Sometimes a bit of team building activity can do wonders for helping your students to learn how to work together. If you've noticed your classroom is having trouble thinking as a group, perhaps it's time for some outdoor team building. This allows you to disguise learning as play! Here are a few ways a session of team building can benefit your classroom.
What is outdoor team building? Essentially, it consists of a variety of activities and games designed to help your students learn to behave in a group. These games teach an assortment of different valuable skills they'll not only need in the classroom, but in the workplace as well. Best of all, your students will have no idea that they're learning!
Most teachers begin outdoor team building with a few icebreaker activities. This gets your students accustomed to the idea of working in a group with a few simple, fun activities. It's also useful for letting people in the group get to know one another. These include call and response games, introductions, and a few gentle, easy physical games such as the human knot.
Once your students are used to the idea of outdoor team building, it's time to introduce more physical fun. These include games such as relay races, group tag, group blind man's bluff, tug of war, catching games, crack the whip, and other games. These games teach your students how to think on their feet as well as encourage teamwork, problem solving, and thinking outside of the box. It also helps your students to burn off a bit of energy as well, leaving them happy and glowing.
Once the physical games are over, there are also verbal and mental games to consider. This helps the outdoor team building seminar to wind down to close on a positive note. These can consist of memory games, word association, what-if scenarios, optical illusions, the telephone game, and other activities. These games not only encourage children to think creatively; they also do wonders for encouraging public discussion, empathy, critical thinking, and more.
These are only a few outdoor team building activities to consider. Once you've enjoyed a day of team building with your students, you'll be surprised at just how much they end up absorbing from the experience. By spending a day or two encouraging such concepts in a fun, natural manner, you will be giving them the gift of effortless group interaction that they will enjoy for the rest of their lives. Learn more today!