teambuilding facilitation 18 u.s.c. 707 manual state team building.pdf · teambuilding overview...

A Guide to

Leading and

Facilitating

Teambuilding

Activities

Teambuilding

Facilitation

M a n u a l

College of Agricultural Sciences Cooperative Extension

18 U.S.C. 707

2

3 Chapter 1

3 Introduction

4 Facilitator Guidelines

5 Chapter 2:TeambuildingFacilitation

5 Program Planning and Sequening

7 Sample Sequences

8 Challenge by Choice

8 Full Value Contract

10 The Leader’s Role

10 The Experiential Learning Cycle

11 The Adventure Wave

11 Briefing the Activities

12 Leading the Activities

13 Facilitating the Debrief

14 Experiential Debriefing

16 Safety

16 Spotting

Contents

17 Chapter 3:TeambuildingActivities

17 Large Group Warm-Ups

25 Small Group Warm-Ups

33 Level I Activities

47 Level II Activities

62 Chapter 4: Games,Games, and MoreGames

68 Chapter 5: Appendixes

68 The Facilitator’s Bag of Tricks

69 People Bingo Cards

70 Resource List

3

Introduction

This manual is a resource forteambuilding activities for adultand youth leaders with 4-H.This manual will help youeffectively lead teambuildingprograms. However, it is notexhaustive. Nor is it possible toread these pages and expect tobecome an expert in leadingteambuilding programs. We areall lifelong learners and con-tinue to add to our methodsand styles as we learn newthoughts, ideas, and concepts.In that regard, please use thismanual as a guide as youexperiment with your particularleadership and facilitation style.

Chapter 1

Teambuilding Overview

Teambuilding activities are exercisesthat help teams build cohesion andwork through common group issues.They are used as educational tools fora variety of individuals, groups, andorganizations. In addition,teambuilding activities provideopportunities for participants tocombine individual talents andabilities with an awareness of the needto develop cooperation and trustwithin the group.

Teambuilding also provides partici-pants with opportunities for self-exploration and growth. As individu-als push themselves beyond theircomfort zones, they are able to growand learn about themselves. Becauseeveryone has a different level ofcomfort regarding emotional andphysical challenges, each person isencouraged throughout the programto set their own challenge goals. Thisnotion of “Challenge by Choice”should be emphasized at the begin-ning of each teambuilding program.This helps to ensure that whileindividuals are pushing their levels ofcomfort they are also being safelychallenged.

At the end of each activity, partici-pants are given the opportunity toreflect on their experiences and relatethem to daily life. This reflectiontransforms the one-time experience ofteambuilding into a method forbringing about long-term, positivechanges.

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Teambuilding Objectives

● Increase each participant’s sense ofconfidence and create a feeling ofaccomplishment.

● Increase participants’ understand-ing of themselves and one another.

● Develop the initiative and responsi-bilities necessary to accomplish atask through group planning andteamwork, brainstorming, andproblem solving.

● Help facilitate group growth, ease agroup through a difficult period orprocess, and develop cohesivenessamong group members.

● Develop respect and acceptance forthe abilities and limitations of eachindividual.

● Use effective communication skillsin group interactions.

● Develop the skills necessary forgroup interaction.

● Develop leadership skills.

● Clarify the way participants behavein various situations and whateffects these behaviors have on thegroup.

Facilitator Guidelines

These guidelines are suggested skillsand competencies. Each person has aunique set of skills and experiencesand may have different facilitationtraining needs.

Prerequisites

● Good physical and mental health

● Completed a facilitator trainingsession from an extension educatoror volunteer

Competencies

● Solid verbal communication skills

● Ability to work with a wide varietyof people in challenging situations

● Common sense and good judg-ment

● Flexibility in handling multipledemands of program

● An open mind and willingness tolearn

● Ability to remain calm in stressfulsituations

● Empathy (caring) for others

● Willingness to play and share asense of adventure with participants

● Good sense of humor

Skills

● A basic understanding of thebenefits and objectives ofteambuilding

● Ability to introduce the rules,consequences, and safety consider-ations for teambuilding activities

● An understanding of the objectivesand a knowledge of theteambuilding activities

● An understanding of the conceptsof debriefing

● Ability to demonstrate properspotting and safety techniques

Warning

Improper use of the adventure

activities described in this manual

can result in serious injury. The

activities should not be attempted

without the supervision of trained

and properly qualified leaders.

The authors, The Pennsylvania

State University, and Outreach

and Cooperative Extension do not

assume any liability for loss or

damage, direct or consequential,

to the reader or others resulting

from the use of the materials

contained in this manual, whether

such loss or damage results from

errors, omissions, ambiguities, or

inaccuracies in the materials

contained in this manual or

otherwise.

5

Program Planning andSequencing

All teambuilding programs should bedesigned to meet the needs andobjectives of the group. An assessmentshould be done in advance so that thefacilitator knows what to expect inregard to the needs and qualities ofthe group. As a facilitator, choosingthe activities that you feel will bestmeet the group’s goals is an importantfirst step in developing a teambuildingprogram.

Program Length

The program length and amount oftime available will vary depending onyour group.

Group Size

One facilitator per 12 participants(occasionally one facilitator per 15participants) is the ideal group size.

Program Schedule Setting the Stage

Chapter 2:Teambuilding Facilitation

Big Group

Let them know what to expect

2 or 3 large group activities(warm-ups)

● Talk about the group members’expectations for the program.What do they want?

● Help participants generategoals and expectations for theprogram.

● Challenge by Choice

● Set the mood and tone: upbeat,confident, compassionate

Big Group

Final large group activity

Small Group

Facilitator works on plannedsequence with group

Break intosmaller groups

(Optional)Back to thebig group

v

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6

Choosing Activities

After gaining an understanding of thegroup you will be working with, beginto plan the program. Keep thefollowing general information in mindas you select activities:

● Ages 8–12.You may want to choose activitiesthat require physical activity tokeep them interested. Experientialdebriefs will work best. See pages14–15.

● Ages 12–16.You may need to plan moreactivities for this age, as they willspend less time on debriefing thanolder students and adults.

● College-aged and older.Alternate physical and cognitivechallenges.

● Adults.They like to spend time processingeach activity. Therefore, don’t besurprised if you don’t get throughall the activities that you hadplanned.

See activity pages for ideas.

Sequencing Activities

After you have chosen the activitiesthat you feel will help the group meetits goals and objectives, arrange themin a sequence that will be comfortablefor the group.

Adjusting the Plan

Deciding whether to make adjust-ments to the activities you plan is askill that takes practice. As a facilita-tor, watch how the group workstogether and be prepared to substituteactivities that will help them to bettermeet their objectives. The followingare some general questions that maybe helpful as you make your decisionto readjust:

● Are there any resistant members?

● Are they comfortable with physicalcontact needed for some activities?

● Are they being sufficiently chal-lenged?

● Do they plan and listen to oneanother?

● Do you have a participant that isinjured or unable to participate inyour original plan of activities?

● How’s the weather? You may needto adjust your plan from outside toinside.

For example, if one or two membersare resistant, you may not want tobegin with activities that require ahigh degree of support and trust. Ifthe participants are not comfortablewith physical contact, you may needto move gradually into activities thatrequire them to physically supportothers. If they seem to be disinter-ested, increase the challenge of anactivity to spark their enthusiasm. Ifyou find that they are not planning orlistening, you might try some intro-ductory communication exercises.

Introduce yourself

Expectations for the program

Review safety

Have fun

Challenge by Choice

Icebreakers

Low-risk and fun activities

Level I activities

Level II activities

Closure

Final debrief

v

v

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Sample Sequences

The following are examples ofteambuilding sequences that areappropriate for specified age-groupsand group sizes according to timeallotment. Use your creativity andexchange activities that you feel wouldbe better suited for the group that youare working with.

When working with groups that knowone another, simply substitute the namegames with another activity.

Typically, you will open a program witha big group and then break into smallergroups after a big group opener. In thefollowing sequences watch for BGwhich means Big Group or SG whichmeans Small Group.

One Hour

Ages: 10–adult

Big Group size: 20 people

Small Group size: 8–15 people

For groups who don’t know eachother

Inside or outside

● Begin with a tag game likeEverybody’s It to get peoplewarmed up (BG)

● To help to learn names,perhaps Incorporations (BG) orAdventure Name (SG)

● Follow this with anonthreatening activity like BallToss (SG) or Line Ups (BG)

● River Crossing (SG)

● Closing: Go around: What didyou learn? (BG or SG)

7 hours with lunch break

Ages: high school–adult

Big Group size: 20 people

Small Group size: 8 people

● Incorporations or Have YouEver? (BG)

● Wobble, Wobble (BG)

● Adventure Name Game (SG)

● Challenge by Choice (SG)

● Full Value Contract (SG)

● Circle the Circle (SG)

● Ball Toss (SG)

● Interview and Introduction (SG)

● Jump Rope (SG)

● River Crossing (SG)

● Key Punch (SG)

● Lunch Break

● Mosquito Tag or Partner Tag(SG)

● Toxic Waste

● Trust Walk

● Minefield

● Blind Polygon

● Closing: Skit about what youlearned today

Meeting every once in a while orat regular intervals

Group that knows one another

Big Group or Small Group

Meeting 1 (1 hour)

● Puzzle Pieces

● Challenge by Choice

● Paper Towers

● Closing Debrief

Meeting 2 (1 hour)

● Have You Ever?

● Mosquito Tag

● Minefield

● Postcard Debrief

Meeting 3 (1 hour)

● Maps of the World

● Special Friends Opener

● Jump Rope

● Special Friends Closer

Meeting 4 (1 hour)

● Hi, Lo, Yo

● Blind Polygon

● Trust Walk

● Postcard Debrief

Meeting 5 (1 hour)

● Ball Toss/Warp Speed

● River Crossing

● Letter-Writing Debrief

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Challenge by Choice

“Challenge by Choice” is a philosophyused by teambuilding facilitators—theidea that each participant has owner-ship of his or her experience. If forany reason a participant feels uncom-fortable in an activity, he/she maychoose a different way to be involvedwith the group.

Challenge by Choice is often de-scribed using zones. The comfort zoneis in the center (see diagram). Asfacilitator, encourage your participantsto find their growth zones. This is anarea where a great deal of learningoccurs. When a person remains in thecomfort zone, or when they arepushed too far and are in their paniczone, learning does not occur.

Recognize that each individual hasdifferent comfort zones. It is impor-tant that people respect other’s areas ofcomfort.

Activities to Support Challengeby Choice

Regardless of how long you haveworked with a group, review Chal-lenge by Choice with them. Haveparticipants brainstorm what theythink Challenge by Choice mightmean. Draw the diagram below on asheet of paper or a dry-erase board todiscuss the concept.

For a more interactive discussion onChallenge by Choice, ask participantsto create the different zones on theground using a rope, tape, chalk, andso forth. As you discuss each aspect ofthe comfort zone, growth zone, andpanic zone ask the participants tomove into the various zones. Ask themfor examples of how they might feel ineach of the zones. To connect Chal-lenge by Choice zones to other aspectsof life, ask the participants in whatzone might they find themselves in ifthey were: speaking in front of a largegroup, flying in an airplane, aroundsnakes, rock climbing, and so on.

Full Value Contract

A “Full Value Contract” (FVC) is a setof values, norms, or ground rules thatthe group establishes and agrees to usefor their time together. The essentialpoints of the Full Value Contract are:to allow each member of the group tohave a voice in creating group norms,to empower participants by allowingthem to create the Full Value Con-tract, and to ensure that these valueswill allow the group to work towardtheir common goals.

The Full Value Contract asks partici-pants to:

● fully value themselves,

● fully value the other members ofthe group, and

● fully value the environment—thisincludes the physical environmentand the group environment.

Another way to look at a Full ValueContract is to simply ask your partici-pants to:

● play hard,

● play safe,

● play fair.Panic Zone

Growth Zone

Comfort Zone

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Creating a Full Value Contract

4-H Full Value Contract

I pledge my head to clearer thinking,my heart to greater loyalty,my hands to larger service,and my health to better living,for my club, my community,my country, and my world.

The 4-H pledge can be used andadapted for teambuilding programs. Afacilitator can expand on the ideasthat are already a part of the founda-tion of 4-H.

I pledge my head to clear groupproblem solving and participation,my heart to caring for the othermembers of my group,my hands to working with my othergroup members toward our commongoals,and my health toward keeping apositive atmosphere in our group.

Five-Finger Full Value Contract

The Five-Finger Full Value Contract isa quick and easy way to create groupvalues. This tool is particularlyvaluable for younger groups, as well asfor groups that may only be workingtogether for a short period of time.Each finger of one hand representsvarious important group values.

Pinky FingerRepresents the need for us all to watchout for “the little guy/gal,” and servesas a reminder to a group to watch outfor each other over the course of theprogram.

Ring FingerRepresents a commitment made tothe group. Each person has made acommitment to do their best for theprogram and to support other groupmembers.

Middle FingerRepresents the idea that a group willagree to not “discount” each other.This includes refraining from inappro-priate language and respecting allmembers of the group.

Pointer FingerRepresents a reminder to the group topoint out the positive outcomes thatthe group notices. This remindsindividuals not to point the finger ofblame on other participants

ThumbRepresents the idea that the group isgoing to have fun!

The Being Full Value Contract

Equipment Needs● Large format paper (ideally large

enough for a life-size being)

● Markers, crayons, paint, and soforth

The Being is a fun and interactive wayto create a Full Value Contract. Asimple drawing of a person can becreated on a large piece of paper bytracing one of the participants. Thisbeing is a representation of the groupas a whole. Participants individuallycontribute values that they think areimportant to uphold as a group. Thesevalues are added to the inside of thebeing. As the discussion progresses,the group members write aspects ofgroup values that they would like toleave out of their community (forexample, disrespect, hurtful words,and so on) on the outside of thebeing.

This is a living, working documentthat the participants can take withthem or display in a place of impor-tance to them. As the group members

move through their experiencetogether, they can look back to theirbeing to point out things that they aredoing well and areas where they cancontinue to improve.

Hands-On Full Value Contract

Equipment Needs● Large poster board/large sheet of

paper

● Markers or crayons

This Full Value Contract is similar toThe Being, but with a slightly differ-ent focus and frame. On the largesheet of paper, the participants willtrace both of their hands with amarker. In one hand they will write astrength that they bring to the group(such as a great sense of humor, beinga good listener, and so forth) and inthe other hand they will write onething that they need from the group(for example, support, clear commu-nication, and so on).

The group members can use this FullValue Contract as a tool to assess howwell they are able to use each other’sstrengths. Facilitators can ask theirparticipants to write a variety of thingsin their hands depending on thegroup.

Building Blocks/Pyramid/PuzzlesFull Value Contract

Equipment Needs● Poster board

● Markers

This version of a Full Value Contractcan be used with programs that meetover a long period of time. Theconcept of building blocks or apyramid is that together the group isworking on building a community

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and a stronger group. As the groupworks together they will discover moreimportant things to add to theircommunity.

At different times, group membersadd more to the Full Value Contract.For example, introduce the base of apyramid on the first day, as the groupis just forming. The group will becreating norms to use throughouttheir experience together. At the mid-point of the group’s time togetherreintroduce the contract and askwhich learning experiences they wouldlike to add, or perhaps goals that theywould still like to work on. As a partof a closing experience, the capstoneof the pyramid could include onepositive learning activity that eachperson had from the group experi-ence.

The Puzzle Piece Full Value Contractis similar to the Building Blocks orPyramid. The facilitator incorporatesthe puzzle metaphor of each indi-vidual being an important piece of thegroup puzzle. The group can work onthe puzzle at various points in timeduring the group process.

The idea behind these Full ValueContracts is to incorporate thethoughts of many different individualsor the progression of one group over aperiod of time.

The Leader’s Role

The leader’s role is to be a facilitator.Facilitation comes from the Frenchword facile, meaning “easy.” Your roleas a facilitator is to make the learningprocess easier for your participants.You guide your participants throughcarefully planned activities, creatingmetaphors, and understanding thefeelings and needs of participants.

One of the most important things fora facilitator to remember is thatfacilitating a group is different frominstructing them. Even if you havelittle or no background with formallyteaching a group of people, fallinginto an “instructor mode” during anactivity can be easy. As you watchyour group, you will notice things thatare obvious to you about why thegroup is—or is not—successful. Resistthe temptation to tell the group whatyou observed. Your role is to lead thegroup into its own exploration ofitself.—In fact, you may find that theissues you felt were obvious andimportant don’t come up at all. That’sokay, as long as the group is gaininginsight through its own experience.

The following are some thoughts onwhat makes a good leader:

● Although you challenge people;your primary goal is to help peoplegrow in a supportive environ-ment—help them “win.”

● Everything you do should lead toan enhanced sense of self-respectand team respect; if a “mistake” ordifficulty occurs, your job is toframe it as an opportunity to learnand improve.

The Experiential LearningCycle

Many learning models describe howindividuals learn through experience.Most have four distinct phases:experience, reflection, processing,applying. The Experiential LearningCycle describes the various stages thata group or an individual goes throughafter an experience. As a facilitatoryour role is to help your participantsmove through this cycle to learn andgain meaning from the experience.

The experience can be anything!Experiences can be both positive andnegative, but from all experiencesparticipants have something to learn.

Reflection occurs within an individual.Facilitators can build reflection timeinto their programs. This is a veryimportant aspect of the experientialcycle. Participants internalize theexperiences that they had and begin tosee the larger meaning of theseexperiences.

Processing can occur on an individualbasis or as a part of a larger group.Often in a teambuilding program,processing is part of a debriefingactivity. Processing helps find themeaning of the activity.

The application of new knowledge is akey piece to this learning model. Thelearnings from the experience havebeen distilled through reflection andprocessing. The participants begin tothink about how they will apply whatthey have just learned to futureexperiences in their lives.

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The Adventure Wave

The Adventure Wave describes aprocess that facilitators want to use togive a clear briefing (introduction) toan activity or program, whether it lastsa few hours or many days. Thefacilitator may participate in anactivity or may take on an observa-tional role depending on the needs ofthe group members and where theyare in their stages of group develop-ment. All activities and experiencesrequire some debriefing, which iswhen the participants begin to see thelearnings that can be drawn from anactivity. Even a simple game of tag canhave meaning to it: Did everyone havefun?

The components of briefing anddebriefing are examined in thefollowing sections.

