#25: How Is Team Building with Younger Audiences Different Than Working with Middle School and High School Programs?

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Adventure Play: Adventure Activities for Preschool and Early Elementary Age Children - by Nancy MacPhee Bower

Adventure, Play, Peace: Insights and Activities for Social-Emotional Learning and Community Building with Young Children - by Nancy MacPhee Bower

Journey Towards the Caring Classroom: Using Adventure to Create Community - by Laurie Frank

Adventure Curriculum for Physical Education: Elementary School - by Panicucci & Constable

Activities Shared in the Episode
Moonball - HERE is a link to 'Moonball in Time' with the basics and some variations. With younger groups start out with balloons. Have each student work alone on a challenge and then move to small group challenges with balloons. Cooperation is the goal. 

Clean & Messy - Michelle explained that one team is assigned to do one thing, the other team is assigned to do something else. It's easy with plastic cups. Set up the cups so half are open end up and the other half are open end down. One team wants all the cups open end up the other team wants the cups open end down. Play for 90-seconds where both teams are moving around turning cups over. This is competitive - in the end who will have the most cups the way they want them? And, we get to talk about how we behave and how we treat each other during competitive tasks. 

Frantic - This is from the book, The Bottomless Bag, Again!? by Karl Rohnke. You need a closed in space to keep the tennis balls contained - like a one-court basketball gym or multi-purpose room. For the most fun, have about three tennis balls per student. Put all the tennis balls on the floor in the center of the space. The objective is for the students to keep all the tennis balls in motion by kicking them (or moving them with a noodle - this version is a bit safer). You (the facilitator) start the game by gently kicking all the tennis balls out of the center of the floor. The group is then tasked to keep them all moving. If you (and the other teachers/facilitators in the room) spot a stationary tennis ball (called a "Hectic") you are to "generate a hysterical scream" (called a "Berserk") so that everyone will recognize the situation. Someone in the group has 5-seconds to get the ball moving again or another Berserk (hysterical screaming) is triggered. Time how long the group can keep the tennis balls moving until the sixth Berserk is triggered. (Need additional info? Email: chris@onteambuilding for more.)

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