Children learn more than numbers and letters at school, of course. By interacting with peers and teachers, they also learn to work together to achieve their goals. However, it can often be difficult to motivate children to behave properly when dealing with others, particularly if they have different ideas about what they want and how to get it.
Through team building activities, children learn valuable life skills in a fun way that encourages camaraderie and helps these lessons stick. In this way, play becomes an essential part of a child’s development into a responsible and productive adult.
Developing Life Skills and Values
When companies need to make hiring decisions, they look for candidates who can both perform the job well and work effectively with their colleagues. To this end, they seek people who are organized, motivated, flexible, committed, passionate, and strong. They also want employees who are good communicators, self-starters, and innovators.
The development of these important life skills begins in schools and through team sports, clubs, and other activities that introduce children to the concept of working in a team and using their individual abilities to benefit the whole group.
Learning Outside the Classroom
Many schools have begun cutting back on extracurricular activities due to funding constraints. However, these programs hold significant promise when it comes to teaching children life skills. Theater programs can improve confidence and self esteem, while sports promote teamwork and perseverance. Within the classroom, teachers at these schools may want to consider incorporating more group activities and projects into their curriculum to encourage the development of important life skills and show children how they can be used on a daily basis, during the normal course of their schooldays.
One of the best ways to do this is through educational games. Whether on a field trip or in the classroom, introducing games breaks up the day to day classroom routine in an exciting but still educational way. Games encourage children to think outside the box, communicate with their classmates, get comfortable with public speaking, solve problems fairly, and accomplish goals together. No matter what grade level, children can enjoy age-appropriate games that help them learn and practice important skills that they can begin using right away at home and in the classroom.
Examples Of Team Building Activities For Kids
Team building activities can take a variety of forms and be as simple or complex as needed for your particular groups interest and attention span.
Field Games
Some of the most basic activities include no-contact games like asking children to line themselves up in order based on their name, birthday, height, or shoe size. Similar games, like joining hands in a circle and passing a hula hoop from person to person or untangling a knot made of held hands without letting go, can also teach children to communicate and work together. In these games, everyone wins – the challenge is to work together to complete the task, not to beat an opponent. You can add a time limit for older children to add an element of time management.
Sports
Sports are also excellent team building activities for kids, but you don’t need to enroll in an entire season to reap the benefits of communication, respect, and mutual support. Instead, consider hosting a one-day kickball game or round of capture the flag. Not only will the kids enjoy spending time outside and competing against their friends, they’ll also learn how to win and lose gracefully and develop important life skills in the process. Trust walks, another outdoor activity, test trust, patience, and communication as teams verbally guide a blindfolded friend through an easy obstacle course.
Escape Rooms
For a more mental challenge, consider a field trip to an escape room, which places kids at the center of an adventure and gives them one hour to find solve puzzles, find clues, and discover props that will help them escape the room. This activity is an excellent choice for kids who enjoy video games, books, and other forms of storytelling, as they’ll become the heroes of each story that the escape room creates. In the process, they’ll learn problem solving, communication, time management, critical thinking, and observation skills that will help them escape the room and eventually manage their professional and personal relationships with ease.
Booking An Escape Room For Team Building
Speak to Room Escape Fairfax for more information about booking an escape room outing for children. The venue includes 11 detailed escape rooms that will test their teamwork as they practice a variety of important life skills. Groups can also book one hour in the VIP Room to enjoy refreshments and talk about what they learned. Room Escape Fairfax’s mobile escape room can accommodate up to 40 participants in nearly any location, making it an excellent for on-site team building at schools and camps.