Briefing the Activities

Before you let a group begin anactivity, you should give them athorough introduction. This briefingprovides the group members with theinformation they need in order toproceed with an activity. A goodbriefing sets the stage for a positiveexperience. Whatever the scenario, thebriefing should include the following:

● ObjectiveThis explanation should be as clearand concise as possible. Forexample, in River Crossing (page48) one of the objectives is to getthe entire team from one “shore” tothe other without stepping in the“water.” An imaginative story linehere adds a spark to the experienceand helps the participants buy intothe task and the guidelines. Insteadof “water” the team could have tonavigate a poisonous peanut butterpit or a timeline for a currentproject at work or school.

● GuidelinesThe rules that govern what thegroup may and may not do,including an explanation of whatresources are available, what theconsequences are if the groupdoesn’t remain within the guide-lines, and any additional param-eters. Depending on the groupmembers and the activity, you canallow them to set their ownconsequences and even to adjustthe guidelines slightly to enhancetheir levels of participation in theprocess.

● Safety IssuesLet the group know what the safetyparameters are and charge themwith keeping themselves and one

The Experiential Learning Cycle

Experience

Application—Now What? Reflection—What

Processing

The Adventure Wave

Briefing

Activity

Debriefing

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another as safe as possible isimportant. This portion of thebriefing may include specificinstructions on spotting, lifting,catching, and so forth.

● ClarificationBe sure to ask for any questions sothat everyone understands theguidelines and consequences.

Leading the Activities

After you provide the group with theobjective, guidelines, and safetyconsiderations, your primary rolebecomes that of an observer. This canbe one of the most challenging partsof facilitation because it requires youto watch for the safety of the partici-pants, ensure that they are workingwithin the established guidelines, holdthem to the consequences, andobserve their interactions. In someactivities, such as Ball Toss (page 36)and A What? (page 35) you will bephysically involved; in others you willstand apart from the group.

Sometimes stopping the action in anactivity becomes necessary. The mostcommon reason to stop an activity isif the group has made or is trying asuggestion. In some cases, you maywant to step in when the process itselfis breaking down, or if the grouprepeatedly tries a solution that doesn’twork well for them. In these cases, askthe group to stand in a circle awayfrom the activity and process whatthey have been doing. What isworking and what is not? Ask them tobrainstorm some other considerationsand to try the activity again. Do nottry to solve it for them.

Guidelines for Leading

Let the activityhappen!

Observe

Beflexible

andadjust

Safety

Challengeby

Choice

Beyourself

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Facilitating the Debrief

After group members experience anactivity, they usually need some timeto reflect on what they learned andhow it can be made relevant to theirlives. This is often called debriefing orprocessing. The debrief can be a safetime where the group membersconsider the activities they haveaccomplished and the process thatbrought them to their accomplish-ment. The facilitator’s confidence inthe importance of the debriefing helpsthe process become a meaningfulexperience for the group. The skill islike any other and must be practicedand honored by both the facilitatorand group.

Remember the following as youconduct the debrief:

● Don’t be surprised by resistance.

● Connect the discussion to thegroup problem-solving activities.

● Train yourself to listen and observewhat’s happening during anactivity, and use examples from theactivity during the debrief.

● Sequence the debrief so that itstarts easy and leads up to moredifficult issues that the group faced.

Often you can turn an“instructional”comment into a “facilitative” com-ment by asking it as a question. Createopen-ended questions rather thanones that can be answered with asimple “yes” or “no.” For example, askfor specific examples of behaviors thatled to the success of an activity.Participants become aware of howtheir specific actions affect the successof the team. Allow each person toshare their own ideas and thoughts.

Just as a group needs to participate inicebreakers or warm-up activitiesbefore getting started with moredifficult challenges, the debriefingactivity has a sequence to the types ofquestions you should use. The debriefsequence can be broken into threeparts: What, So What, and Now What.The first stage allows the groupmembers to review what happened,the second stage helps them to see itsrelevance, and the final stage allowsthem to think about ways they canrelate the insights back to their lives.These stages correspond to thereflection, processing, and applicationphases of the Experiential LearningCycle described earlier.

The Experiential Learning Cycle canbe simplified to What, So What, NowWhat.

TheWhat are the experiences that theparticipants just had:

● What dynamics did the groupobserve in the activity?

● What things did the participantsdo well?

● What things do they still need orwant to work on?

● What roles did the participantstake?

So What can the group learn from thisexperience? How can we connect whatwe just did in our teambuildingactivity to the work that we dotogether as a group? Some other “SoWhat” questions are as follows:

● Was your role in this activity atypical role for you?

● In this activity, you said you felt_________. Do you ever feel thatway at work/school/home? How doyou deal with those feelings there?

● What strengths did you bring tothis group activity?

● What was something you neededfrom the group in this activity?

The Now What addresses what theparticipants will do with their newknowledge. Questions that might beused in the “Now What” portion of adebrief are as follows:

● How can you use this learning athome/work/school? What are someobstacles to implementing whatyou have learned? How can youovercome these obstacles?

● What helped you accomplish yourgoals? What will you need fromothers to implement your planelsewhere?

● If you were to develop a toolbox forschool/home/work, what would bein there?

● Now that you have tackled chal-lenges in activities, what issues willyou tackle at home/work/school?

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Experiential Debriefing

Teambuilding supports the notionthat by actually experiencing commu-nication, trust, support, and problemsolving, people learn better than bysimply discussing these issues. Thesame can be true during the debrief ofan activity. The following are sugges-tions for including some moreexperiential ways of processing into ateambuilding activity:

● Dyads ProcessingAt the end of the activity, ask eachperson to find a partner withwhom they did not work duringthe activity. Ask them to share twoor three specific observations aboutthe activity with one another. Youcan do this as you move from oneactivity location to another. Uponarriving at your destination, askthem to share the similarities anddifferences about their discussionswith the larger group.

● Postcard DebriefThe facilitator needs to gatherpostcards with various picturesconveying: leadership, communica-tion, surprise, happiness, discom-fort, joy, risk taking, peer pressure,friendship, competition, sexism,and so on. Upon the completion ofan activity, lay the postcards out forall the group members to see. Next,ask the participants to pick apostcard that they feel representssomething that happened with thegroup during the previous activityor during the day. Conduct a “goaround,” asking each member totell the group why they picked upthat specific card. OR Have thegroup come to a consensus andchoose one or two cards that best

depict what happened during theactivity. This should bring about alot of discussion.

● Thumbs-UpUpon the completion of an activity,ask the group a specific questionsuch as:

● Do you feel that the groupworked together as a team?

● Do you feel that the group com-municated well during thisactivity?

● Did you feel like you were a partof the planning process?

● Or ask questions that specificallyrelate to the group.

After you ask this question, theparticipants should answer with athumbs-up, thumbs-to-the-side, orthumbs-down in relation to howtrue they feel the answer is to themindividually. A discussion may takeplace regarding the different thumbpositions—simply ask why theyanswered that way.

● Forced ChoiceThis activity allows people to lookat their roles or preferences withregard to one or more situations. Inorder to do the activity, first drawor make a straight line on theground. Tell the group that you willbe asking them a question (or morethan one). For each question, theywill need to make a choice. Oneside of the line will represent oneoption, while the other side willrepresent the second option. Besure to stress that there are no rightor wrong answers. This activitysimply provides an opportunity tosee how others felt and how theysee themselves. Here are somesample questions that you maywant to use:

● Do you tend to be a follower ora leader?

● In the last activity, were you atalker or a listener?

● Is it harder for you to ask forphysical support or emotionalsupport?

You can then use these choices as aspringboard for further discussion.

● Line ContinuumMark two points in the dirt or onthe floor about 30 feet apart (ormark a line connecting two points).Each end point represents oppositeends of the continuum. Groupmembers should place themselveson the continuum depending onhow they felt regarding individualor group characteristics of:

● Leader versus Follower● Talker versus Listener● Giver versus Taker● Planned More versus Planned

Less● Safe versus Unsafe

Select any combinations that areappropriate, or make up your own.Once group members are in astraight line and, you might ask ifanyone disagrees with this order. Letany group member who wants tochange the order do so. This allowsparticipants to rate themselves andsee how others perceive them. Youcan also ask group members toreposition themselves according towhere they would like to be on thecontinuum.

Discussion questions can include:How did you feel about the spotyou chose for yourself? What wereyour feelings in lining up? How didyou feel when someone moved you(if this happened)? Are there other

15

times you feel this way? Why didyou put yourself where you did?How far apart were your positionsfor where you are and where you’dlike to be? How do you think youcould work toward getting to whereyou’d like to be? Keep thingsfocused in a positive manner. Askgroup members if they see anypatterns in their positions.

● Drawing the ExperienceAsk each person to draw a picturethat represents some aspect of his/her experience. Encourage creativ-ity rather than artistic ability.Suggest that they keep the picturessimple and use symbols from thenatural world to represent theirexperiences. Ask each person tofind a partner and sit so that theycan communicate but not see oneanother’s papers. Have themdescribe their pictures to theirpartners without showing them thepicture. The goal is for the otherperson to try to exactly duplicatetheir partner’s picture. Have themswitch roles and then discuss howclose they came. This activity canhelp people “feel” someone else’sexperience through drawing whatthey felt. This exercise stresses theneed for clear communication.

● Group PoemAsk each person in the group tocome up with one word thatdescribed the group’s process ofcompleting the activity. Organizeeveryone’s words into a list andthen ask each person to write apoem or story that includes all ofthe words. Ask for volunteers toshare their stories or poems.

● Object RepresentationIf the project or activity involvesphysically building or creatingsomething, ask each person to picksome part of the project with whichthey identify. Perhaps the color,size, or object itself may representsome particular obstacle that theperson encountered. Ask them todescribe obstacles and how theyovercame them using the objects astheir guides.

● Letter WritingGive each person a piece of paperand an envelope and ask them towrite a letter to themselves explain-ing what they gained from theexperience. Have them address theenvelope and seal it. Collect theletters and then mail them in a fewmonths as a reminder of theexperience.

● Trust StatementsYou can do this activity as one largegroup (7–12 people) or in smallergroups (2–6 people). Give eachgroup member a pencil and pieceof paper, and ask them to completethe following sentence: “In orderfor me to trust a person or group, Ineed them to ______________.”After everyone is finished, have allmembers place their pieces of paperin the center of the group, and thenask each person to pick up one ofthem and read it aloud to thegroup. After all of the pieces ofpaper have been read, allow thegroup to discuss any or all of theideas written down. This is a greatway for people to share their trueconcerns without having to speakup in front of the whole group.

● Bull’s-EyePlace an object, cone, or Koosh ballin the center of the circle. Ask thegroup members to place themselvesclose to or far away from the bull’s-eye, depending on how they feelabout an issue relating to theactivity. For example: Did you takean active leadership role in thisactivity? If you were to answer yes,you would stand very close to thebull’s-eye. If not, you might stand abit back from the center.

● Picture PostcardFor ages 10 and older. At the endof a day together, circle up and finda comfortable place to sit down.Ask each person to reflect on theexperience you all shared together—you might want to do averbal run-through of the day sothe participants can replay the images in their heads as you aretalking. Then, ask them to createmental postcards. What picturewould you put on the card—apicture from the experience? Then,turn the card over. Realizing thelimited space available, to whomwould you send the card and whatwould you write in the spaceavailable? After giving them aminute to create the postcard, goaround the circle and share (whatpicture, to whom it would go, andwhat you would tell them). Don’tforget that passing is always anoption! (From www.fundoing.com)

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Safety

Both physical and emotional safetyshould be primary considerations asyou conduct your teambuildingprogram. In creating an environmentwhere the participants feel secure,please consider the following generalguidelines:

● Emotional SafetyIntroduce or review the philosophyof Challenge by Choice. Thisphilosophy ensures that groupmembers willingly choose toparticipate and challengethemselves with the expectationthat their choices will be supportedby the group. Anyone who doesnot wish to participate in a particu-lar way can be asked to play adifferent role. Some alternativeroles might include that of aspotter, a quality-control personwho ensures that the group issticking to the guidelines, or anobserver who can report back tothe group upon the completion ofthe activity.

Especially, when working withyounger groups, establishing a FullValue Contract or “rules of con-duct” for the day may be necessary.The group can initiate these; theymight include an agreement tolisten to one another, to avoidmaking derogatory commentsregarding gender, body size, and soforth, and to be present andfocused during the day.

● Physical SafetyEmphasize the importance ofphysical safety to the group. Askgroup members to use behaviorsthat are safe for themselves and forthe group, and to speak up if theyare not comfortable with some-thing another person is doing or isabout to do. Part of introducingeach activity should include safetyguidelines for participants. Thespecific safety considerations foreach activity are listed in theactivities section of this manual.

As well as being an observer duringthe activity, your primary responsi-bility should be to ensure that theactivity is conducted as safely aspossible. This includes spotting allparticipants as they move on anyelements that are above the ground.It may also involve clarifying therules regarding jumping, throwing,and so on.

Spotting

Spotting is a technique that can helpprotect participants from seriousinjury should they fall during anactivity. The primary purpose is toprotect the important parts of thebody (head, neck, shoulders, andback) from contact with the ground orany solid object if a fall would occur.The purpose is to support, not catch,the participant. If a participant falls,the spotters reach for the torso, bracethemselves, and as gently as possiblesupport the head, neck, shoulders, andback.

Modeling the proper spotting tech-niques as you explain them to thegroup is important. Be sure to empha-size that the group members shouldtake responsibility for spotting oneanother and keeping one another assafe as possible. The following aresome general guidelines for spottingduring most activities:

● Arms raised to meet the middlesection (torso) of the person beingspotted.

● Feet should be at shoulders’ widthapart, with one foot slightly aheadof the other, knees slightly bent.

● Hands may be closed loosely toprevent fingers from being bent orinjured.

● If the distance between the spottersand the participant is small, thehands may remain open with thethumb held close to the palm.

● Eyes should be watching theparticipant at all times.

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Partner Swap

Description

Big or Small GroupIndoor or Outdoor

Partner Swap is a great activity to doat the beginning of a teambuildingprogram. This fun and straight-forward activity introduces theconcepts of teamwork, trust, commu-nication, and thinking creatively. Youcan do this activity with small groupsas well as very large groups. The goalof this activity is to simply switchplaces with a partner in as manydifferent and creative ways as possiblein 30 seconds to one minute.

Equipment Needs

None

Briefing the Activity/Guidelines

Ask the participants to choose apartner—someone who is standingnext to them or someone they do notknow very well.

● Illustrate with your partner howthe pairs might switch places. Youand your partner will just walkaround each other to switch places.The pairs may not use this way ofswitching places.

● Instruct the participants that theyhave between 30 seconds and oneminute to switch places with theirpartners in as many different andcreative ways as possible.

● After the allotted time has passed,ask the participants to spend about10 seconds discussing their favoriteways to switch places with theirpartners.

● Quickly whip around the circleallowing each partnership to sharetheir favorite way of switchingplaces.

Chapter 3:Teambuilding Activities

Large

Group

Warm-Ups

18

Quick Debrief

● In this quick debrief, ask the groupmembers what it took to switchplaces with their partners.

● Many of the responses will includecommunication, teamwork/working together, trust, thinkingout of the box or thinking cre-atively, trying something new, andso on.

● Highlight that these are just someof the concepts that they will beworking on while doing team-building activities.

● Encourage the participants tounderstand that many of theactivities they will be involved withduring the teambuilding programhave meaning behind them. Even asimple activity such as being askedto switch places with a partner hasmeaning behind it.

Gotcha!

Description


When you have a few extra minutes tospend with the small group as well asvery large groups, Gotcha! is a funway to maintain your participants’interest and keep them focused on apositive, constructive, and—mostimportantly—fun activity!

Equipment Needs

A nimble mind and quick fingers


● With the participants standing in acircle, instruct them to put theirleft hands out with the flats of theirpalms facing up toward the sky.This hand should be placed aboutnavel-level and to their sides, moreor less in front of his/her left-handneighbor.

● Once everyone has their handspalm-up and out to their left, askthem to point the first fingers oftheir right hands up into the sky.

● Here’s where things get a bit tricky.Ask the participants to put theirright pointer fingers down in to theopen palms of their right-handneighbors.

● In other words, all participants willhave their left hands out with thepointer fingers of their left-handneighbors in them. And all partici-pants will have their right pointerfingers tip down in to the palms oftheir right-hand neighbors.

● On the facilitator’s count of “1, 2,3, Gotcha!” the participants will tryto do two things at the same time:(1) their left hands will be attempt-ing to grab the pointer fingers oftheir neighbors’ right hands while(2) their right fingers will beattempting to escape the clutches oftheir neighbors’ left hands.

Variations

● Instead of “1, 2, 3, Gotcha!” trytelling a story using three buzzwords such as challenge, trust, orteamwork. On these words theparticipants will attempt to do“gotcha!”

● Vary the people who do thecountdown.

● Vary the number sequence (forexample, “1, 5, 7, 10, Gotcha!”).

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Incorporations

Description


This activity promotes interaction andlaughter for large groups and consistsof participants incorporating them-selves into groups according to somecategory stated by the facilitator. Onceall of the participants have formedsmaller groups according to the statedcategory, the group celebrates theiruniqueness and the diversity of thelarger group.

Equipment Needs

None


● Explain to the larger group that ina moment they will be dividinginto smaller groups according tosome commonality. For example“Divide yourselves into groupsaccording to your favorite season!”At this time, all the people whoenjoy summer get into a group,winter lovers do the same, and soon.

● Begin with easy categories (groupsof four, six, by seasons, color ofshirts) and progress to moredifficult categories (one’s requiringmore communication) like favoritepizza topping or outdoor activity.

● The facilitator should emphasizethat the groups be distinct andseparate from one another so theycan be easily identified.

● Once groups are formed, thefacilitator points to each group andasks them to shout in unison whatgroup they have formed. If anothergroup has the same category, havethe two groups merge and celebratetogether.

● After all groups have been identi-fied, the facilitator shouts outanother type of division.

● Lots of enthusiasm from thefacilitator makes this activity highenergy and fun.

● Some other suggestions for incor-porations: eye color, hair color,color of shirt, state where born,favorite after school/work activity,favorite section of the newspaper,favorite flavor of ice cream, favoritepizza topping, favorite sport. Agood final incorporation is by birthmonth; when the groups haveformed, have them do the birthdaywave. January begins by yelling outtheir month followed immediatelyby February, and so forth.

Have You Ever?

Description


This activity offers an opportunity forparticipants to learn more about oneanother. One person in the middle ofa circle asks the other participants aquestion in the form of “Have youever . . . ?” If the question applies to aparticipant, he/she should move to anew spot in the circle.

