When most people think of team building seminars, they envision corporate companies who want to instill a few group based concepts into their employees. However, by teaching these same activities with children, you can do wonders for teaching them these same concepts at an earlier age when it's more likely to have an impact. Here are a few ways kids team building can benefit your classroom.
Most kids team building seminars start out with an ice breaker session. This allows them to slowly grow accustomed to the idea of working together. This is also a great time to let members of the group get to know each other better through the use of introductions, name games, and other activities. Typically, a few kids team building exercises used in ice breaker sessions include call and response games, throw and catch games, and physical games such as the human knot or group tag.
Once the kids are used to working as a group, it's time to include more physical kids team building games. A few examples of games that are popular with kids include group tag, tug of war, relay races, obstacle courses, crack the whip, group blind man's bluff, and several others. These activities are a great way to disguise learning as play. In addition to this, they also learn concepts such as thinking on their feet, problem solving, leadership skills, communication, and other valuable skills.
In addition to this, physical kids team building exercises also gets the group rather riled up. While this can result in an overall feeling of exhilaration and joy, it can also get the kids a bit too wound up if you're not careful. This is why it's important to give them a chance to calm down a little before proceeding on to the next activity. In addition to this, if your students end up making a mistake, it's best to halt any signs of the group ganging up on an individual. Instead, sit them down and have a discussion on what went wrong and what they could have done to reach the goal. If possible, you can even make a new goal for them to reach that may very well be more satisfactory than the original one.
There are a variety of verbal and mental kids team building exercises to consider as well. These include memory games, the telephone game, what-if scenarios, word associations, optical illusions, and more. These brain benders do more than just entertain children—they're also great for establishing communication skills, desensitizing public speaking, and encouraging concepts such as critical thinking and empathy. Learn more today about how kids team building can benefit you!
