Team Building

As a class, it is critical to make sure that we can work together as a team. So, in order to show second and third graders the importance of good communication while working as a team, we participated in a team building activity in the gym. Students were broken up into four teams (the groups they are usually placed in for classroom activities) and were given a task: they needed to keep a balloon in the air as long as possible. But, there was a catch, they could not do so with the use of their hands. In their groups, students held hands in a circle and kept the balloon in the air with their feet, arms, bodies, etc. The first time students did this activity I gave them no instructions except to keep the balloon in the air. This resulted in bonked heads, poor team work, and groups that just wanted to give up on the task.  

After this, we talked together about how we could make things better. We decided that if we communicated with our groups and said "I've got it" or "you have this one" there would be less injuries and more reliance on one another to help the team out. After this chat, we experimented with the balloons once again and noticed a change. No, it wasn't drastic...it was still very difficult to keep the balloon in the air. But it was amazing to hear the teams talking to each other and encouraging each other as they tried to keep the balloon in the air. After discussing this second experiment, students agreed that it worked better when they communicated with their team members while working together.

Once we got back to the classroom, we discussed why communication is so important when working with groups of people. We discussed how we sometimes do group projects and if we do not communicate with our teammates, then not everyone is participating and the group is more likely to spew out angry or hurt words because of it. We also talked about "good communication" versus "bad communication" and how we will be more supportive of our group mates if we encourage them with kind words rather than yell at them in anger; I don't know anyone who does their best work while being yelled at! Overall, I feel that this team building activity helped the second and third graders realize the importance of talking things out with their friends while working on accomplishing something together.