Equipment Needs

One object for each participant tomark their “spots” in the circle (carpetsquares, pieces of wood, rings, chairs,and so on)


● Ask the participants to form a largecircle around the facilitator.

● Give each person an object to standon to mark their spots in the circle.Or to save time, you can arrangethe objects in a circle prior to thearrival of the group. You can alsouse a circle of chairs.

● The facilitator explains that he/shewill be asking a question that istrue for him/her in the form of“Have you ever . . . ?” If thisquestion applies to someone in thecircle, that person must find a new,unoccupied spot to stand. Youshould emphasize that each personshould go across the circle to find anew spot; discourage them frommoving to a spot right next to themor back to their starting positions.

● The first few questions should besomething that is true for most of

20

the participants. Some examples:Have you ever flown in an airplane?Been out of the country (Canadacounts!)? Won an award or prize?

● The facilitator should initiate threeor four “Have you ever . . . ?”questions. When the group has agood idea of how the game isplayed, the facilitator can find aplace to stand in the circle. Thiswill result in a participant beingstuck in the middle. This partici-pant must then ask a “Have youever . . . ?” question. Remind him/her that the question he/she asksmust be true for him/her.

● This activity can continue as longas it is still fun for those participat-ing or until time becomes alimiting factor.

● Some other questions you mighttry: Have you ever been in aparade? Performed CPR in anattempted life-saving situation?Written a letter to the editor? Beento a high school reunion after 20years? Stayed up all night studying/working? For even more great ideassee pages 142–156 in BottomlessBag by Karl Rohnke (Kendall/Hunt, 1994).

What to Look For

● If participants ask personal oroffensive questions, encouragethem to get back to appropriatequestions.

● When you sense that people havebegun to get bored, end up in themiddle on purpose and thencongratulate them on their participation.

Safety

● Once participants realize that theymight end up in the middle, theywill probably start to run and pushin order to find an unoccupiedspot. For safety reasons, this shouldbe strongly discouraged. If runningor pushing does occur, require thatthey walk across the circle.

Wobble, Wobble

Description


This wild and crazy variation of theold game Rock, Paper, Scissorsencourages participants to becomecomfortable with one another byallowing them to look silly and havefun together. The “winners” of eachsession evolve through several stages,from an egg to an ultra being.

Equipment Needs

A lot of eager and enthusiastic partici-pants


● The facilitator should review therules of Rock, Paper, Scissors withthe group, just in case someparticipants don’t know this oldfavorite. There are three handmotions: “rock” is represented by aclosed fist, “paper” by an openhand, and “scissors” by using yourindex and middle fingers form a“V.” On the count of three, eachperson displays one of these threehand gestures. To determine whowins, use the following: rock beatsscissors, scissors cuts paper, andpaper covers rock. If there is a tie,have them shoot again—that’srock, paper, scissors!!

● Enthusiastically demonstrating theactivity as you explain the rules isimportant. People are generallyleery of trying it at first, butusually jump right in when theysee the facilitator having so muchfun!

21

● Everyone in the group begins in acrouched “egg position.” Thesound that eggs make is a high-pitched “wobble, wobble, wobble.”

● The eggs wobble around and findanother egg to compete in Rock,Paper, Scissors. The winner of theshoot-out becomes a chicken; theloser stays an egg. Chickens standup, flap their wings, and makechicken sounds. Chickens competewith other chickens in the shoot-out. The winner of the chickenshoot-out becomes a dinosaur; theloser goes back to being an egg.The dinosaurs walk aroundgrowling with their arms over theirheads and compete in the shoot-out with other dinosaurs. Thewinner of the dinosaur shoot-outbecomes an ultra being; the losergoes back to the chicken stage. Theultra beings move to the sidelinesand cheer on the other competi-tors.

● The shoot-outs continue, eggs witheggs, chickens with chickens, andso on; winners advancing, losersdigressing until all that are left areone egg, one chicken, one dinosaur,and many ultra beings.

● Review once more the order: eggsbecome chickens, chickens becomedinosaurs, and dinosaurs becomeultra beings.

Debrief Issues

● Competition: Win/win versus win/lose philosophy

● Inclusion:Importance of inclusion at allstages of an activity/project. Forexample in a workplace theremay be older people (dinosaurs)and younger people (eggs). Howcan these two groups work well together? What problems may ariseand why?

Who Am I?

Description


This fun icebreaker works well withbig or small groups. Every participanthas a sticker with a person orcharacter’s name placed on his/herback. The participant is not told whothe person or character is on his or herback. Instead, the participant mustmingle with other participants andask’“yes” or “no” questions as he/shetries to determine “Who am I?”

Equipment Needs

Label stickers that are pre-written withthe name or a person or character. Theperson or character should be within acategory and a person that everybodyknows: actors, cartoon characters,super heroes, athletes, and so forth.


This activity is more difficult than itseems. So, keep the characters simple.

● Place the stickers on participants’backs.

● Tell the participants that they are“cartoon characters” or whatevercategory you have chosen.

● Do not allow anyone to outrighttell the participants “who they are.”

● Participants may ask up to two“yes” or “no” questions at a time toa single person as they try to guesswho they are.

● After one or two questions, partici-pants must then ask another persona question.

22

● Everyone must be mingling as theytry to figure out who they are.

● Once participants finally figure outwho they are, they can put theirstickers on their front sides andcontinue to answer other’s “yes” or“no” questions.

● Some people may get stuck andneed some help. As time runs out,you may allow them to ask morespecific questions.

Example

● Leader places the name “DonaldDuck” on my back and tells methat I am a cartoon character.

● I go up to the first person I see andask, “Am I a monster?”

● The person says, “No.”

● I ask the same person, “Am I a cat?”

● The person says, “No.”

● I then approach another personand ask, “Am I an animal?”

● The person says, “No,” because Iam a bird.

● I then ask another question until Ifigure out who I am.

Fun with Trash Balls

Description

Big Group: 15+Indoor or Outdoor

This interactive series of activities helpparticipants learn one another’s nameswhile encouraging fun and laughter.Watch out because trash balls will beflying in all directions, keeping allparticipants on their toes!

Equipment Needs

● Trash balls and trash boulders—you can construct trash balls andboulders using newspaper, plasticgrocery bags, and tape. For trashballs, wad up newspaper to make abasketball-sized ball. Then stuff thenewspaper into a plastic bag anduse tape to hold the ball together. Atrash boulder is simply a trash ballabout three times larger than aregular trash ball. For trash boulders,you will need larger plastic bags.

● You should have enough trash ballsor boulders on hand so that there isat least one for every two people.

● If you do not have enough time tomake trash balls/boulders, any softobjects can be used.


● This activity works best withgroups of 15 or more because thereis more opportunity for interactionand movement.

● Have the large group divide intoequal-sized circles of about 8–12participants. Toss one ball to eachcircle.

Level I

● Have the person with the ball startby saying his/her name loud andclear. Then ask him/her to toss theball to someone else in the circle.When the ball is caught, thecatcher should say his/her nameloud and clear. Have the partici-pants continue tossing the ball andsaying their own names untileveryone has had a chance to hearthe names at least twice.

● Continue with the ball toss—onlythis time have the entire group yellout the name of the person catch-ing the ball. Allow this to continueuntil it seems that all participantsare actively involved in the excla-mation of names. If you’re doingthis in an inside space, be preparedto plug your ears because the roomgets pretty loud.

● Finally, it’s time to test how manynames each person remembers!Before throwing the ball, thethrower must say the name of theperson to whom they’re throwing.

● Add more balls to each circle untilthere is one ball for every twopeople. Participants will be gettinghit with balls from all angles, therewill be a lot of laughter, andchances are it will be very loud—these are all normal observations.

23

Level II

● The fun begins now! Participantscontinue saying the names of thepeople they are throwing to, butnow there are commands that affecthow the participants will toss theballs. The commands are cross over,switch back, and scatter. Introducethese commands one at a time togive each person and the group thechance to practice.

● When they hear “cross over,” allparticipants holding a ball shouldcross to the other side of their owncircle and then continue throwingthe balls while saying names.

● When they hear “switch back,” allparticipants holding a ball shouldmove from their circle to a spot inthe other circle and then continuethrowing the balls while sayingnames. Since this is their firstopportunity to mix with a newgroup, encourage them to ask thenames of the new people. Givethem some time to learn these newnames before calling anothercommand.

● When they hear “scatter,” allparticipants should scatter throughout the room and continue throwing the balls to anyone while sayingnames. People must, however, staywhere they are standing. This is ablast! By this time everyone shouldknow one another’s names.

Level III

● The next sequence is slightly morecomplex and involves some concen-tration and coordination by allparticipants. To begin, give eachcircle one trash ball. By tossing thetrash ball they should establish apattern so that all participants inthe circle catch the ball once. Tellthem that you will be referring tothis sequence as “sequence I” andthat it’s important that theyremember to whom they toss theball and from whom they receivethe ball.

● To start, have everyone put theirhands up ready to catch the ball. Aseach person catches the ball, havethem lower their hands so that it isobvious who has not yet caught theball. The sequence should beginand end with the same person.Encourage them to continue usingnames of the people they toss theball to as they toss the ball.

● Have the participants practice thissequence a few times. After you’resure they have it, add more trashballs that have to be tossed in thesame sequence to each circle untilthere is about one ball for everytwo people.

● Ask each circle to put down alltrash balls except one. Tell themthat they will now be creating anew sequence but that they shouldstill remember the original one.You will be referring to this newsequence as “sequence II.” As withsequence I, remembering to whomthey toss the ball and from whomthey receive it in this new sequenceis important.

● Have them start this secondsequence with a different person sothat differentiating it from the firstis easier. Repeat the steps listedabove until all participants arecomfortable with sequence II usingmultiple trash balls. Again, empha-size the importance of remember-ing to whom they toss the ball andfrom whom they receive it.

● To make sure they really have thesequences down, have each circleshow you their sequence I andsequence II patterns with one trashball.

● Participants should now have twosequences memorized. Now it’stime to confuse them! Explain thatyou’ll be introducing some com-mands as they toss the ball. Thecommands are sequence I, sequenceII, and cross over.

● When they hear “sequence I” or“sequence II” they should goimmediately into that new se-quence starting with the personwho has the ball when the com-mand is said.

● Add some trash balls now untilthere is one ball for every twopeople.

● Now you can reintroduce the “crossover” command from before. Whenthey hear that command, anyoneholding a trash ball should moveacross their own circles andcontinue with whatever sequencewas being used.

● Play around with calling out“sequence I,“sequence II,” and“cross over.” As long as people arehaving fun, you might try throwingin a “reverse,” or be creative andmake up your own commands!

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Chaos!

Description

Big GroupIndoor or Outdoor

This interactive game allows for lots ofpeople to interact within small teamsall at once—hence “Chaos!” Chaoscan be done with any amount ofpeople, but it’s best to have at least 30.The large group needs to be dividedinto smaller teams of 6–10 people.Once the smaller teams are estab-lished, each will be given a piece ofpaper with several commands listed.During the activity, each of the smallgroups will be doing one of thecommands at different times, provid-ing for true chaos, lots of laughter,and fun.

Equipment Needs

Enough lists with descriptions ofcommands for each small group

Examples for lists:

1. Choose your favorite holiday songand sing this loudly to the wholegroup.

2. Without speaking, arrange yourselves by order of your birthday—month and day only (do notinclude the year). When you aredone, sing “Happy Birthday”(LOUDLY) to the person who hasthe closest birthday to today.

3. Work together to attach a clothes-pin to a member of another groupwithout that person knowing. Ifyou have more time, try to attachanother clothespin to a differentperson.

4. Share with your group members ahero that you have and why thatperson is a hero to you.

5. If you could have a conversationwith anyone in the world through-out all of history, who would it beand why? Please share your answerswith the members of your smallgroup.

6. Who has the oldest living relativein your group? The youngest? Whohas traveled the farthest? Who hasthe smallest shoe size? The largest?What other fun things can youshare about yourselves?

7. Within your group agree on afavorite dessert (ice cream, applepie, brownies, and so on) and thenannounce this loudly to the wholegroup (example: “We LOVEchocolate mousse!”). Repeat foryour favorite season and yourfavorite free-time activity.

8. Planes, trains, and automobiles!Decide which mode of travel yourgroup as a whole prefers most.Using all your group members,demonstrate this mode of travel inand around the other groups.


● Divide the large group up intosmaller groups of 6–10 people.

● Pass out a piece of paper with theguidelines listed for each com-mand.

● Instruct the groups that the leaderwill be calling out a number. Oncethey hear the number, each smallteam must do the action listedunder that number on theirinstruction sheets.

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Partner Tag

Description


Everybody grab a partner! Thisactivity is a great one to play with anysize group. Each participant is tryingto tag his/her partner. Once the taghas taken place, partners switch roles.


Establish a boundary free of obstaclesand large enough to allow easymovement by all participants in thegroup.

● Have each participant find apartner; if there is an odd numberthe facilitator gets to play. Yippee!

● Have participants decide who willbe “It” first. To start, the peoplewho are”“It” make a 360-degreeturn and then pursue their part-ners. Once they tag their partners,their partners will make a 360-degree turn and become “It.” Thiscontinues until the energy levelgoes down or time becomes alimiting factor.

● You may wish to stop the gameafter a few minutes and haveparticipants pick new partners.Then play again!

● If participants go outside theboundary, they are automaticallyconsidered tagged and become “It.”

Variations

● If the boundary area is small or ifyou question whether the groupcan keep one another safe, requirethat everyone walk rather than runto tag their partners.

Safety

● Tags should be made below thearmpits. No head shots!

● Make sure the playing area is free ofobstacles.

● Caution participants to be carefulwhen they are running. People willbe moving fast in all directions andcollisions are possible.

Small

Group

Warm-Ups

26

Maps of the World

Description

Small GroupIndoor or Outdoor

Maps of the World is a great activityto help people get to know oneanother as they hear about each other’sdreams or experiences in specificplaces around the United States oreven the world. This activity involvescreating a’“map” on the floor orground using a long rope or tape.Having the facilitator create an outlineof the United States on the floor/ground large enough for the wholegroup to stand inside is easiest. Ofcourse, people may also stand outsidein other countries as well—thoughthey may be imaginary because theoutline has not been created.

Equipment Needs

● A long rope or masking tape

● Open floor space or open areaoutside


● Explain to the group that the shapeon the floor is the United States.

● Ask the group a question. Forexample: Where do you want to goto college?

● The participants should thendecide where they would like to goto college andphysically standthere. For example, if I wanted togo to Penn State, I would findwhere I think Pennsylvania is onthe map and then stand where Ithink State College might be.(Many people might not have goodgeography skills. That’s okay; tellthem to guess or ask somebody.)

● Now that everyone is standing in alocation, the facilitator should askeach person where they are andwhy they want to go to schoolthere.

● One at a time, group members willshare this information with thegroup.

Variations

● Ask two or three questions tolengthen the activity and learnmore about the group members.

Question Ideas

● If you could go anywhere on yourdream vacation, where would yougo?

● Where is one of the coolest placesyou’ve ever been?

● What is your family’s ethnic origin?

Swat Tag/Mosquito Tag

Description


This tag game is a great energizer thatcan get the whole group interactingand having fun together. Be very, very,careful because the mosquitoes thatdwell in the woods are on the prowl.If stung, your body will become rocksolid!

Equipment Needs

● Open space free of obstacles

● Foam “boppers” like a swimmingpool noodle or some other soft,flexible tubing such as pipe insula-tors


● The facilitator should create aninteresting story describing the talebehind the giant mosquitoes inPennsylvania.

● One or two participants (more fora large group) will be mosquitoesduring the activity and be equippedwith foam boppers (proboscis).

● The remaining participants try toavoid the sting (tag) of the giantmosquitoes. As participants arestung (tagged by a foam bopper),they must stand in the spot wherethey were tagged until freed byuntagged participants.

● Tagged participants can be freed byuntagged participants when two

27

untagged participants clasp handsaround the tagged participant.When they are joined around thetagged individual, they must jumpup and down three times whilerepeating the words “mosquitoesdon’t exist” three times. At thistime the tagged participant hasbeen saved and can try to avoid thedeadly sting of the mosquito again.

● Before beginning the game, setboundaries appropriate for the sizeof the group. For fewer participantsuse only one mosquito (bopper).For larger groups (greater than 25),you may wish to have two partici-pants carry boppers.

● The game can continue as long as itstill appears fun. You will have tobegin again if the mosquitoes aresuccessful in stinging (tagging) allparticipants. Also, you may wish tochange mosquitoes during thegame to give others opportunitiesto chase and tag.

● If participants run out of theestablished boundary, they auto-matically become “frozen.”

Safety

● Make all participants aware of thehazards in the boundaries such asrocks, trees, stumps, gardens,telephone poles, and so on.

● Emphasize that all tags should bemade below the armpits. No headshots!

Add-On Tag

Description


This high-action thriller is sure to be ahit with any group. In this activityyou will observe people chasing, beingchased, and bopping (below thearmpits of course). It is a great activityto start the day by getting everyonewarmed up and having fun.


● Establish a boundary free ofobstacles.

● To begin, have two people volun-teer to be “It.” They will clasphands, and in their free hands theywill carry boppers. They will usethe boppers to tag other partici-pants who are scattered within theboundary.

● Once tagged, the participant mustjoin the two chasers by claspinghands with one of them and takingthe bopper. The three can then runaround and attempt to bop otherparticipants. This bopping contin-ues until most participants havebeen tagged and a long chain ofpeople has formed.

● If participants run out of theboundary or attempt to runthrough the middle of the chain,they automatically are caught andmust “add on” to the chain.

● The chain must be all connectedfor the tag to count.

Variations

● You may wish to have threepermanent boundaries and onemobile boundary (the facilitatorcan be the fourth boundary). Thisway, if the beginning chain is slowand having a hard time tagging,you can move in and make theplaying space smaller. As the chaingrows, you can move out to expandthe field.

Safety

● Be very observant to how the chainof boppers maneuvers around theplaying area. Some people may runfast and drag others behind them.The chain may take a quick turncreating a “whip effect” at the end.When the chain gets longer, thetwo ends may decide to go inopposite directions; this couldcause some problems for those inthe middle of the chain. If you seea potentially dangerous situation,stop the activity immediately.

● Do not allow participants to runthrough the middle of the chain toavoid being tagged!

● Make sure the playing area is free ofall obstacles.

● Emphasize that all bopping shouldtake place below the armpits. Nohead shots!

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Adventure Name Game

Description


Need a fun activity to learn names?This activity is great—very active andincorporates a lot of individualcreativity.

