Team Building Games for Schools

We often discuss the concept of team building with respect to the corporate world. We talk about fostering a team spirit, helping company employees fight their weaknesses and enhance their strengths. We often discuss team building activities as a part of a team manager's responsibilities, but don't you think these activities need to be incorporated in teachers' responsibilities as well? Isn't it necessary to teach young children to be team players? Isn't it important for them to possess interpersonal and social skills? I am sure you all will agree that social skills play a very vital role in a person's life. The development of interpersonal intelligence in children should be brought out during their years of schooling. Development of sportsmanship and enhancement of interpersonal skills are definitely important for success in life.

Filmmaking or skit making can be a very interesting team building activity at school. For this, you need to split the students into groups of eight or ten. Give each of the groups a topic; they can weave a story around. Ask them to build a scene around the topic and enact it in the form of a small skit. Depending on the time you can allot for the game, decide the kind of topics to supply the children with. This game encourages the students to think collectively and be team players. It helps the children improve their planning as well as presentation skills. On similar lines, you can organize a cooking day in class wherein each of the teams is asked to cook a food item and given the ingredients needed for the recipe. This activity needs the kids to work in a team and think and act as one. It needs an efficient division of work to finish the activity in time. Again, choose the kind of recipe depending on the allotted time and also the age group of the students.

Guide-me is another good team building game for schools. This is an outdoor team game that needs you to split the students into two teams. Each team chooses one team member to be blindfolded and guided across a predetermined way. Lay some objects on the way the blindfolded person is to walk on. The team members of the blindfolded person need to guide him/her efficiently along the pre-determined pathway. They have to guide him/her in such a way that he manages to skip all the objects laid on the way. This game is helpful in developing communication skills and organized thinking in children.

Another game that can be one of the best choices to be played at school is 'Line-up'. For this game, you need to divide the children into two teams. Let the teams choose their own leaders. Now, pose challenges before the team such as asking them to stand in an ascending order of their birthdays, descending order of their heights or in alphabetical order of their names. You can also ask each team to quickly make a formation, for example, ask them to stand in a circle or in the shape of the figure 8, or in the shape of an alphabet G or other such forms. The team, which completes first, is the winner. This activity helps in developing organizing skills and leadership qualities in children.

Both outdoor team games and indoor team building activities prove to some of the best options for team building games at school. Pick any one of these and the students of your class are sure to have great fun playing them. These games are not just enjoyable but also educative in their own way.