making animal noises and/or gestures. This is a fun way to put participants into groups for other activities, games or ice breakers.

WE ALL HAVE THIS IN COMMON

Divide the participants into smaller groups of 3-5. The task of the group is to find 5 things that each member of the group has in common with each other. (A restriction you may want to put is that you're not allowed to list obvious or common human characteristics i.e. I drink water, I have teeth, or I am wearing socks.) After the time is up, each group will go around and share their list of common items to everyone else.

Top Group Games for Fun:

BUY ME A MONKEY

The group makes a circle. Two participants are chosen to stand in the center of it. One of them is acting as a monkey the other is trying to sell the monkey.  They walk up to someone in the circle and the seller says ‘would you like to buy my monkey?’  The person in the circle answers by saying ‘what can your monkey do?’ The seller says something the monkey can do and the monkey demonstrates. If the person laughs then they become the monkey and the monkey becomes the seller.  If they hold a straight face, the pair must try to sell the monkey to someone else in the circle instead.

HEAD IT, CATCH IT

The group forms a circle, with the leader standing in the middle. The leader throws the ball to one of the children in the circle. The leader has to shout either, ‘head it’ or ‘catch it’ with child in the circle doing the opposite. If they get it wrong then they are then out of the game. You can also include the three-strike rule in this game.

TIME BOMB

The children have to stand in a circle and throw the ball (bomb) to each other. The bomb is safe until it’s activated, but as soon as it is dropped, it starts a countdown to explosion (From 10 or 20). Once the countdown has started, it can’t be stopped and the children must continue to throw the ball to one another. Whoever has the ball when it explodes is out of the game.

RHYTHM*

The children stand or sit in a circle with one person appointed as the detective. The detective has to leave the group and close their eyes while the rhythm leader is chosen. The chosen leader then starts clapping their hands or clicking their fingers. Everyone copies whatever he/she does. The detective returns and has to try to find out who is leading the change of action. Remind the children not to stare at the leader.