Equipment Needs

An open and flat surface


● To begin, have the group form aloose circle.

● Ask each person to think of a wordand action that describes someadventure activity that they enjoy.

● Have a participant volunteer tostart and ask him/her to demon-strate by saying his/her adventureword followed by his/her name. Forexample, if someone enjoys run-ning, he might run in place whilesaying, “Running Mike.” Theentire group then repeats both theaction and the name. As thefacilitator, you will have to encour-age this in the beginning.

● Continue around the circle, havingthe person to the left go next. Afterthey share their actions and names,the group begins by saying anddoing the first person’s adventurename followed by the secondperson’s adventure name. Thiscontinues until all participants havehad an opportunity to share theiradventure names and actions.

● As a facilitator, many will look toyou for leadership and help withthe names.

Variations

● After everyone has a turn, point toa person in the circle and haveeveryone demonstrate his or heradventure name.

● You may want to take out theadventure part and have themsimply share an action for something they like to do such asshopping, cooking, fixing cars, andso forth.

What to Look For

● If you do this activity at thebeginning, you will have theopportunity to assess your group.You should be able to see thingssuch as who the risk takers are, whothe followers are, who the come-dian is, and so on.

Safety

● Some people may incorporate veryvigorous actions into their adven-ture names. Caution those whomay not be able to mimic theseactions.

● Emphasize that the actions peoplechoose should be appropriate sothat all participants can do them.For example, no back flips.

Hi, Lo, Yo

Description


This game is fun, interactive, and haslots of laughs. It can be a greatenergizer between activities or useful ifyou are waiting for another group.Participants stand in a circle and usehand motions, while verbally continu-ing the sequence “Hi, Lo, Yo, Hi, Lo,Yo” and so on.

Equipment Needs

An open and flat surface


● Explain to the group that eachparticipant will be responsible forcontinuing the Hi, Lo, Yo verbalsequence throughout the course ofthe activity. Each word has acorresponding hand motion. For“Hi,” participants place either theirleft or right hands flat open undertheir chins. For “Low,” participantsplace either their left or right handsflat open across their foreheads. For“Yo,” participants put their twohands together and point toanother participant in the circle.Have all participants practice thesequence with hand motions,following the facilitator’s lead.

● Next, explain that using the handmotions, the participants in thecircle will continue the sequence.Start with one person, that personwill say, “Hi,” with the correspond-ing hand motion. The hand thatthe person uses will determine thedirection the sequence will con-tinue. For example, if the first

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person uses his/her right hand, his/her fingers will be pointing to theleft; therefore, the sequence willcontinue to the left and that personwill say, “Lo,” with the correspond-ing hand motion. If this participantuses his/her left hand, fingers willbe pointing to the right and thesequence will continue to the right.

● The game of “Hi, Lo, Yo” isintended to be fast moving—soencourage participants to continuethe sequence as fast as possible.This can create confusion. If aparticipant hesitates, uses thewrong hand motion, yells out thewrong word in the sequence, or isjust too darn slow, all participantsin the circle stick out their thumbs(like hitch hikers) and yell, “You’reoutta here!” As with all activities,everyone should be involved for theduration of the game. Those“ejected” from the playing circlehave a very important role: theybecome “hecklers.” The heckler’sduty is to move around the outsideof the playing circle while attempt-ing to disrupt the sequence andmess up others.

● Continue playing until only two orthree people remain in the playingcircle, leaving the remainder of thepeople on the outside creating a lotof chaos. Then start over or comeback to the activity later in the dayto pep up the group. Have fun!

What to Look For

● Participants may be confused onhow the use of the right or the lefthand determines the direction ofthe sequence.

● Hecklers might not do their job.Instead they may huddle togetherand just watch. They should beencouraged to make some noise—this is the best part of the game.

Safety

● Encourage people not to yell tooloudly, especially into each other’sears.

Debrief Issues

● Communication:What were the barriers? How didthe hecklers disturb the sequence?

● Fun:What is the purpose and need forfun and laughter?

● Cooperation:How do the hecklers affect theactivity? What type of distractionsdo you have at school or work?

Interview

Description


You can use this activity to acquaintmembers of a newly formed group orhelp an intact group learn more aboutone another. All participants interviewtheir partners using their own ques-tions or ones that the facilitatorassigns. After the interview process,each person is introduced to the groupby his/her partner. By learning moreabout one another, the group becomesfamiliar with each other, thus estab-lishing trust.

Equipment Needs

Paper and pencil, but it can be donewithout


● Ask people to pair up with anotherperson in the group whom theydon’t know very well. If the grouphas an odd number of people, youshould partner with someone in thegroup.

● Ask each person to develop twointerview questions that they’d liketo ask their partners. The questionscan deal with anything about thatperson, but shouldn’t be toopersonal. Encourage them to becreative in designing their ques-tions.

● Make sure that you tell the partici-pants that their answers will bedisclosed to the entire group.

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● The following are some samplequestions you might want tosuggest:

● What do you want to be mostremembered for?

● What is your proudest accom-plishment?

● If you could be any animal, whatwould it be and why?

● What person, not related to you,has had the most influence onyour life? How?

● Make up a book title to describeyour life. Why did you choosethis?

● How would your best frienddescribe you?

● What was your most embarrass-ing moment?

● If you could go anywhere in theworld without worrying abouttime or money, where wouldyou go? Why?

● If you could invite anyone todinner, who would it be? Why?

● What is your earliest memory?● Who would you pick to play

your life in a movie? Why?● While walking to your next

activity, have the pairs conducttheir interviews. At the halfwaypoint, ask them to switch andask the other person theirquestions.

● Have the group sit in a circle. Askfor a volunteer to start, or youcould simply go around the circle.Ask them to introduce theirpartners by saying their partner’sname and some of the informationthat they found out during theinterview.

● As a facilitator, this is a good timefor you to memorize the names ofthe participants in your group. Youmay even want to unobtrusivelywrite down their names for futurereference.

Variations

● Give each pair a ring or aerobe tothrow to one another as a way tomove down the trail. Encouragethem to toss the ring so it encirclesthe hands and arms of theirpartners. They can only moveforward to catch the ring from theirpartner.

● If there are specific things that youthink the group would benefit fromknowing, you may want to set oneor two of the interview questionsyourself. For example:

● What career are you interestedin pursuing?

● What organizations do youbelong to and why did you join?

● If they know one another, ask themto share one thing that they don’tthink anyone in the group knowsabout them.

● Another option for a group thatknows one another well is to askthem to introduce one anotherwithout first doing an interview.Have the group form a circle. Asksomeone to start by introducinganother person in the circle. Havehim/her say the name of the personand as much information as he/sheknows about them. The personwho was introduced goes next. Asthe activity continues, the tensionmounts since the least-knownmembers are usually last. Allow theinterviewees to correct any misin-formation or add more facts if theywant. Finding out how little weknow about people we spend lotsof time with is amazing.

What to Look For

● Some people have better memoriesthan others. After the interviewersshare their information, allow theinterviewees to add or correct anyinformation that has been shared.

● Some participants, especiallyyounger ones, may have a hardtime sitting still and being quietduring the sharing. Remind themthat while someone is sharing,everyone needs to listen.

Safety

● People may disclose personalinformation in their interviewswithout realizing that it will beshared with the entire group. Besure to stress at the beginning thatwhat they discuss with theirpartners will be shared unless theyask otherwise.

● Watch out for the emotional safetyof people as they are introduced. Ifsomeone shares something personaland you sense that the intervieweeis uncomfortable with having thatinformation disclosed, check inwith the interviewee and ask if he/she would prefer that we move on.

Debrief Issue

● Trust:Comfort in disclosing personalinformation about oneself to thegroup.

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People Bingo

Description


This activity is great for getting peopleto mingle with one another. Eachmember of the group should receive a“bingo card.” In each square of thegrid is a simple question or statement.The card holder must mingle aroundwith group members and find aperson for whom the statement is trueor a person who is able to answer thequestion. The goal is to complete theentire card.

Equipment Needs

You can create the bingo cards onscrap paper or you can type up andprint them (see appendix for anexample). Create questions that youthink are appropriate for the agegroup. Each person should get a cardand a pen or pencil.


● Create the bingo cards in advance.Be sure to have one for eachparticipant. Questions cards can bethe same or varied with differentquestions. For example, has aunique scar, has been to DisneyWorld, has run in a race, loves thecolor purple, has more than twosiblings, likes to draw.

● As the participants find people whocan answer the questions, theymust get that person to put his/hersignature or initials in the box.

● The participants should mingleuntil their cards are complete.Ensuring that most people havetheir cards complete—as opposedto turning it into a competition—isbest.

● You may set up guidelines such as“you may only have one person’ssignature a total of two times.” Thisguideline keeps participants fromhanging out with only one or twopeople the entire time. Createguidelines based on group size.

● You may also decide whether youwant participants to complete theirentire cards or just five squares in arow—like BINGO.

Debriefing

● When the activity is complete, getthe group to stand in a circle andshare one or two interesting thingsthey might have learned aboutsomebody through this activity.

Special Friend

Description


This activity brings closure to the dayby allowing members to share theirobservations of the positive qualitiesand contributions of their teammembers. Each person observes oneother person throughout the day andthen shares these observations as thelast activity.

Equipment Needs

Small slips of paper and a pencil foreach participant


● Give each person a slip of paperand pencil.

● Ask them to write their first names(and last names if there are dupli-cate first names) on the paper andfold it in half.

● Collect the paper and pencils. Youmay want to ask for someone tovolunteer a hat for collecting thepapers.

● Walk around and have each personpick a name from the hat, keepingthe identity of the person theychoose a secret.

● If someone picks his/her ownname, have them replace it andpick again.

● Tell the group that you are going togive them the opportunity toobserve the positive contributionsthat their teammates make duringthe day. The idea of being watchedmakes people nervous, so remind

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them to only observe activity-related things, not how they atelunch. Ask them to notice specificways that their “special friends”helped the group accomplish itsgoals. Emphasize that this is anattempt to “put up” ratherthan “put down” people, so youwant them to look for only positivecontributions.

● At the end of the day, allow for atleast 15 minutes to go around thecircle asking for each member toshare observations of their specialfriends.

● You can ask for a volunteer to gofirst and then allow his/her specialfriend to go next, thereby havingthe sharing process facilitate whogoes next.

Variations

● Including yourself in the SpecialFriends activity gives you theopportunity to share first, thussetting the stage for the types ofcomments you’d like them to share.

● Not including yourself allowsmembers of the group to hear fromone another rather than fromsomeone who is not in their intactteam.

● Allow the people to share theirobservations first and then revealtheir special friends or vice versa.You may also ask the group to guesswhom the person is describing.

● Celebrate and acknowledge eachperson who has been “put up” bythanking them for their effort.

What to Look For

● Ensure that throughout the day,people keep the names of theirspecial friends a secret.

● If the group doesn’t know oneanother well, go around the circleand have everyone say their namesonce more so everyone can be sureof whom they should observe.

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Inner Tube Pass (Circlethe Circle)

Description


This activity physically connects agroup. The goal is to pass a hoop ortube around a circle without breakingthe hand-in-hand chain.

Equipment Needs

● 2 hula hoops of different sizes

● A bicycle inner tube


● Ask the group to form a hand-in-hand circle.

● Place two large hoops between twopeople (resting on their graspedhands).

● Tell the group that their goal is tomove the hoops, in oppositedirections, around the circle.

● The group cannot break the hand-in-hand circle during theactivity.

● Pretty quickly, people will figureout that in order to pass the hoopsthey will need to climb throughthem and then help their partnersdo the same.

● Keep encouraging the participantswhile the hoops are passed. Thencelebrate the team’s success oncethe hoops are back to their startingplaces.

Variations

● You can also do this activity for atimed record.

● After the team successfully rotatestwo large hoops, try it with twosmaller ones or try a bicycle innertube for an even bigger challenge.

What to Look For

● If you didn’t give them any hintson how to solve the activity, you’llprobably initially observe a lot ofquestioning about how it’s evenpossible to do. Fairly quicklysomeone gets the idea and the teamis off and doing the activity.

● People will laugh a lot as theysquirm and wiggle through thehoops.

● Some people may feel a bit nervousregarding body size. Use goodjudgment with the size of thehoops. Everyone should be able tofit through the largest hoops.

Safety

● Be sure to spot people as they movethrough the hoops.

● Encourage people to help oneanother in order to make thepassing as safe as possible.

● People with back or knee injuriesmay not be able to do the bendingand stretching necessary for thisactivity.

Level I

Activities

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Debrief Issues

● Competition:Seeing the group’s response whenyou ask,’“Who won?” after bothhoops have circled the circle isinteresting. The team soon realizesthat the entire group must worktogether for the problem to besuccessful. Everyone wins!

● Communication:How did people know what to dowhen it was their turn to pass thehoop? What types of communica-tion did they use?

● Teamwork:Was this an individual challenge,team challenge, pairs challenge, orall three? Why?

Mix and Match

Description

Small Group: 15–30Indoor

You can use this activity as an ice-breaker or level I activity. This activityis a lot like the popular game ofScrabble and is a great way to getpeople working together.

Equipment Needs

● More than 30 3-inch-by-5-inchnote cards (colors are nice), or pa-per (81/2 inches by 11 inches, cutinto quarters)

● Colored markers

● An low-wind, open area that isinside or outside to lay down thecards

Target Group

Anyone able to spell words (or otherscan help those who are still workingon it)

Time Range

10–20 minutes


● Give each player a 3 x 5 card and amarker.

● Ask them to secretly write a vowelon one side of the card—nice andbig—and a consonant on the otherside (any two letters they want).

● When everyone is ready, ask themto get into groups of three or fourpeople. To make a valid group, theplayers have to match their cardsup in some way (they can use eitherside of their card, but not both atthe same time)—spell a word,letters in a row, make up a newword, whatever way the group canjustify its existence.

● Now ask the group to arrange allthe cards (either the vowel orconsonant side) into words (realones this time).

● Every word must be attached insome way to another word—like abig crossword puzzle.

● You can give out some wildcards,but everyone in the group mustagree on the wildcard letter.

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Debrief Issues

● What letters did you choose? Anyreason why you chose them?

● Did we discover any new words?

● What was hard about the activity?

● Once your card was used, what didyou do?

● Was there a leader in the process?

● How was the leader appointed?

● What/Who was helpful during theactivity?

● How did you choose to fit in?

Resources

Eugene Raudsepp. Creative GrowthGames. New York: Jove, 1977.ISBN 0-1562-2735-5. Out of print.

Chris Cavert and Laurie Frank. Games(and other stuff ) for Teachers: Activitiesthat Promote Pro-Social Learning.Oklahoma City: Wood N Barnes,1999.ISBN 1-8854-7322-2.

A What?

Description


This activity demonstrates variousaspects of communicating effectivelyand points out some common com-munication barriers. Participants passtwo objects in opposite directionsaround a circle. Before they pass theobjects, participants ask and answer aquestion regarding the object. Similarto the children’s game Telephone, themessage sometimes takes on newmeaning, and frequently someoneforgets which direction to pass orspeak. Creative objects and clevernames make this a really fun activity.

Equipment Needs

Choose from things such as puppets,stuffed animals, rubber squeaky toys,or other objects that allow clever,tongue-twister names. Choose nameswith the same beginning sounds sothat participants have a chance tolaugh.


● Ask the group to form a circle.

● Explain that you are going to passtwo objects around the circle, andthat as the objects are passed, youwill tell the group what they are.

● Turn to the person to your left andtell him/her what the object is:“Toria, this is a brown bucktoothbeaver.”

● Have Toria ask you, “A what?”Then repeat the name of the objectfor her, “A brown bucktoothbeaver.”

● Hand the object to Toria and askher to begin the process with theperson to her left.

● Toria then turns to Mike and says,“Mike, this is a brown bucktoothbeaver.”

● Mike asks Toria, “A what?” Shethen turns back to you and asks, “Awhat?”

● You reply, “A brown bucktoothbeaver.” She turns to Mike andsays, “A brown bucktooth beaver,”and hands the object to Mike.

● Explain that they will continue topass the object left until it returnsto you and that the “a what?”question and the answer returnedto the passer must travel back toyou each time before they may passthe object.

● Take the object back and demon-strate with the second object, onlythis time passing it to the person toyour right.

● After you feel the entire groupunderstands the sequence, begin bypassing the first object to the leftand the second object to the right.

● Your task is to remain a part of thecircle and announce the objects’names each time the “a what?”question comes back to you.

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Variations

● Stop the activity after the objectspass one another in the circle,especially if you have a large group.Otherwise, the activity can take alot of time.

What to Watch For

● People will frequently forget to passthe “a what?” question back aroundthe circle and may need gentlereminders.

● Watch the person who is lucky(unlucky?) enough to have bothobjects passed to them at the sametime at the cross-over point. Howflustered is he/she? Do the peoplearound her/him help?

Safety

● Ensure that objects are not tossedat one another.

Debrief Issues

● Communication:What happened as the communica-tion chain got longer? Where wasthe weakest point? Why?

● Teamwork:What were some specific examplesof how the group supported oneanother? When did you feel most apart of the team? Did you ever feelthat you were working alone?

● Frustration:At what point did you sensefrustration during this activity? Ifyou did, how did it affect the team?How did it affect you? How did itaffect the outcome?

Ball Toss I—Group Juggle

Description

Small Group: Max. 20Indoor or Outdoor

This activity emphasizes the impor-tance of communication and anindividual’s contribution to a groupgoal. It involves tossing a ball (orother soft throwable object) from oneparticipant to another across a circle,forming a pattern. Without thegroup’s knowledge, the facilitator willthen add more objects to the patternso that the group attempts to jugglethe objects between them. A furthergoal may be to have the group juggleall of the objects at once.

Equipment Needs

Choose soft objects that won’t hurt ifsomeone is hit. Koosh balls, Nerfballs, stuffed animals, rubber chick-ens, and so forth all make greatobjects to toss. Use as many objects asyou have participants. Choose objectsthat are different sizes and requiredifferent throwing/catching tech-niques. This helps in debriefing bydiscussing how issues come in differ-ent shapes and sizes.


● Ask the group to form a loosecircle; include yourself in the circle.

● Announce that you are going tothrow a ball to a person across thecircle, and that person will thenthrow the ball to another person onthe other side of the circle, con-tinuing until everyone has caughtthe ball. The object is to create apattern by tossing the ball toeveryone in the group.

● Before throwing the object, youmust say the name of the person towhom you are throwing. Thisperson then says the name ofanother person across the circle andthrows the object.

