Team building activities for students

By Catalogs Editorial Staff

Team building activities for students create strong leaders and solid friendship

Whether you?re working with an athletic, academic or creative group of students, building them into a strong team is an ongoing process. Team building activities for students break the ice on the first day of class and become more fun and effective over time. Through group activities students learn to see each other for their similarities rather than their differences, creating a more positive environment for everyone to grow.

Five Team Building Activities for Students

A Game of Trust

One student stands with his arms in an ?X? across his chest staring straight ahead. Students form two lines behind him and face one another. Everyone in the lines bends their arms at the elbow in front of them with palms facing up. Students stand staggered so opposite arms are almost touching. The student at the head of the line stiffens his body and falls back (no bending the knees). The line of students must focus on catching their teammate. This game builds trust and students’ confidence in one another and in themselves.

Two Truths and a Lie

This is a classic ice breaking exercise for a new team. Each person writes two truths and one lie about themselves on a card. Students sit in a circle and take turns randomly reading the cards out loud one at a time. Students must guess who wrote each card correctly.

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Exquisite Corpse

This team building exercise has a number of variations and can easily be adapted to suit your team?s talents. The goal is for the team to tell a coherent story. Each person plays an equal role independently telling one segment of the story, and the team cannot discuss ideas. The first student writes the first segment: one paragraph. You can prompt her with a noun, setting or theme. The paragraph is handed to the second student, who must then write a second paragraph. The third student can only see the second student?s work, and so forth until every student has contributed (only seeing the one segment prior to their own).

Students read the full story out loud. This exercise engages their creative side and shows how each unique personality shapes the group as a whole.

Ask a question

This is a simple team building activity for students to share their curiosities about one another. Sitting in a circle, one student at a time asks a question for everyone in the circle to answer.

Beachball Spotlight (variation on Ask a Question)

Write one question on each color of an inflatable beachball with a black sharpie. Students sit in a circle and have one student toss the ball to another. The catcher has to answer the question touching her left thumb, and then toss the ball to another student who hasn?t gone. A few ideas to write include: Tell us your best joke. What will your 15 minutes of fame be like? What skill have you always wished you had?

It?s not surprising that students are more productive, more supportive to one another and more positive when they share a purpose and goal. Team building activities for students are designed to strengthen the team from the inside through the relationships they build with one another.

References:
Group Games
Wilderdom: Initiative Games