Middle school is a turbulent time for many children. However, with middle school team building, they can learn valuable concepts about group thinking that they can continue to use and benefit from throughout their school careers. Here are a few things to expect when attending a middle school team building seminar.
Most team building seminars begin with an ice breaker session. This allows the speaker to give a mission statement of sorts, give the children an idea of what sort of activities they will be doing, and give them an idea regarding the sort of concepts they will be learning. Also included in ice breaker sessions are small, easy exercises such as name memorization, call and response games, and fun physical games such as the human knot. These games are designed to energize and motivate the students as well as give them a taste of what the next few hours will be like.
Once the ice breaker session is over, the next step in middle school team building often includes more athletic games. A few of these include group tag, group blind man's bluff, scavenger hunts, crack the whip, relay races, and more. Most instructors avoid using games such as hide and seek, which pit an individual against the rest of the time. By using games where the entire group is active, students can learn concepts such as teamwork, leadership, role assignments, communications, and acting under pressure.
Of course, there are plenty of mental and verbal games as well. These include memorization games, the telephone game, storytelling, what-if scenarios, optical illusions, drawing sessions, and more. These games are designed to encourage creativity, discussion, empathy, public speaking skills, and more. Additionally, these sort of games are perfect for winding the students down after a long afternoon of play.
Keep in mind that not all middle school team building games may go as planned. Should conflict or an accident occur, it's a good idea to stop the activity immediately and have a discussion on what happened, how they could have reacted better, and what they can do to fix the problem. Avoid chastising any single individual or allowing the group to gang up on one person. By doing this, you are teaching them to make the best out of a bad situation rather than just heaping blame on an individual.
Learn more today about how middle school team building can benefit your kids. Whether they are chronically shy, prone to conflict, or just not working well together, a middle school team building seminar is the perfect solution for teaching them how to work together and reap the benefits.