● This throw-and-catch actioncontinues until everyone in thecircle has thrown and caught theobject. The sequence should startand end with you.

● Emphasize that each person has toremember to whom they threw theball and from whom they receivedit.

● To facilitate this throwing/receivingprocess, ask each person who hasnot yet received the ball to holdboth hands up in a receivingposition and to put their handsdown after they have received theball.

● Perform the tossing sequence a fewmore times or until you feel thegroup has become comfortablewith the sequence.

● During the second or third round,when the first object is aboutmidway through the sequence,surprise the group by adding moreobjects until there are about asmany objects as people. Encouragethe group to pick up droppedobjects and keep them in play.

● To end the activity, remove theballs from play as they are tossed toyou.

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Variations

● As a continuation of the activity,have the group attempt to jugglethese multiple objects. First, ask thegroup what the goals of jugglingare:

● keep objects in the air withoutdrops

● rotate objects multiple timesthrough the sequence

● form a consistent pattern

● Ask the group members how manyobjects they feel they can juggle atonce.

● Based on the experience from thesurprise group juggle, what aresome things the participants canchange to help them be successful.For example:

● space objects more consistently● some people will throw high,

others low● don’t throw an object until the

person is ready to receive it

● Have the group attempt to jugglethe objects through the sequence atleast once. If they drop objects,encourage them to continue thejuggle anyway.

● Ask again how the participants canimprove the process. Readjust andtry once more.

What to Look For

● People to whom you unexpectedlytossed the objects will undoubtedlyhave surprised looks on their faces.Be sure to ask them how they felt.

● Notice whether some people arethrowing objects without firstmaking sure that their receivers areready to catch.

● Are some people stockpilingobjects?

● After doing the group juggle severaltimes they’ll undoubtedly get betterand sometimes will even begin toget bored—the excitement levelusually drops off at this point.

● People may stop using namesbefore throwing the objects.

Safety

● Be sure to use soft objects thatwon’t hurt people who get hit.

● Stress that people should toss, notthrow, the objects.

Debrief Issues

● Communication:What forms of communication didthe participants use? What were thecommunication barriers? Withwhom did each person communi-cate most/least?

● Goals:What was the individual goal?What was the group goal? Howwere these different or the same?What were some barriers toachieving the goals?

● Teamwork:What were some specific exampleswhere the team worked togetherwell? Examples where it didn’t?How did the team improve?

● Problem Solving:What process did the team use toimprove the group juggle? Wereeveryone’s ideas heard? Did everyone buy in? How did that affect thegoal?

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Ball Toss II—Warp Speed

Description

Indoor or OutdoorSmall Group: Max. 20

This activity builds on Ball Toss I(previously described) by emphasizingproblem solving and doing more withless. This time, the group passes oneobject forward and another objectbackward through an establishedsequence in a circle.

Equipment Needs

Choose two objects that are fairlysimilar in size and shape, but aredistinct from one another (for ex-ample, a rubber frog and a Kooshball). Participants should be able toeasily grasp them in one hand.


● Keeping the sequence established inBall Toss I, introduce two objectsinto the circle—one goes forwardthrough the sequence (frog =forward), while the other goesbackward (ball = backward).

● Ask everyone to point to the personto whom they will throw the frog.It should be the same person towhom they’ve been throwing allalong. Ask everyone to point to theperson to whom they will throwthe ball. It should be the personfrom whom they received in thefirst sequence.

● Practice this once to make sure thatthe team gets the sequence down—especially the backward sequence.Time this sequence without thegroup’s knowledge to get a generalidea of long it will take.

● Do the sequence again. This timelet the group members know youare timing them to get an averagetime that it takes for them toaccomplish the task.

● Tell the group the average time ittook and facilitate them toward aconsensus regarding a time goal foraccomplishing this task. Ask forinput from around the circle to getvarious responses, but get the teamto agree on an initial time goal.

● Once the participants establishtime goal, try the sequence againand see how close they get to thegoal. Try again if the team fails toachieve the goal.

● Challenge the group to develop themost time-efficient method formoving the balls through thesequence. How quick can theybecome?

● Celebrate each successful attempt!

● End this activity when the teamagrees that it can no longer greatlyimprove its efficiency.

Variations

● You may want to push the groupmembers by asking them to cuttheir time in half. This will seemimpossible to some people and willhopefully cause them to think“outside the box” to come up witha solution. (Changing the order sothat people are next to the personthey are giving to or receiving fromwill cut a lot of time off—don’tgive it away, though!)

● After celebrating this, ask them tocut it yet again; you’ll get a lot ofblank stares and hopefully somecreative solutions.

● The story line my be somethinglike, “I really appreciate the effortthat this group has put into cuttingthe time of this process, but ourcustomers need the ‘product’ evenfaster.”

● You may want to introduce thefollowing problem-solving tech-nique if the group is unable to finda way to cut its time: Divide thegroup into smaller teams (three orfour people per group). Ask themto brainstorm ideas for cutting thetime and to appoint a spokespersonfor their groups. After severalminutes, ask the spokespeople totell the rest of the groups the one ortwo ideas they came up with.Encourage everyone to listenwithout commenting as eachspokesperson shares their group’sideas. Now have the spokespeopledecide which one idea they want totry to implement.

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What to Look For

● Some people in the group maypush for unrealistic time goals orthey may set goals that are veryeasily reached. Encourage them topick challenging, but realistic,goals.

● The group may improve steadilyand then level out.

● The group may achieve a particulartime goal and decide that it cannotimprove beyond it.

● Some members of the group mayresist restructuring.

● A group can get its time down toone or two seconds! Some strategiesinclude:

● speeding up the toss andthrowing harder (be aware ofsafety issues)

● repositioning to being as closeas possible

● suggesting various body angles(one leg in, one leg out, and soon)

● reforming into a line accordingto the sequence

● reforming the circle according tothe sequence

● Notice if the group membersdropped the use of names in aneffort to be efficient.

● Observe how this team workstoward a consensus and how theyattempt to solve problems. You canuse observations to assess the teamfor later activities.

Safety

● Use a flat and open area

Debrief Issues

● Problem Solving:How did the group members comeup with their solutions? Dideveryone have a chance to contrib-ute or were only a few peopleinvolved? Which solutions provedto be the most useful? Where werethe breakdowns? How did partici-pants feel if they weren’t one of thespokespersons/decision makers inthe consensus part of the activity?

● Leadership:Were there any leaders during thisactivity? What was their role? Was aleader necessary? What were theother roles?

● Goals:What did the group lose and/orgain as it established efficiency inthe task?

● Teamwork:What were some examples of goodteam process?

Line-Ups

Description


This good introductory activity allowspeople to interact with one another ina nonthreatening way and can lead togood discussions about communica-tion. The goal is for the group to lineup in various configurations that thefacilitator assigns.

Equipment Needs

None


● Ask the group members to stand ina line so that they are shoulder toshoulder.

● Ask them to line themselves up inany of the following orders (theseget increasingly more challenging;read your group and see what youthink they can do—then do onelevel higher!):

● Height, hair length (visual cluesare obviously easy and a goodway to start)

● Shoe size, number of siblings,number of pets, birthday(month and day)

● Alphabetically by name, favoriteflavor of ice cream, cities/stateswhere they were born, cities/states where they live, favoriteanimal, and so on

● When the participants indicate thatthey are finished, ask them theirorder and encourage them tocelebrate their success.

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● Next, have them line up in adifferent order, but this timewithout talking.

● When they are done, ask themtheir order and celebrate theirsuccess.

Variations

● Have the group stand on a rope orline up in a circle or half circle.

● Remove another method ofcommunication by telling thegroup that the next lineup will bewithout talking and seeing. Ensurethem that you will watch them.After all group members areblindfolded, you should movethem around so that they arespread out. Next, walk around andwhisper a number to each. Tellthem that you have given eachmember a number and that thechallenge is for them to line up,holding hands in sequential order.

What to Look For

● How did they communicate withone another?

● Did they help one another or didthey work individually?

● Who was frustrated? How did thataffect the group (especially with theblind lineup)?

Safety

● When blindfolded, encouragepeople to keep their “bumpers up”when moving around.

● You will need to steer people backto the group if they start to wanderoff.

● Ensure that the area you are usingdoesn’t have any hazards such astrees, rocks, or other physicalbarriers that would interfere withthe activity.

Debrief Issues

● Communication:How did losing various communi-cation methods affect their success?What was a reaction after they lostthe ability to speak? How did thataffect their problem solving?

● Problem Solving:How did theycome up withalternate communicationtecniques?

● Teamwork:Did they help one another? Did aleader emerge?

● Frustration:Who was frustrated? Why? Howdid that affect the activity’s success?

Jump Rope

Description

Small GroupIndoor (big space) or Outdoor

The goal of this activity is for all ofthe group members to successfullyjump through the rope using team-work. This activity has three parts forthe group members to try. Thechallenge may include one or all parts.

Equipment Needs

● A jump rope that is long enough toallow the total number of partici-pants to jump safely (2 feet perparticipant)


● Introduce the activity by telling thegroup that some people will thinkthe next activity is easy and otherswill find it challenging. Ask thatthey keep an open mind and realizethat different members will havevarying skills at completing thistask.

● The facilitator and one otherperson (observer, teacher, or onehelper from the team) will be therope turners.

● Part I:Ask the group to gather on one sideof the rope. Have them jump, oneat a time, through the rope. Ifsomeone messes up, the wholegroup must start again.

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● Part II:Tell them that they will each havethe opportunity to jump again, butthis time they should not allow therope to skip between people. Forexample, the rope will turn onlyonce for each participant. Again, ifsomeone messes up, the wholegroup must start again.

● Part III:A final challenge could be to seehow many times the entire groupcan simultaneously jump withouttripping on the rope. Ask the groupto come up with a goal. Make sureto facilitate it in such a way that allmembers buy into the final num-ber. Allow the group members toreadjust as necessary to meet theirgoal. They may decide to moveparticipants around or may evenchoose to lower their goal.

Variations

● You may choose to do only one orall of the parts described above.

What to Look For

● How supportive is the group to themembers who have a hard timewith the activity?

● How did they decide on thenumber of jumps for the entiregroup?

● What suggestions are they makingto be helpful?

Safety

● Do this activity on a soft surface sothat if someone falls, they won’t getscraped.

● Be prepared to stop turning therope immediately.

● Turn the rope slowly.

● Ensure the emotional safety of thegroup, especially for the peoplewho are not good jumpers. Ifsomeone is absolutely againstjumping, perhaps he/she could be aturner.

● When all participants jump atonce, be sure to caution themabout hitting one another’s knees.

Debrief Issues

● Teamwork:Did the group support the peoplewho needed extra help? Was there aleader?

● Problem Solving:Did they rearrange the order of thejumpers? Did they make otheradjustments?

Puzzle Pieces

Description

Small GroupIndoor

This activity highlights verbal andnonverbal communication. Eachperson takes a turn describing a shapeto their partners, who in turn attemptto create the shape using only verbalclues.

Equipment Needs

One packet of precut shapes (puzzle)per pair (each packet contains twoidentical cutouts of each shape thatmust be divided between the partners)


● Ask the group members to findpartners. If you are working withan intact group, ask them to pairup with someone they interact withon a regular basis.

● Next, have them decide who will bethe first to create the shape.

● Sitting back to back, have thecreators make shapes with thepuzzle pieces. Their partners shouldnot be able to see what they aredoing.

● After each creator has successfullycompleted their shapes, have themdescribe it to their partners, whoattempt to create an identical shapeusing only the creator’s verbaldescriptions.

● After they are finished, have themdiscuss what worked and whatdidn’t as they see how close theycame to creating identical shapes.

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● For the second part of the activity,have them switch roles so that theother person has the chance tocreate a puzzle shape. Ask them toonce again sit back to back whilethe new person creates a shape.

● After the creators complete theirpuzzle shapes, they will describe itto their partners. This time,however, their listening partnermay not speak—not even to askquestions or to clarify. This willundoubtedly frustrate both ofthem.

● When each pair finishes, have themcompare their puzzles and discussthe difficulties in this secondmethod.

Variations

● Instead of using precut puzzlepieces, you can draw two differentshapes out of circles, squares,triangles, and other shapes. Makeenough copies for each pair so thateach person has a different shape.Instead of creating their partner’sshapes, they will need to drawthem.

● Giving each set of partners arandom set of objects—dice,paperclips, playing cards, domi-noes, clothespins, and so on—isanother alternative to using puzzlepieces. This adds a three-dimen-sional component to the activityand can be more challenging.

● You could also have the creatorsdraw shapes on a piece of paperand then have their partnersattempt to recreate what they drew.Caution people to draw fairlysimple drawings that can be easilyduplicated by their partners.

● To make this activity even morechallenging, you could have thecreator only able to respond to yes/no questions during the firstcreation.

What to Look For

● This may be relatively easy forsome pairs and more challengingfor others.

● Make sure that the “no talking”rule is in effect, even though thiswill be very frustrating for somepeople.

● Some participants may competewith other pairs. Try to encourageeach pair to have their own set ofcriteria for establishing success

Safety

● Watch frustration levels.

Debrief Issues

● Communication:What were the differences betweenthe first and second activities?What contributed to the frustrationif there was any? What makescommunication effective?

● Leadership:What were the creators’ or leaders’challenges in this activity? Howabout the person who was thesecond creator? What were thefollowers’ challenges?

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Human Knot

Description


This no-prop activity can helpenergize a bored group as well as sparka cooperative spirit from a frustratedgroup. The goal is for the group to getall team members untied from the“human knot” without letting go oftheir hand connections.

Equipment Needs

● Hands!

● Flat surface


● Ask a group of 10–15 individualsto face one another in a tight,shoulder-to-shoulder circle.

● Each person extends their righthand and grasps the right hand ofsomeone else across the circle, as ifthey were shaking hands.

● Each person should then hold outtheir left hand and grasp the lefthand of someone else across thecircle, so that each person isholding two different people’shands. This hand-to-hand configu-ration should come out equal. Ifyou have an odd number of people,ask someone to join his/her righthand with someone else’s left hand.

● To make sure that the participantshave correctly accomplished this,start with one person and ask him/her to squeeze his/her right hand.Then ask the person whose handwas squeezed to pass the squeeze tothe other person’s hand he/she is

holding. If everyone felt thesqueeze, they’ve completed part onecorrectly.

● The objective is to undo the knotwithout letting go of the hands.They can let go to change theirgrasp to a more comfortableposition. Emphasize that they willneed to be careful as they movearound and undo their knot. Also,ask them to be careful not to twistand pull one another’s arms.

● Two or three circles may form,depending on the way that theparticipants connected hands. Ifone circle finishes, encourage themto help the others.

● This knot problem can take a fewshort minutes, or it can take quite awhile. If the group is struggling,you might want to offer “knot firstaid,” which allows one pair ofhands to separate and then rejoinon the outside of the knot.

Variations

● If people don’t like to be close,instead of holding hands, ask eachparticipant to grasp either end of arope. Cut a series of rope lengthsthat measure about 5-feet long, andtie an overhand knot in each end.Give each participant one lengthjust before the activity begins.Make sure they don’t grab tworopes coming from the sameperson. Have them untangle theknot as above.

● Another variation is to have themtravel, after they’ve formed theknot, from one location to another.You can up the challenge byrequiring that they each knoweveryone else’s favorite flavor of icecream by the time they reach theirdestination. This variation focuseson communication between groupmembers and problem solving asthey figure out how to move frompoint A to B without letting go. Asa facilitator, be sure to spot as theywalk.

What to Look For

● Some groups may be uncomfort-able touching one another andgetting close enough to solve theknot problem.

● Be aware of who the leader is, whois coming up with ideas, who istrying to solve the problem, who isjust watching, who is tuned out,and who is frustrated. All of theseroles add to the dynamics of thegroup.

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Safety

● Emphasize that if people are beingpulled or twisted, they should letgo to readjust their hand grips.

● Be sure to spot each person as theystep over arms.

● If you see people in awkwardpositions, encourage them toreadjust their hand positions.

● If using the rope variation above,make sure that the group movesslowly in order to avoid“clotheslining” anyone.

Debrief Issues

● Problem Solving What process did the groupmembers use in deciding how tountangle the knot? Or did they justjump in and start? Could they havebeen more successful with adifferent planning method?

● Communication:What types of communication didthe group use during this activity?

● Trust:In what ways did you have to trustteam members in order to accom-plish your part? How does trustaffect the team and the process?

Balloon Toss

Description


This activity is great for communica-tion and allowing the group to workin two small teams that eventually willwork together as a large group. Dividethe group in two, with each part ofthe team standing on opposite sides ofa large wall or tarp. One group needsto figure out how to transport items(water balloons) to the other groupover the tarp or wall without usingcertain keywords.

Equipment Needs

● A large wall or tarp at least 12-feethigh

● Water balloons

● Random items such as buckets,sheets, towels, old bicycle tiretubes, egg crates, and so forth

Setup

Hang a tarp on a 12-foot line betweentwo trees or posts so that participantscannot see from one side to the other.

Time of Activity

Depending on the group, this activitycould take 20–45 minutes.


● A metaphor you can use is that halfof the group is going on an expedi-tion. They got into some badweather and are running low onsupplies. The second half of thegroup is going to try to help themby getting supplies to the expedi-tion team. The wall symbolizes amountain that is between theexpedition team and its helpers.

● Share that you will give bothgroups certain resources. Neithergroup knows what the other grouphas. Although the two groups cancommunicate, the “mountain” is anobstacle. Therefore communicationis limited.

● Each group will receive a list ofwords that they cannot say to theother group (or out loud to oneanother) to symbolize this lack ofcommunication.

● Divide the group in half and placethe expedition team on one side ofthe wall and the helpers on theother side of the wall.

● Give the expedition team a bucket,sheets, towels, old bicycle tiretubes, egg crates, and so on, and alist that has on it all the items theyhave been given (these are thewords they can’t say).

● Give a bucket that has four or fivewater balloons in it to the helpersand let them know that they mayuse any of their own resources, butthat the objects must go from oneside of the wall to the other overthe top. Give this group the list ofwords that they cannot say to theother group (or out loud to oneanother). The list of words: water,

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balloon, fragile, sphere, breakable,rubber, throw, explode, wet, H2O,vessel, container

Facilitating the Activity

● Try to stand at the edge of the wallso that you can see and speak toboth sides. Remind them that,although they are on different sidesof the wall, their goal is to worktogether.

Safety

● Make sure that the participantsthrow only appropriate items overthe wall.

Debrief Issues

● Teamwork:You can cover a lot debrief topicshere (for example, different teamsof people that are all still workingtoward the same goal, whether thetwo groups really acted as oneteam).

