These activities and games educate, equip, and empower students to build community, trust, and open communication in the classroom, as well as in the greater community.
- This Activity Teaches Problem Solving as a Group. Human Knot - Goals: to work together, see the big picture, and think about the connection between individuals in the group as students participate in the activity. In 30-45 minutes, students will work together to progress from a “tangled mess” to an untangled circle.
- This Activity Teaches Dependence on the Group. Turnstile - Goals: to accomplish a task together through the use of teamwork skills, problem solving, risk taking, and perseverance. Turnstile is a problem solving activity that gets many students out of their comfort zone. Although it looks like a simple jump rope activity at first, students quickly learn that they need to rely on one another’s strengths and skills to make it through. It is very rare for a group to easily breeze through the three rounds. The group must practice perseverance and teamwork in order to succeed.
- This Activity Teaches Trust and Teamwork. Yurt Circle - Goals: to recognize everyone is part of the big picture and the skills needed to take care of a small community of individuals are similar to those needed to care for a larger community. This activity can be done at different times throughout the year, each time adding more people to the circle.