Being part of a team allows children to trust and be trusted, to give and to take, to lead and to compromise. It can foster a sense of belonging and shared involvement, all of which is likely to impact positively on children's self-esteem. It's such a shame then, that some methods of forming teams (such as when children are elected to choose from their peers and one child is left until last) make children feel uncomfortable. Plan how to form teams in advance, and start these activities on a positive note.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU
This activity is great for helping a group of children to gel together, and to begin to feel like a cohesive unit. It's particularly good for a group that will work together frequently over a period of time - such as for children planning to form a committee for instance.
Split the group into the desired number of teams. Through conversation, the children must find some things that all of them have in common - they will learn quite a lot about each other in the process, so give them plenty of time. Next, challenge them to come up with a name for their team that they feel represents them, based on one or more of their commonalities. After that, they can have fun designing their own coat of arms or a logo - why not give them stickers or badges to draw them on and wear? Follow this activity with a game so that the newly-formed team can work together in a different capacity.
TEAM TRAVEL
In this activity teams must work out how to travel from one end of the playground to the other without touching the ground, using only the resources provided - you may like to provide carpet squares, low stilts and so on. A good tip is to make sure that the resources are spaced out enough to make them tricky to reach alone. This will ensure that the children have to work together to get across, passing resources backwards and forwards between them and to develop a plan to ensure no-one gets left behind.
THROW, CATCH AND DUCK
This game is not played competitively against other teams, but each team tries to improve their own performance as they play. One player stands facing the rest of the team, which lines up opposite him or her, one behind the other. There should be a distance of one to two metres between the first player and the team, depending on age and ability.
The first player throws a ball to the child at the front of the line, who must catch it and throw it back, then immediately crouch down. Now the first player throws the ball to the second child in the line, who follows suit, and so play continues down the line. If the ball is dropped the game starts again from the first child, but if the team successfully gets to the last child, they play in reverse back down the line. The team counts how many catches they achieve before the ball is dropped. The children can try swapping places until they find their best positions to play in for optimum catches. You can adjust the difficulty of the game as required - use a large ball to make the game easy or a small one, down to a tiny bouncy-ball if necessary, for a challenge.
KANGAROO CONGA
The whole group lines up, conga-style. After a count of three, everyone should hop forward together, attempting to keep the line intact. After a few disastrous (but funny!) practice goes, the group should begin to get quite good. See then if the children can also hop to the left and right and step backwards in unison - the children can also come up with a few moves of their own to try. When the movements are eventually mastered, the group can attempt to pick up the pace and do them randomly on the command of a play leader. You can also try putting a sequence together to music. Allow enough time to get the hang of it, and then lots of time to play - the children are likely to want to repeat the activity again and again!
MEMORY CIRCLE
This game sounds complicated, but is straightforward when you try it.
Players stand in a circle, about eight people is ideal until children have the hang of the game, but once they are used to it, group sizes can be increased.
Decide on a category, within which everyone must think of an item - types of fruit perhaps, or makes of car. The first player shouts out their item, and points randomly to a second player. They must remain pointing at them until the end of the round. This second player places one hand on their forehead to show they have been selected, and with their other hand they point to a third player while calling out their own (different) item. They too remain pointing. Players must remember who pointed to them, and to whom they pointed themselves.
This continues until the last player ends up pointing to the first player.
This signals that the round is complete and everyone drops their hands to their sides. The team repeats the cycle again, pointing to the same people as before and calling out the same item - after a few goes the group will be able to do this at speed, as they will easily recall when their turn comes in the sequence and what they must do. At that point, introduce a new category and a new sequence, starting with a new player - everyone must point at someone different this time.
Once this sequence is also well known, go back to the first one, launching into the second sequence as soon as it is finished. Older children will be able to keep adding new categories, and may eventually be able to switch between as many as six or eight, while younger children will perhaps just learn two or three. This team challenge gives a real sense of achievement.
THE CAMERA GAME
The whole group needs to work together in a team to make this activity a success and they will be rewarded with some funny photographs that will make a great display.
A playworker equipped with a camera stands at one end of the room. They instruct the group to mill around the room using all of the space available, moving in different ways each time, as if they were elephants, or trains or even pop stars for instance. Eventually, the playworker shouts out one of the children's names and this person must stand still, as they will be in the centre of the photograph. While the playworker trains the camera on them, the rest of the group must rush to get into the photograph, organising themselves as quickly as possible into a group pose - some at the back, some at the front - everyone must be able to see the camera, so children will need to crouch down and lean accordingly to make sure they are not blocking anyone else.
Once the group has had a practice, introduce the element of time. Then, once the camera is trained on the named child, start counting down from ten, taking the picture at one, whether everyone is ready or not! Keep reducing the time allowed by a second or two - the resulting pictures are guaranteed to make the children laugh - there will be a few pictures that are quite well structured, and although the rest may be chaotic, the enjoyment on the children's faces is usually evident as they rush, posing, to make it into the shot.
Many sports and other activities such as treasure and scavenger hunts, relays, parachute games and quizzes are also great for promoting teamwork, and are of course an everyday staple of many out-of-school clubs already.
Remember that children will also learn a lot about how to work together from the adults they regularly observe too - for teambuilding tips for playworkers, see 'Dream Team', Out of School, July 2003.