● Creative Problem Solving:How did the group work togetherto be creative? What supplies didthey use?

● Accomplishing a task with limitedresources.

Maze

Description


This activity provides the group witha problem-solving and communica-tion challenge. The group must figureout the pre-established, hiddenpattern in a maze of squares. The onlyclue indicating how they’re doing isthe “buzz” they get when they make awrong move.

Equipment Needs

You can set up the maze with a varietyof materials. Most commonly used arecarpet squares, set up in a 5-foot-by-5-foot square, so there are 25 spaces inall. (The size of the square can vary,getting as big as 7 feet by 8 feet!)Other materials that you can useinclude cardboard, paper, or largeindex cards. You can also use a paintedcloth maze that is set up in a 6-foot-by- 8-foot square. Before the activitybegins, the facilitator must create thecorrect maze by simply mapping outthe pattern on a grid or piece ofscratch paper.


● Only one person can move at atime. An additional rule might bethat those who have movedincorrectly may not attempt themaze again until everyone else inthe group has had a turn.

● As individuals are moving throughthe maze, they must step on thecorrect spot each time. If they stepon an incorrect spot, you couldmake a buzzing sound as anindicator, and the individuals and/or group must start again.

● Correct moves include only thosethat are immediately adjacent tothe spot that an individual isstanding on. This includes movesthat are backwards, forwards,sideways, and diagonal.

● Once participants have successfullyreached the other side, they can doanything that encourages the otherteam members to reach the otherside.

Variations

● Once you explain the maze, givethe group members 5 minutes tocome up with a plan for complet-ing the task. After 5 minutes theycan no longer talk to one another.

What to Look For

● Who assumes leadership of thegroup?

● What types of planning did thegroup do prior to attempting theactivity?

● Who needs help or who asked forsupport from the group?

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Safety

● Make sure that you are using a flatsurface for the maze.

Debrief Issues

● Communication:What verbal and/or nonverbalcommunication methods did thegroup use? How did people pass oninformation to assist others infiguring out the pattern? What wasit like for the entire team to bemute? What communicationbarriers have you dealt with whenattempting to solve a task?

● Problem Solving:Who figured out the pattern—wasit one person or did everyone in thegroup help to remember the correctmove? How was starting overconsistent with how we work tosolve problems? How was itdifferent?

● Teamwork:What was the individual role versusthe group role in solving thisproblem? What does lack of teaminvolvement do for team morale?

Paper Towers

Description

Small GroupIndoor

This competition promotes small-group teamwork in building thelargest, free-standing, paper towerpossible using only newspapers (notape or other help). You can use thisactivity with small or large groups.

Equipment Needs

● An indoor flat space

● Lots of newspaper or scrap paper(equal piles for each group)


● Divide the big group up intogroups of four to six people.

● Assign each group a space to createa free-standing paper tower.

● Each group should have an equalstack of newspaper or scrap paper.

● Give the group 10 minutes tocreate the tallest free-standingtower that they possibly can build.

● The groups may not use tape,paperclips, and other fasteningdevices.

Variations

● You can give the group as muchtime as you would like.

● Use balloons and tape (but clean-up will be loud)

What to Look For

● Watch how group membersinteract. Are there leaders? Dream-ers? Those with a vision? Organiz-ers? Followers?

● Look for quality versus quantity.What is the value of this? Why?

Debrief Issues

● Did competition or the processdrive the group?

● Communication:How well did the group communi-cate while building the tower?

● Teamwork:Did the whole group work togetheror did one or two individuals takecontrol? Why?

● What roles did the group membersplay in the process?

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All Aboard

Description


Physical closeness, in combinationwith problem solving, is one of thegoals of this activity. You’ll hear a lotof people saying, “There’s no way wecan get our entire group on that smallplatform!” To ease them into thechallenge, you can start on the largerplatform and then move to the smallerone. Or, you can have them start withfewer people and work toward more.Because this is an extremely “close”activity, the group members must havea comfort level with one another thatwill enable them to accomplish thischallenge.

Equipment Needs

You will use two different-sizedplatforms; one is roughly 2 feet by 2feet and the other is roughly 3 feet by3 feet. For an indoor version, you canuse carpet squares inside a rope circleto simulate the platform or you caneven fold up a tarp to an appropriatesmall size for the group. You can thenfold it even smaller for the next level.


● The goal of the activity is to getevery team member on the plat-form.

● Introduce the activity using a storyline that outlines the goal of theactivity (for example, the platformrepresents the transporter in StarTrek and the group needs to bebeamed up to escape certaincontamination).

● To be considered on the platform,each person must have at least onefoot on the platform and must notbe touching the ground in any way.

● The group should remain standingon the platform for approximately10 seconds or as long as it takes tosay, “Beam me up, Scotty.”

● The number of people that can fiton each platform varies from groupto group and depends on theircreativity and willingness to getclose. Groups of about twelveparticipants should fit on evensmaller platforms.

Level II

Activities

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Variations

● You can start the group with thechallenge of the larger platform.After success on this one, havethem move to the smaller platform.They may need to come up with anew solution to fit on the smallerone, which can lead to an interest-ing discussion about creativeproblem solving.

● If the group seems unlikely to solvean “All Aboard” on even the largerplatform, you may ask them to seta goal for the number of peoplethey think they can have standingon the platform. After they’ve donethis successfully, encourage thegroup to increase its goal until allpeople are on the platform or untilthey reach a point where they aresatisfied with their accomplish-ment.

What to Look For

● Participants who are extremelyfrustrated during this activity.

● The group may jump on theplatform and try somethingwithout a plan (lots of trial anderror).

● The group may continuallyattempt to solve the problem usingonly one method and encounterrepeated failure.

● A few individuals may lose theirbalance and pull other participantsoff the platform (see safety section).

Safety

● Make sure all participants are“standing” on the platform.Participants should not lift or placepeople on shoulders.

● When participants are not on theplatform, they should be spottingothers who are on the platform.

● Emphasize that if participants feellike they are losing their balance,the best thing for them to do is stepoff. There is no penalty for step-ping off. Also, emphasize that thosestepping off should let go of thosearound them so they do not pullthe others off.

● Spotting by the facilitator isextremely important during thisentire activity.

Debrief Issues

● Teamwork:How did the team memberssupport one another physically?Emotionally? How did this supportaffect the outcome of the activity?What other ways can we supportone another?

● Problem Solving:What problem-solving process didthis team use? What aspects of theprocess yielded the best results?What could the team have usedmore of during the process?

● Leadership:How did leadership affect theoutcome of the activity? Whatother types of leadership were/would be helpful? What is the roleof the follower in this activity? Isthis an important role? Why orwhy not?

River Crossing

Description


This activity pulls the group togetherand introduces problem solving. Thegoal is for the group to safely movefrom one side of a raging river to theother side using only the boardsprovided.

Equipment Needs

● Ropes and cones can mark theboundary of the river. The rivershould be approximately 40-feetwide. Another way to determinewidth is to take twice as many stepsas there are boards.

● The number of boards variesaccording to group size. Estimatehow many average-sized people canstand on each board. Have enough“spaces” for everyone in the groupand then add one large board. Youmay also want to keep an extrasmall board with you in case thepeople are bigger than you hadexpected and get stuck.

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● Introduce the group to the“river” via a story about acid rain orpoisonous peanut butter—someexcuse for not allowing them tostep in the river.

● Their goal is to get the entire groupacross the river. However, no onemay step onto the opposite shoreuntil all members of the team areon the river.

● The boards provided are the onlyresources available to the group.They cannot step in the river or onany other surface. Once you placethe boards in the river, participantscannot slide them into position;they must pick up and replacethem. As a safety precaution, theparticipants may not throw theboards.

● The group should decide on anappropriate consequence if anyonecomes in contact with the river. Iftime permits, starting over isusually a good consequence becauseit requires less-focused groups topay more attention in an effort tocomplete the activity. It can alsolead to great discussions aroundfrustration, blaming the personwho stepped off, and how over-coming adversity strengthened theteam.

Variations

● Split a large group into two smallerones and place them at oppositesides of the river. Give each groupenough boards for their smallgroups. The goal is for each groupto reach the opposite shore.Emphasize, however, that this isnot a race. As each group solves theinitiative on their own, someonemay suggest that they work to-gether. Watch the competitivedynamic unfold. This variationmakes for an interesting debriefsession on sharing resources andcooperation. Make sure you markthe boundary twice the length ofboth groups’ boards combined.

● Use carpet squares or pieces or 12-inch-by-12-inch paper. Using theriver-crossing scenario, have thegroup cross the river with thefollowing guidelines. Groupmembers may not lose physicalcontact with a river-crossing piece.If they do, the facilitator will takethe piece and it will be forever lost.Give almost all the group membersa piece (for example, if the grouphas 12 people, give out only 10pieces). They must get across usingtheir existing resources.

What to Look For

● Some people may jump in and startto lay out the boards without muchthought, while others stay back tothink and plan. This may cause thegroup to disagree.

● The team may try to lay out theboards and leap frog across theriver. The distance should be toowide for them to do this withoutreusing the boards.

● The lead person may place theboards too far apart for others inthe group to reach.

● Team members may hesitate to getphysically close.

● One or two team members maydominate the entire activity. If thishappens, you can always give themlaryngitis so they can’t talk for theremainder of the activity.

● Some team members may losefocus and tune out during theprocess—possibly because thegroup did not hear their ideas.

● Conflict may arise due to differingstyles.

● The team members may getfrustrated and believe the task to beimpossible, especially if they havehad to start over numerous times.

● Separate problem-solving groupsmay form.

● The team may challenge theactivity guidelines or ask you torestate the rules.

● The team may have a fast begin-ning, and then reach an impasse;progress then becomes slower andmore deliberate.

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Safety

● To solve the problem, people willneed to gather close together,hanging on to one another for dearlife. People may begin to lose theirbalance, so spot carefully and beready to act if a group member(s)starts to fall.

● Make sure no one gets hit with aboard that is getting passed up theline.

● Jumping from one board toanother is not allowed.

● Be careful on slippery grass or wetsurfaces.

● People cannot carry or lift oneanother.

● Do not allow the group to throwthe boards.

Debrief Issues

● Teamwork:What one or two adjectives de-scribe your feelings about yourteam effort? What were the keyelements to your success? Whatwere the roadblocks to yoursuccess?

● Problem Solving:What is your perception of yourplanning effort as a team?

● Leadership:How did leadership present itself?Who had it? When?

● Competition:Was there any internal competitionduring the course of this activity?

Mine Field

Description


This activity involves extensivecommunication between two partici-pants of a team. One participant cansee, the other is blindfolded. Thesighted partner’s goal is to safely guidethe unsighted partner through adangerous mine field. The sightedpartner is located on one side of themine field and the unsighted person ison the other. Using verbal cues, thetwo must communicate effectively toaccomplish the task without settingoff any mines.

Equipment Needs

● 1 blindfold per pair

● 1 large rope to mark the boundaryof the mine field (approximately100 feet)

● Soft and flat objects of all shapesand sizes to scatter within theboundary to represent land mines


● Set up a mine field that is about 30feet by 20 feet. You may wish tomake the mine field larger if yourgroup size is larger than 10 people.Scatter objects (land mines) allthroughout the boundary area.

● Have each participant find apartner. One person should chooseto be blindfolded first (they mayclose their eyes if they are notcomfortable being blindfolded).

● Explain to the group that thesighted partners are responsible forverbally guiding their nonsightedpartners safely through the minefield.

● Once you have explained theobjective, encourage participants todiscuss a method of communica-tion to use with their partners.

● Have partners establish a goal forthe maximum number of landmines they will hit as they cross themine field and a consequence ifthey hit more.

● After they have finished, send thesighted partners to the other end ofthe mine field.

● All participants must begin theactivity at the same time.

● After all blindfolded participantshave successfully crossed the minefield, have each pair switch rolesand repeat the activity.

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Variations

● You can also create a three-dimen-sional mine field by hangingobjects from ropes that you stringacross the mine field. Be sure toplace these ropes well above theheight of the tallest participant.

● As the guides move across the field,have them pick up one object thatin some way symbolizes the landmines in their lives. At the end ofthe activity, ask them to share thiswith the group as well as some waysthey are working around thesemines.

What to Look For

● Some partners may plan ahead todetermine a safer route for crossingthe mine field.

● Many partners may encounterdifficulties communicating, whicharise from the distraction of allparticipants talking at one time.

● Do the partners stick to theconsequences they established?

Safety

● Use soft objects as mines to reducethe chance of ankle injury.

● Spot blindfolded participants whenneeded as they cross the mine field.

● Be cautious of both the physicaland emotional safety of all partici-pants. Give all participants theoption of closing their eyes if theyare not comfortable being blindfolded. Also, be aware of the areawhere you are setting up the minefield. It should be relatively leveland free of rocks, stumps, andother natural obstacles.

Debrief Issues

● Communication:What communication systems didthe pairs try? What worked? Whattypes of things interfered withcommunication? How did theyaffect the outcome?

● Leadership:Was it easier to be a guide or to beguided?

● Trust:How was trust important in thisactivity?

● Quality:Did people stick to their conse-quences? If not, why?

● Competition:Did anyone time their effort? Didparticipants express a sense ofcompeting against other pairs? Didpeople encourage other pairs afterthey were done?

Traffic Jam

Description


This cognitive puzzle enables thegroup to explore their problem-solving and leadership skills. You willdivide the group into two teams andask them to stand on boards that youhave placed on the floor. Theirchallenge is to exchange places withthe other team by using only thespaces provided.

Equipment Needs

Traffic Jam boards or mats (one foreach participant plus an extra one forthe middle). The boards have arrowson them to indicate the direction thatthe person will initially face. You canalso create your own place holdersusing paper and drawing an arrow oneach piece except the middle one.


● Create a semicircle using the TrafficJam boards or mats. Start with ablank board in the middle and thenplace the remaining boards oneither side, forming two curvedlines. Place the boards so that thearrows point toward the blankboard in the middle.

● Divide the group into two teams.Have one team stand on the boardsto the left of the middle board andthe other team to the right. Haveeveryone face the direction of thearrow on their board. You shouldnow have two teams facing oneanother with a blank board separat-ing them.

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● The goal is for the people on theleft to occupy the boards on theright and vice versa, while remain-ing in their original order. Thismeans that the first person on theleft-hand side of the blank boardwill occupy the last space of theline on the right-hand side, thesecond person will occupy thesecond to last space, and so forth;they will end up facing the oppo-site direction of the arrows on theboards.

● Here are the rules:

● You can move into an emptyspace in front of you.

● You can move around anotherperson into an empty space.

● You cannot move backwards.● Only one person can move at a

time.● Only one person can occupy a

space at a time.● You cannot move the spaces.

● Tell the group that you will letthem know when they make anillegal move or reach an impasse.When this happens, they will needto start over in their originalpositions.

● To clarify the rules, you may wantto demonstrate by physicallymoving individuals to show boththe legal and illegal moves.

Variations

● When each team lines up, place thesoftest-spoken members at thebeginning. Most of the movementoccurs there and it may force thesepeople into more of a leadershiprole. Likewise, placing the “leaders”at the end of the line may producesome frustration as they are forcedto watch rather than act.

● You can use this activity to discussthe “unwritten rules” that arefrequently found in organizations.Give the group the same goal as inthe regular activity, but only givethem the first of the legal moves(that they move by using an emptyspace). A “buzz” from you indicatesthat they made an illegal move andmust start again. At the end of theactivity they must be able to tellyou what the rules are.

What to Look For

● For some people, this type ofpuzzle is fun; for others it’s agony.Watch for the variety of responsesfrom each individual.

● Because this activity usually takeslots of trial and error, the first threepeople are really involved and movearound a lot. The people at the endof the lines will likely becomebored and disinterested from lackof involvement.

● Often the teams will make thesame mistakes over and over again.If you see this happening and thefrustration levels become high,suggest that the group take a time-out to discuss what has beenworking and what has not and thentry again.

Safety

● No real issues of safety.

Debrief Issues

● Problem Solving: What was theplanning process for this activity?How was it different from otheractivities? How was it the same?

● Leadership: Who were the leaders?How were they chosen? What wasthe role of the followers?

● Inclusion:How involved was each individualin the completion of this activity?How interested was each indi-vidual? How did that affect theoutcome?

● Learning Styles (visual, auditory,kinesthetic):How do varying learning stylesaffect the enjoyment of an activityor task?

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Blind Maze

Description

Big or Small GroupOutdoor

Close your eyes and imagine that youare in the middle of a complex mazewith only one way out. You can easilyget side-tracked in many places andstuck in dead ends. You get veryfrustrated until finally you find theexit. As a group, the blindfoldedparticipants must find their waythrough a complex maze until theentire group is safely outside. You caneasily build the maze using metal rods,twine, and fencing connectors.

Equipment Needs

● 1 blindfold for each participant

● Approximately 15 steel rods

● Yellow fencing connectors

● Fine rope or cord

Place the rods in a large oval-shapedformation to create the outsideboundary. Make a very narrow exit.Place the remaining rods in the centerof the boundary in a sporadic fashion.Run twine from the outside boundaryto the internal rods to make confusingdead ends.


● Blindfold participants in an areathat is out of the sight of the maze.Have them form a line and placetheir hands on the shoulders orhips of the person in front of them.Lead them into the maze byholding up the rope and askingthem to duck under it. Once insidethe maze, have each person holdonto the rope.

● Explain that they are inside a mazeand finding the exit is their task.Ask them to be careful of the topsof the metal rods and plasticconnectors as they move along therope.

● To find the exit, they may stay as alarge group, break into smallergroups, or move around as indi-viduals. They cannot, however, passunder the rope boundaries of themaze. Encourage them to walkslowly with their hands up(“bumpers up” style) if they let goof the rope.

● As participants exit the maze,remove their blindfolds and askthem not to talk. Some people maybecome frustrated because they willwant to help those still trappedwithin the maze.

Variations

● You can use this variation tohighlight the difficulty of workingalone and needing to ask for help.As you lead the blindfolded lineinto the maze, lead each individualto a different place and have themhold onto the rope. When everyoneis placed, tell the group that askingfor help is the only way they maycommunicate. When they ask, youwill go over and whisper a sugges-tion to them. As before, once theyexit the maze, remove the blindfoldand ask them to remain silent.After about 30 minutes, you shouldstop the activity since frustrationlevels may be getting too high.

What to Look For

● Group members who decide to goon their own without communicat-ing these ideas to the group.

● Individuals who become frustratedas time passes and fail to find theexit.

