Team building is defined as a group cooperative learning to try and solve a challenge. Team building is structured in such a way that everyone in the group succeeds and so that nobody in the group loses -everyone is a winner. Young children's should be taught how to build a team. Social skills are necessary to play a very vital role in a person's life. Development of sportsmanship and enhancement of interpersonal skills are definitely important for success in life. Certain games like filmmaking or skit making, guide-me, line-up.

Filmmaking is one of the interesting team building activities at school. To play this game the students have to be split in groups of eight or ten. Give each group a topic and try to weave a story around it. Ask them to build a scene around the topic and tell them to enact it in the form of a small kit. Give them a time frame to enact the play. This game encourages the students to think collectively and be team players. In this way children can improve their planning as well as presentation skills. Another interesting game for children is line-up. Divide the children in two teams.

Let the teams choose their own leaders. Now give various tasks to the team like tell them to stand in an ascending order of their birthdays or in alphabetical order of their names. The team which completes first is the winner. This activity helps in developing organizing skills and leadership qualities in children. Many other games which can help students in team building are to pay group sports. Soccer, volleyball, or cricket can help children to work as a team and instill a sense of team building in them. Other interesting games for kids are tug of war, team drawing, cooking tasks, and treasure hunt. Another team building exercise is to divide the group into 2-3 subgroups. Ask each team to write down 5 items they would put in a box which would be representative of our civilization when found by aliens. Each team has to discuss and defend their choices within the groups.

The important parts of team building are perseverance, rules and social development. Perseverance means that students should understand that success does not come easily. Failure is a stepping stone of success. In team building there should be certain rules for a game or expected behaviors. These type of games will allow student creativity, exploration and experimentation.

It is not important that the group solves a challenge, but the way group works together to try and complete the task. The development of teamwork can improve your communication skills, learn different roles, improve risk taking and to develop a positive class environment. Team building activities are generally designed to help group members develop their capacity to work effectively together. Many team building tasks include kid's games, novel reading, complex tasks, rope courses, nigh-time activities, and exercises. Team building activities are often used in meetings, presentations, workshops, training seminars, education programs, corporate training, teacher training, youth work etc.

John George Peter
13 Oct. 2008

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