How to Do Team Building with Children

Recently Training Touch conducted a week-long team building session for children. These are some things to consider and to take into account when dealing with them especially during a group event:

1. Remember that these are children and not adults. The concept of team is not as easily understood by children, even when those children have played on sports teams or done group activities.
2. Designate a different team member to run each warm up at a sports practice, or have her design a new skill building exercise to teach to others. Go over the exercise with the child beforehand to make sure it's appropriate. Through teaching, each person learns the importance of supporting others.
3. Use murder mystery games or similar challenges where you divide the children into teams and give them a problem to solve by working together. Make sure the teams change with each game.
4. Do a circle talk. Sit down in a circle. Focus on a particular team performance and discuss positive results and things the team needs to work on. Then go around the circle and ask each team member to say something positive about the team's performance or about another individual.
5. Play basketball with co-ed teams, but emphasize passing, rather than shooting, to build teamwork. Make a rule that neither side can take a shot unless the teammates first pass the ball around four times.
6. Hold relay events to foster teamwork and physical fitness. The key is to continually change partners on each team so everyone gets to know each other.