● Individuals who found the exit maytry to help those who are still in themaze.

● Be aware of how the group workstogether and communicates ideasto achieve the task.

Safety

● Give a description of the maze andthe materials you used to constructthe maze. Emphasize that the polesare metal rods that are about chestheight. Be careful, some of the rodsare sharp on the top end.

● When participants are not holdingon to the rope boundary, theyshould be walking with their“bumpers up.”

Debrief Issues

● Teamwork:What were the individual goalsversus group goals in this activity?How did the group members workas a team even if people workedindividually? If the group fell apart,how did that affect individuals?

● Communication:Was not communicating difficultonce you were out of the maze?Why?

● Frustration:How did frustration affect theoutcome?

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Pot of Gold

Small GroupIndoor (large space) or Outdoor

Description

This can be a very challenging activityfor some groups. It requires goodproblem-solving and communicationskills. Because it may produce frustra-tion among some participants, it willhelp them assess how they work underpressure as a team. The object is tomove a bucket with a softball (the“gold”) out of the original circle andinto a smaller circle located down thetrail. The group may use only theprovided materials to move the bucketwithout the softball falling off.

Equipment Needs

● 1 large 5-gallon bucket

● 1 piece of rubber bicycle inner tubetied in a loop so that it will fittightly around the bucket like atight rubber band around a poster

● 8–12 pieces of clothesline rope,10–12 feet in length. At least everytwo people should have one rope.You may decide to pre-attach theropes to the tire tube or give theropes separately to the participantsfor a more challenging activity.

● 1 large piece of rope, at least 60 feetin length (long enough to make acircle that has a 20-foot diameter)

● Blindfolds (if necessary, see varia-tion)

● Softball or other object to place ontop of the bucket

● Hula hoop to make a location fortransferring the “pot of gold”


● Set up the activity in an area largeenough to place the large circle. Inthe middle of the circle place thebucket upside down with the“gold” on top. Approximately 25 to50 yards down the trail from themain activity, set up a hula hoop ora small rope circle to mark alocation for transferring the “pot ofgold.” You can pile the remainingsupplies (clothesline ropes, innertubes, and so on) near the largecircle.

● Have everyone form a loose circlearound the large boundary circle.

● Explain that the softball (the“gold”) is very special to the groupbecause it represents all of theexperiences that the participantshave learned that day. The groupneeds to protect it as they take itback to their school, office, or workenvironment. Transporting thebucket and softball from the largecircle to a smaller circle down thetrail symbolizes the integration ofthis “gold” into their lives.

● To successfully complete the taskthey must adhere to the followingrules:

● They may only use the materialsin the pile by the large circle.

● No one may physically enter therope or hula hoop boundaries.Hands and arms are not permit-ted in the circle.

● No one may touch the bucket orthe softball.

● If the softball falls off, the groupmust start again.

Variations

● Before beginning the activity, haveall participants form a loose circlearound the boundary circle. Passthe softball around the circle andhave participants share one com-ment that pertains to theirteambuilding experience. Examplesinclude: What you want to learntoday, what you can take awayfrom this experience, what youhave learned about teamwork, andso on. After everyone has shared,place the softball on top of theoverturned bucket and explain theactivity.

● At a point some distance from theactivity, ask everyone to find apartner and decide who will beblindfolded and who will be theguide. Have the guides lead theirpartners to the activity area and askthem to form a loose circle aroundthe large boundary. Explain therules with the twist that only theblindfolded participants may touchthe materials.

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What to Look For

● The group will probably initiallytake inventory of the props avail-able.

● Eventually someone will figure outthat they might be able to stretchthe inner tube, with all ropesattached, around the bucket. Bypulling on the ropes from equaldistances around the circle, theywill be able to stretch the rubbertube and place it around thebucket. The rubber tube will thenbe holding the bucket tightly andthe participants can transport itdown the trail.

● There will be a flurry of ideas andmovement.

● When using blindfolded variations,sighted participants usually brainstorm possible solutions to theproblem, ignoring the potential ofunsighted participants.

● Participants will be shouting outdirections and the situation will beextremely chaotic.

● Sighted participants may becomeincreasingly frustrated with the factthat they cannot touch materials.Unsighted participants may befrustrated that they are not receiv-ing adequate instructions.

Safety

● When using blindfolds, remindpeople that they need to watch outfor their partners at all times.

● Ask people to walk slowly whenguiding blindfolded partners.

● Spot people as they move over andaround hazardous areas such as treeroots and low branches.

Debrief Issues

● Problem Solving:Were both sighted and unsightedparticipants involved in theproblem-solving process? Were allsuggestions from the group heardand given equal consideration?Were the unsighted participantsgiven opportunities to contributeto the problem-solving process?Were they heard?

● Communication:Many times good suggestions areoffered. However, they become lostin the shuffle of trying to solve theproblem. How did sighted partici-pants communicate with theirunsighted partners?

● Inclusion:Did all members of the teamparticipate equally? Was everyoneinvolved in the process? If not, whyand what were the consequences?

● Teamwork:For the blindfolded variation, howwell did the individuals in thepartnerships work together? Howdid the whole team work together?

● Frustration:When were people frustrated? Howdid that affect their contributionsto the group?

Trust Lean

Description


This activity serves two purposes:1) To introduce the idea of trustinganother person with your physicalsafety and 2) to teach participants thespotting command sequence. Usingproper and good communication,participants will join with two otherpartners and lean back into the handsof their two partners.

Equipment Needs

A flat surface


● Have the group divide into groupsof three.

● Tell them that in this activity theywill have to trust the other peoplein their groups to support theirweight. One person will lean backinto the hands of the two partnersbehind him/her.

● Encourage the group to be support-ive of each member and to recog-nize that this activity may be morechallenging for some than others.Some people will feel more com-fortable leaning farther than others.

● Demonstrate the spotting stancefor this activity. Then have eachperson do the same. One legforward of the other, front kneebent, weight forward slightly, handsup (“bumpers up”) fingers andthumbs together, palms out.Explain the reason behind each ofthese safety features.

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● Tell them that they need to estab-lish a system of communication sothat everyone in the group knowswhat to do and when. Give themthe following commands:

Leaner: “Spotters ready?”Spotters: “Ready!!”Leaner: “Falling?”Spotters: “Fall away!!!!”

● Ask a group to demonstrate foryou. Have two people stand behindthe leaner. The leaner must standvery stiff, with his/her feet together,arms crossed at the wrists andfolded up to his/her chest. Thespotters should be in their bestspotting stance.

● Go through the commands oncemore and then have them demon-strate the lean. On the first lean,have the spotters stand fairly closeto the leaner. The leaner shouldonly fall back 6 inches or so.Spotters stand the leaner back upwhen done.

● Reiterate that the spotters shouldbe as supportive and confident aspossible when shouting theircommands. Be sure to emphasizethat the leaner does not fall untilthey hear the “fall away” signal.

● Encourage the leaner to do up tothree leans. On the first lean, havethe spotters stand fairly close andthen move back a few steps on eachsubsequent lean (6 inches, 10inches, 15 inches).

● Make sure that each person in eachgroup has the opportunity to lean.Be sure that you observe eachgroup to make sure they know thecommands and proper spottingstance.

Variations

● For those who want more of achallenge, the spotters can kneelbehind the leaners. After catchingthem, the spotters should lower theleaners to the ground rather thanstanding them up.

What to Look For

● Comfort levels vary with leaningdistance. Some people may choosenot to lean. Encourage them toparticipate as spotters.

● Nervous laughter.

Safety

● Don’t try this activity with a groupthat seems unable to remainfocused. This activity challenges theabilities of a group to take appro-priate risks and to provide effectivesupport.

● Give each member of the group theauthority to stop the activity at anytime if they feel that it is unsafe.They should shout, “Stop!” if theysee anything unsafe. Also, theyshould not say,“Ready,” or,“Fallaway,” unless they are absolutelyready.

● Inappropriate comments about notcatching the person are unaccept-able. If you hear this, stop theactivity and ask everyone to showencouragement; stress that thisactivity provides an opportunity forthe group to show that they aretrustworthy.

Debrief Issues

● Trust:Why do we start with a closedistance and work farther away?How do you feel now that you’vetrusted these two other people?How can we support people withdifferent safety levels?

● Communication:How important was our communi-cation system? Why do we have the“stop” command?

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Trust Circle (Wind in theWillows)

Description


This activity is similar in purpose tothe Trust Lean in that it familiarizesparticipants with the spotting com-mand sequence as well as withphysically supporting members oftheir team. In this activity, partici-pants stand in a circle with theirhands up. One person stands in themiddle and leans back and is thenmoved from person to person aroundthe circle.

Equipment Needs

A flat surface


● All team members, except one,stand in a tight circle shoulder toshoulder.

● One team member stands in themiddle of the circle and is theleaner. This person stands his/herwith feet together and arms crossedover his/her chest. Emphasize thathe/she should remain as stiff andstraight as possible with his/her feetfirmly planted in a single spot forhis/her time in the circle.

● Those in the circle are spotters andshould assume the spotting posi-tion (one leg forward, one leg back,bumpers up).

● Tell them that they need to estab-lish a system of communication sothat everyone in the group knowswhat to do and when. Give themthe following commands:

Leaner: “Spotters ready?”Spotters: “Ready!!”Leaner: “Falling?”Spotters: “Fall away!!!!”

Emphasize that they shout thesecommands to make the leaner feelsafe.

● After the leaner hears the com-mand, “Fall away!” he/she may leaninto the hands of the spotters.

● Spotters should then pass the leaneraround the circle slowly and gently.After some time, the spotters maypass the leaner across the circle.

● When the leaner is comfortable orwhen the facilitator indicates, thegroup can stand the leaner up.

● This sequence continues until allparticipants have had the opportu-nity to lean—if they wish.

Variations

● Encourage participants to tryfalling with their eyes closed.

What to Look For

● Participants may try to push theleaner back and forth too fast.

● Supporters in the trust circle mayput their bumpers down when theleaner is not near them.

● Make sure that all participants arecomfortable with their own levelsof challenge.

Safety

● When the group establishes thelean circle, make sure all partici-pants are in a tight circle, shoulderto shoulder. All participants shouldbe in the spotting position, withbumpers up at all times. Emphasizethat there should be at least threepairs of hands on the leaner at alltimes.

● Emphasize that they should passthe leaner slowly!

Debrief Issues

● Teamwork:What examples of physical, emo-tional, and psychological supportdid the participants exhibit duringthis activity? How important werethese to the group? How importantare they in other situations (workor school)?

● Trust:How can participants transfer trustback to their work/school environ-ments?

● Risk Taking:Throughout the day, group mem-bers experienced varying levels ofchallenge. How has undertaking achallenge that seemed risky affectedyour feelings about yourself?

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Trust Walk

Description


This activity helps participantsexperience trusting another personwith their emotional and physicalsafety. Each person will have theopportunity to be a sighted guide anda blindfolded participant. The objectis for the sighted person to lead theirpartner on a walk that the facilitatorleads.

Equipment Needs

● Blindfold for each pair of partici-pants


● Tell the group that they are aboutto embark on a journey. Workingin pairs, one person will startblindfolded, while one will besighted and acting as a guide. Keepin mind the notion of Challenge byChoice and give them the option tosimply close their eyes if they arenot comfortable using a blindfold.

● The sighted guides must dowhatever is necessary to preventinjury or discomfort to theirpartners. Guides must have physi-cal contact with their partners at alltimes when they are moving.

● Guides can position themselves anyway they want in order to mosteffectively lead their partners safelythrough the course. Possibleguiding methods include holdinghands, one arm around the waist,or walking in front with theirpartner’s hands on their shoulders.

Demonstrate these for full under-standing.

● Let them know that you will beleading the pairs on a path that youhave previously scouted out. Thispath may require them to benddown as well as step over obstacles.Ensure them that nothing in thepath will interfere with navigatingsafely with their guides.

● They should walk single file so thatthey are each following one pairahead of them. They should followexactly where the pair in front ofthem goes.

● Indicate that at a halfway pointyou will let them switch roles.

● Ask the pairs to decide who will beblindfolded first and who will lead.

● Next, ask them to decide on amethod of leading that is comfortable for them both. Have them alsodiscuss other signals and/or wordsthat they can use to keep theblindfolded person both physicallyand emotionally safe.

● Pass out the blindfolds. As they putthem on, encourage them to takeoff their glasses and close their eyesbehind the blindfolds for addedcomfort.

● Begin walking slowly. Allow ampletime for the pairs to negotiate theterrain and stop if necessary toprevent the pairs at the end of theline from dropping so far behindthat they lose contact.

Variations

● Rather than forming pairs, have thegroup split into two even groups—one half will be blindfolded first.When everyone in the designatedgroup is safely blindfolded, havethe guides go over and stand nextto a blindfolded person putting ahand on their shoulder. At thehalfway point, have the guidesplace their charges in a designatedarea and stand with the otherguides. When the last blindfoldedperson is there, have them removetheir blindfolds. Do they knowwho their guides were? Give theblindfolds to the guides and repeatthe process.

● Do the above and also designatethat they cannot use verbal com-munication. Ask the group tobrainstorm some nonverbal cuesthat will help them navigate theterrain and remain safe. The onlybreach of silence should be when asafety hazard that poses a signifi-cant danger or if any blindfoldedpartners begin to feel so uncom-fortable that they want to stop.

What to Look For

● Facial expressions on the blind-folded person probably will includewincing, nervous laughter, and soforth. Also, probably intenseconcentration on the faces of theguides.

● Some guides will see this as anopportunity to scare their partnersand will attempt to go off thedesignated trail. Make sure that youreiterate that they need to followthe pair in front of them exactly.

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Safety

● Don’t try this activity with a groupthat seems unable to remain safe.This activity challenges the abilitiesof a group to take appropriate risksand to provide effective and safeleadership.

● If at any point you observe some-thing that is unsafe and you fearsomeone may be injured, youshould intervene to spot, coach, orsomehow assist the guide orblindfolded person.

● During sunny days, have partici-pants shield their eyes when theyremove their blindfolds.

Debrief Issues

● Communication:What guiding method workedbest? What sorts of verbal andnonverbal cues worked best?

● Trust:What did trusting the otherperson take?

● Leadership:What did being guided feel like?Being lead? What is your prefer-ence? Why?

● If you tried the variation above, didthe blindfolded people know whotheir partners were? Could they tellwhether their guides were male orfemale? How?

Blind Polygon/Shape

Description


While appearing easy on the surface,this activity can challenge even a goodgroup to communicate effectively.While blindfolded, the group mustdetermine the length of a section ofrope and create a square (or a triangle,rectangle, and so on) using the entirelength of that rope.

Equipment Needs

● 1 piece of rope at least 50-feet long● 1 blindfold per person● A large, open, flat area


● Ask participants to form a loosecircle.

● Ask each person to put on ablindfold. You may also give peoplethe option to close their eyesduring the activity if they are notcomfortable being blindfolded forthe duration of the activity (usually20–30 minutes).

● Reassure people that you will keepthem safe at all times during theactivity by keeping them fromrunning into obstacles. Encouragethem to move around slowly tominimize the risk of running intoone another.

● Once all participants have beenblindfolded, explain that you willbe giving the group a length ofrope to hold. Emphasize that theentire group will be holding ontothe same length of rope.

● Emphasize that at no time duringthe activity can participants let goof the rope. They may slide theirhands along the rope, but they maynot let go.

● Explain that the group has twogoals; they may be accomplished inany order. The first goal is toestablish the length of the rope.You should encourage them todetermine the actual length—asopposed to an estimate—of therope. The second goal is to createthe “perfect” square (or triangle,rectangle, and so on), using theentire length of the rope.

● When passing out the rope, haveparticipants stand with hands openand palms up. Start with an endand give it to a quiet person.Continue passing the rope aroundthe circle. You may want to pass therope across the circle to severalother people. Set it up so that therope is mildly crisscrossed. Thegroup will assume you maintainedthe circle shape and may besurprised to learn that they mustuntangle the rope in order tosucceed.

Variations

● You may want to limit the goal toeither determining the length ofthe rope or creating a shape.

● Another option to totally blindfolding participants is making halfof them blind and the other halfmute.

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What to Look For

● People will not understand that therope is tangled, which may cause alot of initial confusion.

● Many people may be talking atonce. The folks who have the endsof the rope will be key players inhelping to coordinate getting theends together.

● People who have trouble visualizingwhat is going on may becomefrustrated; they also might tune outand become disinterested.

● The group may generate manyideas, few of which they willattempt or apply.

Safety

● As people are moving around,make sure that they can easily movepast and around other people.

● Spot anyone who has to climb overropes or over other people.

● Make sure that a large open area isavailable for this activity in order toavoid collisions.

● Encourage people throughout theduration of the activity. This willtake their minds off of the fact thatthey are blindfolded.

Debrief Issues

● Communication:What types of verbal and nonverbalcommunication did the groupmembers use?

● Problem Solving:Did the group have a planningprocess? How did the group decideon a strategy to use?

● Leadership:Did one person emerge as a leaderor were there many leaders? Whatwas the role of the followers?

● Frustration:At what point did anyone feelfrustrated? Why? How could thathave been overcome?

The Bicycle Wheel(a closing activity)

Description

Small Group: 5–20Indoor or Outdoor

This closing activity allows people touse an object (bike tire) as a metaphorfor their experiences.

Setup

Using an actual bike tire or a wheel ofsome sort (or other object; see varia-tions), lay the wheel in the middle ofthe circle, covered by a blanket (beforethe group arrives).

Time of Activity

Depending on group size, this activitycould take 15–45 minutes. Usuallycount on 10 minutes of introductionand reflection and 2 minutes perperson of sharing.

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Briefing of Activity/Guidelines:

● Share with the group that you havesomething special lying underneaththe blanket that has meaning foryou. In just a moment, you aregoing to reveal this object and askeach group member to look at it,and quietly reflect on their own.They are to reflect on the object,and review in their mind anymemories or thoughts that thisobject brings to them. Thesethoughts can relate to themselves,early memories with friends orfamily, experiences with theircurrent groups and/or programs, oranalogies that they can apply totheir lives. Tell them to be creative.

● Uncover the bike tire and encour-age quiet reflection (maybe 2–3minutes, depending on yourgroup’s needs or ability to reflect).

Facilitating the Activity

● Ask for a volunteer to start the “goaround.” Usually sitting next tosomeone whom you think willshare something meaningful first,to set a good example, is a goodidea. Ask each person to share athought, statement, memory, orreflection about the wheel thatcould relate to their group ofpeople.

