Happy students learn fast, better and gain excellent scores. It is a teacher’s responsibility to educate their students using different methods and strategies. One of them is playing team building games or activities with the kids in the classroom. Not all games or activities are for fun, as some require concentration, leading the students to listen, communicate, and think carefully. The vital role of team building activities for the classroom is to polish the creative and productive side of the student, engage them to know each other better, build trust, and achieve good group cohesion while having a fun time.
In this blog post, you will learn the most exciting team building activities for the classroom, and we have outlined some of the reasons you should bring them to your classrooms like;
Divide the whole class into groups, or you can play this fun activity without splitting up the entire class. One person from the class or group will play the finder’s role, and when he steps out of the classroom, his fellows will hide any object in the classroom for the finder. The object can be anything, the eraser, pencil sharpener, colouring box or anything. When the finder comes back and looks for the hidden object in the classroom, his classmates will guide or give him hints without speaking a word. The hints will be in the form of slow, soft and loud claps; if the whole class claps slowly, it means the finder is looking for an object at the wrong place, and if they clap softly, the finder is looking at the right place. And when the whole class applauds loudly, it means the finder is very close to finding the object.
Throughout the whole activity, any student who will mistakenly utter a word or giggles will be out of the game; all they will allow doing is clap. It is one of the fun team building games that will educate the students about unity strengths, staying quiet, and playing as a team.
Time to change the class setting; with the help of school helping staff, teachers can make a maze in the classroom. They can use the classroom’s chairs, tables, trash bins to create a path filled with roadblocks. Now divide the class into a group of two or more, depending on the total number of students. Blindfold one team member and let the opposite team member guide him to walk through the obstacles and reach the exit point. The teacher and the classmates should ensure that a blindfolded student may not hit himself and finish the obstacles without any scratch.
This team-building game for kids will engage the student’s minds and improve their communication skills as they have to speak phrases to guide their blindfolded fellow on what is going right or wrong. Meanwhile, Obstacle Run will let the blindfolded person practice improving his listening skills.
It is one of those team-building activities for kids that will help them in the long run. It will boost their confidence and make them better at maintaining eye contact with others without any hesitation; for this activity, teachers should make students stare into their other fellow’s eyes for almost 50 to 60 seconds without looking away. It will not be easy for the first time, but the more they practice, they will improve. Students can change their fellow students after taking a small break. It is a potent activity to let the students trust themselves and gaze into other eyes on the same level. Note that teachers can lessen the time of students with weak eyesight problems.
‘Get to know you balloons’ seems like a fun activity, but it also ensures the effective practice of writing, reading, speaking, listening and participating skills. Teachers have to give each student a balloon, a small slip of paper, and ask them to write any question they want to ask their fellows to know them like; how old you are, how many siblings they have, and their plan for the weekend or anything. After that, ask them to make a paper roll, put it inside the balloon, blow it, and place it at the corner of the class after tying the end. When all balloons are ready, ask the students to pick a balloon randomly and sit back on their chairs. Once the whole class is seated, let each student come in front of the class, pop the balloon, read the question silently and then answer it loudly. The student who has written the question will raise their hand and tell the whole class about their question.
This activity comes with instructions, and the Teacher is responsible for guiding the class beforehand. Make sure no student violates the game and classroom rules.
Have you just finished teaching kids about the month’s names? Now it is high time to let them practice learning it without following the traditional teaching methods. The Teacher will ask the kids to line up according to their birthday months, like January to December. Before lining up, the Teacher will give 10 to 15 minutes to the whole class to know each other’s birthday month and arrange themselves respectively.
It will make the students talk to each other and ask about their birthday months or who will stand first or last, and what’s better to engage kids with each other than this? Meanwhile, the Teacher will not interrupt them, and when the time is over, the Teacher will ask the birthday months of each student standing in order.
‘Common thread’ speaks highly of teamwork. In this activity, the teacher has to divide the whole class into groups with even members and let them have a conversation for almost fifteen minutes. When the time is over, each group has to tell the common thing among them. It could be anything like their favourite place, food, ice-cream flavour, pet, colour, etc. Each group of students has to find it out on their own. Once they are done, let the groups draw their common thread individually.
This team challenge game will improve the student’s English communication skills; they will know each other better, and finding out the common interest builds trust and new connections. And after this activity, it will be easier for the Teacher to make project groups for a class as people with the same mind and interests work better.
It’s one of those team challenge games that will develop life-living skills in students like problem-solving and collaboration skills and overcome communication barriers. For this, the Teacher has to split the whole class into 6 to 10 students. Once this is done, the Teacher will present the problem to each group related to their course material and set a time limit. Each team member will write down the solution on a sheet of paper, one by one and together, they will bring the correct answer to the problem given. When the time is up, a group member will address the solution to the class, and the Teacher and other teams will ask the questions related to it. In this activity, the problems of each group will vary. And it is how students learn how to work as a team.
In this team building game for kids, the Teacher should arrange the sitting of the whole class in one single row or line. Each student should have a chair, and if the area of class, the Teacher can split the students into the group of two. Teachers can set a time limit or play any music for a particular time. And then, the Teacher can ask the whole class or students to sit according to the specific order. For example, the Teacher can ask them to organize themselves with their name initials or from their height size like taller to smaller or by their age years like from younger to old one or sit according to their student roll numbers, and it could be any order. All students should be advised to exchange their position within a time limit and without touching the ground. They cannot push their chair.
Such classroom activities help the students to know and interact with each other. And it is constructive to build connection, trust and friendship among each other. The more they know each other, the more it will be easy and flexible for the class teacher.
Organizing a classroom party may seem fun to the students, but it is a creative and productive way to teach the students to work in a team and make things work out while taking care of each other’s ideas and choices. To work on this activity, the Teacher will split the class into 2 groups, assign a party theme each to both groups, and ask them to organize a party that includes; decoration, food, dress code, and party-related games without running out of given budget. And the groups have to choose their leader, manage tasks and plan everything on their own. Students will learn the power of unity and what challenges they can face while working as a team. It might bring out the creative event planner in any of them. After throwing a party, the Teacher will cross-question each group, like why they chose a specific person as their leader, what role everybody played, how they managed the conflicts, and their overall experience.
The purpose of team building activities for the classroom is to make the students interact better and learn teamwork skills. Teachers should start arranging such fun, creative and collective challenging activities. As there are many different ways to teach students essential life skills without using traditional teaching methodologies, so, try out our list of team-building activities first! Finishing this blog post with a thought provoking quote by Margaret Mead:
“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”
