Elementary Matters: teamwork

Why should we encourage Teamwork in the Elementary Classroom?

This post tells some benefits of Team Building activities in the classroom and some ideas for including these class bonding activities with your students.

I've encouraged children to work as a team in my classroom for many years. Although they're not necessarily going to score better on those high-stakes tests, working as a team helps children develop many important skills!

Here are some of the skills children learn from team-building activities:

communication
collaboration
listening
time management
problem-solving
putting others first
conflict management

Interesting, some might say these are "life skills!" Yes, these are skills that children need to develop to be successful in life, which I feel is far more important than being successful on tests!

These are some activities to encourage teamwork in the classroom:

morning meeting activities
shared stories
project-based learning
STEM or STEAM projects
put on a class play
relay races
team trivia
partner work
plan a class party
scavenger hunts
educational games, played as teams

I'm sure you can think of plenty more, including activities connected to your curriculum! Make sure to mention that the goal is to "work as a team," and "look out for the others!"

Most important, motivate them to encourage others! Make sure these words are used often!

Good job!
You can do it!
Awesome job!
You are incredible!
You figured it out!
You're on the right track!
You make it look easy!
That's the way!
You've got this!
I can see you're really trying!

Here's an idea: let them make a list of more encouraging words, and display them for children to use as a reference. Be sure to model using encouraging words for your whole class team!

Here are some helpful resources:

Here are some links for more information about Team Building in the classroom:

Brain research tells us that getting students engaged physically will help learning happen!

This game is a great "filler" that will get the kiddos thinking about communication without words.

The Bulgaria Game: This game is a great filler that will get the kiddos thinking of communication without words. Plus, you can connect it to the curriculum, too!

The game's title only works well if you don't have anyone in your group that speaks Bulgarian. If you do have someone who speaks Bulgarian, you'll have to change the name of the game to some language that no one knows, since the game depends on broken lines of communication.

Here's the scenario: you happen to be traveling through Bulgaria. You need something, so you pull over into a convenience store.

Unfortunately, the people working in the store only speak Bulgarian, which you don't speak.

Therefore, you have to "act out" what you'll need!

There are a couple of ways to proceed once they know the story:

1. Let individuals think of things to act out.

2. Let groups think of things to act out.

3. Have slips written up with things to act out.

Of course, #3 can be done with individuals or teams.

If you go with #3, you can find ways to use content vocabulary and make it count as academic!

Yes, it's not very likely that they'll have to pull into a convenience store in Bulgaria for landforms or geometric shapes, but they are usually having so much fun acting out vocabulary words, they don't mind!

A word of caution: some children are VERY competitive, and try to make it difficult for others to guess their word. Or, they're disappointed if their audience figures it out right away.

I have to remind them that the goal of the game is to communicate enough information so that their audience understands what they're acting out. If the audience gets it right away, they have communicated successfully!

I know, it's kind of a silly scenario just to get children to act things out, but it's a fun story, and the children enjoy it!

Looking for more team-building games? Try these:

60 Team Building Games and Activities to Promote Classroom Community

Why Encourage Team Building in the Elementary Classroom?