Debrief

Because this activity in itself is adebrief, simply close the go around bysharing a statement of your own andapply it the group, the program, orthe experience that folks have beeninvolved with. Some examples follow:

● Tire has been many places; it has itsown history, its own story to tell.

● It’s like a roulette wheel—it keepsspinning and spinning, looking forwhere it will stop.

● Sometimes you are riding high onthe wheel. But as the wheel goesaround, sometimes you are low. Ifyou stay low you can’t moveforward. Don’t get caught stayinglow—just keep riding.

● The tire has spokes in its wheel. Ifjust one is out of line, the wholetire wobbles. We all need to worktogether to spin forward.

● The wheel has traveled manyplaces; reminds me of places I’vebeen, places I am going.

Variations

● You can do this activity with anyobject that has meaning to you (forexample, a canoe paddle, hikingboots, gardening tools, and so on).Be creative!

● You can use this activity as a large-group closure. After each memberof a small group has shared theirthoughts, have the small groups asa whole come up with an analogyfor their teams to report back tothe “larger group” as a closure.

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This section focuses on activities youcan use as warm-ups at the beginningof a program or meeting, or inter-spersed throughout the program. Agreat time to incorporate some re-energizing activities is after lunch orwhen participants are tired. Thedebriefing section has been eliminatedfrom the games section because themain goal is simply to have fun andplay together as a group. Debriefingcan certainly occur at the end of eventhe most basic tag game. Questionsyou can ask include: Did we have fun?Did anyone challenge himself/herselfin this activity?

Remind participants to be aware andcareful of their surroundings whileplaying games. The ground can beuneven, rocky, or have other obstacles;indoor spaces, of course, have wallsand other potentially dangerous andunsafe objects. Please remind yourparticipants that they do not want toruin their day by hurting themselveswhile playing!

Alaskan Baseball

Description

This activity rates very high on thefun-factor scale. Framing this activityas though you are from Alaska andplay professionally on the Alaskanbaseball team is always amusing; youmay even be out scouting for newteam members.

Equipment

● A large open space or field

● Lots of energy

● A willingness to be silly

● A rubber chicken

Briefing

● You will need to divide the groupin half. In these two separate teams,explain that each inning will haveone team hitting, while the otherteam is acting as fielders.

● Hitting involves having one teammember hurl the rubber chicken inany direction that he/she chooses.

● Once the hitting team has tossedthe chicken they will huddletogether and have the one team“hitter” run around the huddle toscore points.

● As the hitter is running around his/her huddled teammates, the fielderswill rapidly run over to the rubberchicken. The rubber chicken isfielded by having the fielding teamform a line and pass the chickenover one person’s shoulders,through the’next person’s legs, overthe shoulders, through the legs, andso on until the chicken reaches theend of the line.

● At this point, the fielding team willyell “Chicken!” and will thenbecome hitters as they toss thechicken with wild abandon for theopposing team to field.

● The teams must keep track of theirtotal number of runs. Inevitablythe numbers get confused and lostin all of the fun and excitement.Play until the teams tie!

Safety

● Be aware of uneven ground.

● Watch for participants who mightbecome overly excited aboutAlaskan Baseball and may attemptwild dives and saves.

Chapter 4: Games, Games, andMore Games

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Clothespin Tag orBackstabbers

Description

Each participant starts with threeclothespins. The objective is to get ridof all of your clothespins, as well asany others that might get pinned onyou during the game.

Equipment

● About 3 clothespins per partici-pant. Be sure that they are thespring-loaded type of clothespin asopposed to the older woodenclothespins.

Briefing

● Each player will receive threeclothespins at the beginning of thegame.

● Participants attempt to pin theirthree clothespins onto the otherplayers’ clothing, who, in turn, willbe trying to do the same!

● The back is the only appropriatearea for participants to pin eachother.

● As soon as participants get rid of allof their clothespins, they mustjump up and down yelling thatthey in fact have gotten rid of all oftheir clothespins.

● Once clipped, a participant cannottry to rub off the clothespin onanother person or the wall. Partici-pants may not grab at clothing totry to slow down other players.

Safety

● Participants must pin each otheronly on the back to avoid pinningany inappropriate areas, such as theearlobes or hair!

● Make sure that all of the partici-pants are wearing loose-fitting tops.

Penguin Tag

Description

This activity is great for any agegroup, but younger participantsparticularly love this fun version oftag.

Equipment

● A large, open, flat space or field

● Boundaries (rope, cones, and soforth)

Briefing

● One person is chosen to be the“king penguin” or “It.”

● All other participants will movearound the bounded space doingtheir best imitations of penguinwalks—arms close to the sides,with flipper-like fingers flexedoutward, and feet waddle-widthapart.

● The king penguin is trying to tagthe other participants.

● If the king penguin tags one of theother penguins, he/she mustremain “frozen” until anotherpenguin participant comes alongand tags him/her with a flipper.He/She may then re-enter the game.

Safety

● This tag game is “fast waddling,” sofeel free to encourage the partici-pants to monitor their pace—norunning!

● Ensuring that the king penguinpractices safe tags of the otherpenguins is important. Appropriatetags are gentle and at about waistlevel using a “flipper.”

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Asteroids

Description

This super-charged energizer is out ofthis world!

Equipment

● Lots of soft throwables (fleece balls,small stuffed animals, Koosh balls,and so on)

Briefing

● The facilitator will begin theactivity by throwing all of the softballs and throwables into the airand yelling, “Asteroids!”

● The participants then gatherthrowables and throw them at eachother.

● As participants get hit by one of theasteroids, they must crouch downclose to the ground.

● If a throwable lands within arm’sreach while a participant iscrouched down, he/she may reachout and grab it. He/She is thenback into play and may also throwthese retrieved objects at otherparticipants.

● The objective here is to use a greatdeal of energy running around andsafely throwing soft objects at otherpeople—all things that yourmother always told you not to do.

Safety

● Be aware of participants who arenot appropriately throwing theobjects and who may be throwingobjects at other participants’ heads.Participants should throw objects atthe torso area and below the knees.

Bonker Boffers

Description

You will ask your participants to usetheir noodles in this activity. This is anew and different version of hockeythat should be played with wildabandon!

Equipment

● Enough noodles or boffers for eachparticipant

● Inflated beach ball(s) (dependingon the size of your group)

● Cones or goals

● A large open field is ideal for thisactivity. However an open indoorspace, such as a gym, can also workeffectively.

Briefing

● Bonker Boffers is essentially hockeywith foam noodles. As a facilitatoryou can decide how stringent youwould like to be in holding true torules and guidelines.

● In general, you will want to break alarger group into two teams.

● The objectives are to have fun andattempt to score goals on the otherteam.

● Play until participants are tired oruntil there is a tie. This is fun forall age-groups!

Safety

● Be aware of “high sticking.” Thenoodles should stay very close tothe ground while in play to avoidhitting other players in the face.

● This is an active game and acci-dents can happen as people get veryinvolved and get excited.

Wizards and Gelflings

Description

Wizards are all-powerful and out toget the gelflings. Gelflings are happy,spunky creatures who are alwayswilling to give each other a helpinghand!

Equipment


● A wizard’s magical orb (or softball(s))

Briefing

● Wizards and gelflings dwell in thisfantasy. To begin the activity,choose at least one wizard—depending on the number ofparticipants, you may chooseseveral wizards (2–3). The wizardsare all-powerful beings and are veryserious. The wizards attempt to tagas many gelflings as possible withtheir magical orbs to put an end totheir fun.

● The other members of this realmare gelflings. Gelflings are indeed avery fun-loving and energeticbunch. All gelflings have very high-pitched voices and like to laugh alot. In this activity, the gelflings willlaugh, run, and bounce along whiletrying to avoid being tagged by thewizards.

● As a wizard tags gelflings, theymust remain frozen and with theirvery high-pitched voices squeal,“Help me! Help me! Help me!”

● As two other gelflings come alongto help their friend they must joinhands surrounding the frozengelfing. In unison, with their high-

65

pitched voices, they must yell, “Gofree little gelfling, go free!” whilebringing their arms up and downthree times.

● The newly freed gelfing may thenre-enter the play.

Safety

● Check the ground or area condi-tions for uneven or rocky ground.Avoid these areas.

● The wizards must be careful inthrowing their magical orbs so theydo not to hurt any of the gelflings.As a facilitator you should ask thatthe wizards throw their orbs onlybelow the knees and gently towardthe torso area.

Throw Me the Chicken

Description

This is a great energizer for both largeand small groups, as well as for theyoung and old. Depending on thenumber of participants, you canincorporate additional rubber chick-ens into the game to create an addi-tional element of challenge andexcitement.

Equipment

● An open space or field

● Visual boundaries (cones, ply rope,and so on)

● The all-important rubberchicken(s)!

Briefing

● To start this tag game, you mustdesignate at least one person as“It.”

● Depending on the number ofparticipants, you may want to addin additional chickens and otherpeople to be “It.” With a largergroup (more than 20–30 partici-pants), having between 2 and 3people as “It” works well.

● The individuals who are “It” havethe “power of the chicken.” Thisallows them to tag other partici-pants.

● A safe tag with the rubber chickenis a soft touch below the knees.

● Once other players have beentagged with the rubber chicken,they also have the “power of thechicken” and are able to tag otherparticipants.

● Now the strategic aspects of thisvery complex game come into play.Players who have been tagged andhave the “power of the chicken,”but may not actually be in posses-sion of a rubber chicken, can callout, “Throw me the chicken!” Thiscall acknowledges that this indi-vidual is open and can receive aflying chicken to then attempt totag other players.

● When a player catches the chicken,that person is allowed to movethree steps toward a person whomthey wish to tag.

● After they have taken those threesteps, they must stop and attemptto tag, or toss the chicken off toanother player who has the powerof the chicken.

Safety

● Be mindful of the terrain that youand your group are playing on.

● Ensure that those who are “It”practice controlled tagging.

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Triangle Tag

Description

You can use this great activity as anenergizer. It works well both in thesmall group and in a larger group.How do the triangle team membersneed to work together and help tolook out for each other?

Equipment

● A large open space or field (depen-dent on the number of partici-pants)

● Optional: Visual boundaries and/orcones, play rope, and so on

Briefing

● You will need to break a largegroup into smaller groups of four.

● Within the smaller groups, oneperson needs to decide to be “It”for the beginning of the activity.

● The three remaining people joinhands in the shape of a triangle.One person within the trianglegroup chooses to be the “point.”

● The objective is for the person whois “It” to tag the “point” player.

● The other two members of thetriangle attempt to protect thepoint person from “It.” A wild taggame with lots of swinging ensues.

● “It” may not tag across the arms ofthe triangle, they may only tag bymoving themselves toward the“point” person’s back.

● This can actually be a rather tiringgame; play until participants aretired or the “point” position hasrotated through the group.

Safety

● Participants must be careful witheach other. Triangle players tend toswing their partners around. Thoseplayers who have had a pastshoulder or wrist injury may wishto use Challenge by Choice to finda different way to participate.

● Be mindful of appropriate tagging,which includes gentle tags to theback.

● As always, remind the participantsof the space in which they areplaying.

Alien Space Invaders fromMars

Description

This is the epic game of the century:Earthlings battle the alien spaceinvaders from Mars!

Equipment


● Visual boundaries (either cones ornotable trees)

● A flying saucer (or Frisbee)

Briefing

● Choose several participants (about5–6 for a group of about 20–30) tobe “alien space invaders fromMars.”

● The aliens should make a great dealof strange and funny noises, andhave strange and unusual posturesand ways of moving. Encouragethem to be their best alien selves!

● All of the other participants areearthlings. They should be theirbest earthling selves!

● To begin the game, the earthlingsare opposite the aliens.

● The aliens will yell across the field,“Earthlings, are you ready for analien space invasion from Mars?”and will toss their flying saucertoward the earthlings.

● If an earthling catches the flyingsaucer, the aliens die and Earth issaved.

● If an earthling touches the flyingsaucer, but he/she drops it, thealiens move toward the earthlingswhile trying to tag them as they

67

move to the opposite side of thefield. Any earthlings who aretagged become aliens.

● If the earthlings do not touch theflying saucer, it returns to the aliensfor another space invasion.

● You and your group can play thisgame for hours, so just use yourbest judgment for when you wouldlike play to end.

Safety

● As a facilitator be aware of theflight of the Frisbee. Be sure thatthe Frisbee is not aimed at anyother participants on the oppositeside of the play space.

● Be mindful of players who may berunning with wild abandon toescape the clutches of the aliens.

Birdie Perch

Description

This wonderful activity experientiallysplits a group in half.

Equipment


Briefing

● Ask each person to find a partner.It can be a person whom they knowwell, or someone that they wouldlike to get to know better.

● These partners will create twocircles facing each other, with onecircle on the outside and the otheron the inside.

● The facilitator will direct the actionof the group. The outside groupwill move in a clockwise directionaround the circle, while the insidegroup will move in a counterclockwise direction. In other words, thepartners will be moving farther andfarther away from each other.

● While the group is moving aroundin the circle, the birdies will beflapping their best bird-like wingsand wildly chirping.

● When the facilitator yells, “Perch!”all of the birdies must quickly findtheir partners, who are theirperches.

● Perches will be kneeling down onone knee awaiting their birdies.

● Once the birdies have found theirperches, they will gently andcarefully sit on the knee of theirperches.

● You can continue this for severalrounds.

● To divide the group in half forfurther activities, simply stop theaction and ask for all of the birdiesto be in one group while all of theperches will be in another group.

Safety

● A few safety considerations to keepin mind include reminding thebirdies that their perches are notmeant to fully support all of theirweight. A demonstration of a birdieon a perch is always helpful. Thisbirdie should have their backsidehovering over the perch’s knee, suchthat if the perch were not there atall, the birdie would support itself.

● After the facilitator exclaims,“Perch!” often pandemoniumbreaks out. Be mindful thatparticipants are being carefultogether and that they keep their“bumpers up” while running, sothey don’t hit each other while onthe move.

68

The Facilitator’s Bag ofTricks

Here is a list of the essential items forfacilitating the activities in thismanual as well as a few other itemsthat are fun to use in programming.As you continue to grow as afacilitator, so too will your Bagof Tricks. Purchasing all ofthese items at once is notimportant, but to collectingthem over the course of yourfacilitation career is a fun project.

Chapter 5: Appendixes

● Rubber chicken

● Play rope(s)

● Cones

● Soft throwables

● Small stuffed animals

● Fleece balls

● Koosh balls

● Hula Hoop(s)

● Markers

● Blindfolds

● Bucket

● Beach ball(s)

● Noodles

● This manual

69

People Bingo Cards

Likes to sing Has ridden a horse Has seen a movie this Has been to a music Lovesice creamsummer concert

Has been to Keeps a journal Was born in Has been to a Penn Has traveled out of theDisneyworld Pennsylvania State football game country

Was born the same Also enjoys your FREE! Loves snow Has ever seen a snakemonth as you favorite activity

Can play a musical Likes to swim Likes to draw and/ Likes to play sports Has won a trophyinstrument or paint

Likes to read Enjoys skiing Has been camping Has seen a hawk or Has braceseagle in the wild

Likes to dance Has worked on a farm Has ever played Favorite holiday is Has been to a circusbaseball Valentine’s Day

Has been to Disneyworld Keeps a journal Was born outside of Owns a bicycle Has traveled out of thePennsylvania country

Shares the same Similar interests/ FREE! Loves snow Has a unique scarbirthday month as hobbies as youyou do

Can play a musical Has a pet Likes to draw and/or Has a goldfish Has more than 3instrument paint brothers or sisters

Has traveled to Enjoys swimming Has won something Has seen a hawk or Has been skiinganother state in a contest in eagle the wild

70

Resource List

These materials contain activities andideas for use in breaking barriers anddeveloping effective teamwork withineither new or standing groups.

Cavert, Chris, et al. 1999. AffordablePortables: A Working Book of InitiativeActivities and Problem Solving Ele-ments. Wood N Barnes, OklahomaCity, Okla.ISBN 1-8854-1340-0

Gass, Michael. 1995. Book of Meta-phors vol II. Kendall/Hunt, Dubuque,Iowa.ISBN 0-7872-0306-8

Graham, John. 1997. OutdoorLeadership Technique, Common Sense& Self-Confidence. MountaineerBooks, Seattle, Wash.ISBN 0-8988-6502-6

Johnson, David W., and Frank P.Johnson. 1999. Joining Together:Group Theory and Group Skills. Allynand Bacon, Toronto, Canada.ISBN 0-2053-0859-7

Nadler, Reldan S., John L.Luckner.1992. Processing the AdventureExperience: Theory and Practice.Kendall/Hunt, Dubuque, Iowa.

ISBN 0-8403-7028-8

New Games Foundation. 1976, 1981.The New Games Book & More NewGames. Andrew Fluegelman, ed.Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y. Out ofprint.ISBN 0-3851-2516-X (1976 edition),0-3851-7511-0 (1981 edition)

Rohnke, Karl. 1991, 1994. TheBottomless Bag Again! Dubuque,Kendall/Hunt, Iowa.ISBN 0-7872-6772-4

Rohnke, Karl. 1989. Cowtails andCobras II: A Guide to Games, Initia-tives, Ropes Courses, and AdventureCurriculum. Project Adventure,Dubuque, Iowa.ISBN 0-8403-5434-7

Rohnke, Karl. 1995. Funn Stuff.Kendall/Hunt, Dubuque, Iowa.ISBN 0-7872-1633-X

Rohnke, Karl. 1984. Silver Bullets: AGuide to Initiative Problems, AdventureGames, and Trust Activities. ProjectAdventure, Hamilton, Mass.ISBN 0-8403-5682-X

Rohnke, Karl, and Steve Butler.1996.Quicksilver: Adventure Games,Initiative Problems, Trust Activities &Guide to Effective Leadership. ProjectAdventure, Hamilton, Mass.ISBN 0-7872-2103-1

Schoel, Jim, and Mike Stratton (eds.).1995. Gold Nuggets: Readings forExperiential Education. ProjectAdventure, Hamilton, Mass.ISBN 0-7872-1925-8

Web Sites

www.fundoing.com

www.teamworkandteamplay.com

www.gameskidsplay.net

www.training-wheels.com

www.sportime.com

Visit Penn State’s College of AgriculturalSciences on the Web: http://www.cas.psu.edu

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Issued in furtherance of Cooperative ExtensionWork, Acts of Congress May 8 and June 30,1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture and the PennsylvaniaLegislature. T. R. Alter, Director of Coopera-tive Extension, The Pennsylvania StateUniversity.

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