Educational Teamwork Activities
Developing teamwork skills the first week of school sets the tone of the classroom for the rest of the year. According to Zack Dee, a teacher at Petaluma Junior High in Petaluma, California, teamwork is important because "when students have to work together to solve a common goal, it can reinforce current friendships and develop a new respect for others. Teamwork can have a long-lasting positive influence throughout your classroom in many different areas." By using a variety of activities, students will have fun while learning valuable skills.
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Defining Teamwork
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Teach students about teamwork by studying the attributes of teamwork within a team setting. Show students a short video of a football game. Ask them to describe what they see. Lead them to discuss how a football team needs teamwork to succeed with each player fulfilling his responsibilities.
Break students into teams of four and give each group butcher paper and markers. Each team brainstorms three words that mean teamwork to them. Have a class discussion about these words. Ask teams to regroup and develop a sentence that defines teamwork as well as guidelines for working in groups so that the group is successful and everyone takes part. Use these guidelines for a class discussion. Give teams poster board and finish the activity by telling students to trace their hands on the poster board, put their names under their hands and write their definitions of teamwork on the bottom of the poster board. Use the student work to create a bulletin board about teamwork. This is an effective activity to use at the start of the year. It helps students get to know each other and sets class rules for how teams should operate throughout the year.
Ball Pass
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Develop students' teamwork and problem-solving skills with this activity for middle school students. Place ten students in a circle with one student acting as quarterback. She starts the activity by throwing a Nerf ball to any student in the circle. That student must pass it immediately to another student. This continues until all students have caught the ball, with the last student passing it back to the quarterback. Repeat this activity with everyone throwing the ball to the same person as they did the first time. For the third round, give students eight balls to use. The object is to pass all eight balls in the same order as in the first two rounds. Students may need to repeat this activity a number of times until they successfully use all eight balls. For the fourth round, tell students that they have one ball that they need to pass around as quickly as possible. Each student must touch the ball in the same order as in previous rounds. Students work together to figure out how to do this in the shortest time possible. After they complete the activity, discuss how important they think a coordinated effort is in team work.
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Team Paragraph Construction
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Students usually develop their reading skills individually. Introduce students to a group activity where they must rely on teammates to develop a meaningful paragraph. This activity, suitable for elementary students, encourages them to think out loud, share ideas about how to construct meaning and develop reading strategies. Copy selected paragraphs from a story or textbook and print them in large font. Cut out individual sentences and paste them on cardboard strips. Put double-sided tape on the back of each strip. Divide students into "reading teams," so that each student on a team has one sentence of the paragraph. Students must take the sentences and work as a team to put them in order to create a paragraph that makes sense. This activity develops reading comprehension and teamwork skills.
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References
- Photo Credit Football game image by Sirena Designs from Fotolia.com
