Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Know any active team-building activities...

They are! Thanks!

Any more you can share? Don't be shy! If you have a million, I'll take them. I have a number of weeks to fill...

no I mean, make it a race.... time it... whoever gets the tallest tower in x minutes wins.

We did it with index cards, tape and paper clips.... it was a lot of fun, every group had a huge structure and we all moved around, got up and moving

Ah! I'm with you now! Sorry.

Yes, that sounds like fun! I'm thinking the paper products that you used might be better than the LEGOs, just for a change of pace, actually.

Maybe I'd adapt it to have them all build one tower together though, just to make it more team-focused...

Hmmm...This is good! Very helpful for me!

Thanks!

Not sure if this is too old for your group but have them line up in order of their birthdays without talking. You can make it harder by saying no obvious hand signals, like number of fingers. Then they have to come up with something creative for the month of their birth (like a Jack-o-lantern or flag).

This one's not very active but it's a good transition activity: break them into teams and give each team an ordinary object like a coat hanger, paper clip, jump rope, whatever. The goal is to come up with as many uses as possible for that item and demonstrate some of them to the other teams.

Using blocks or legos, build a structure. Give them (or break them into teams) the same building pieces you started with. Line them up away from the structure (so they have to move). They have to duplicate your structure but each kid can only move/add/replace one piece at a time. If you do teams, it can be a race. No talking.

Do they know each other? A name game is good - have them choose an adjective that starts with the letter of their first name. Groovy Gary or Marvelous Mary. In a circle, give them a ball and they pass the ball to each other, saying the person's name before they pass the ball. So, Gary says "Marvelous Mary" and passes the ball to Mary. She says "Jumping Jim" and passes it to Jim and so forth.

The birthday one is a fantastic idea! I may require that they put their hands behind their backs, even, just to really challenge them.

Love 'em! Thanks!

Keep 'em coming, folks...

Break them into 2 teams. Have 1 team go outside next to a straight exterior wall of a building. It has to be out of sight of the other team. Give them a piece of paper with tape on one side. They have to get the paper attached to the wall as high as possible.

While they are doing that, the other team can be having a snack, playing quieter games, etc.

Trade. Have the 2nd team try to beat the height of the first team. It's a great way to get them using engineering concepts while being physical. After both teams have done it and you have a winner, have each team share their strategy. Hopefully they can discuss why the winning team's solution was better.

That's a really cool idea. Different than anything I'd come up with so far. Thanks!

I did this activity in team-building in the corporate world. Divide into teams. Everyone gets a carpet square (or we call them carpet rectangles at our house). They are on one side of a swamp and they have to get to the other side. They can cross by standing on their carpet square, like a stepping stone, but they have to be touching the carpet square at all times (with any body part) or the alligators will eat it (so you would take it away if you see any carpet square not being touched or stood on). The kids will soon figure out that the only way to get across is to work together - but let them figure that out if they can. If you don't have carpet squares, you could use cardboard. Just make sure they won't slide around too much and fall.

Cool! Thanks!

I did the tape on the wall game, though I had all the kids work together instead of splitting into teams (since I want to improve their teamwork). They did great and had fun, so I think it was a hit.

We didn't have time to even touch the LEGOs this week, unfortunately, but we'll get there. Even without LEGOs, they seemed happy, so hopefully it will go even better when they're using the LEGOs...

Thanks, all!