Team Builders
Try some of these great ideas to help break the ice at your first few practices and help unite your team!
ROPE SHAPES
Have every girl on the team stand in one long line. Everyone is blindfolded. The instructor places a piece of one long rope in each person's hand. The objective is to make a specific shape with the rope (ex. circle). This exercise is much more difficult than it seems. When the team believes they have finished creating their shape, they remove their blindfolds to check their success. Leaders will obviously emerge. Communication is important. It will also be evident that teamwork is essential.
GUESS WHO?
The instructor pins 5 X 6 laminated index card upon which a famous person's name has been written to the back of each team member. Do not let the individual see the name of the person being pinned to her back. Warn the others in the class not to tell one another who their famous person is. The objective is to identify the name pinned to one's back by asking only yes or no questions of other teammates. Example questions: Am I a movie star? Am I male? Am I female? Am I dead? Am I an animated character? etc. Every person can only ask two questions of each teammate. The students will soon see that they must be clever in their problem solving, and that they need the help of their teammates to solve the identity problem. Examples of famous people: Charles Darwin, Tom Cruise, Statue of Liberty, Mickey Mouse, Gwenth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bugs Bunny, Nicole Kidman, Thomas Edison, Bill Clinton, George Washington, etc.
2 X 4
Have an even numbered group of students (4 - 8) stand on a 2 X 4 piece of wood. All students are facing the same direction. The objective is to reverse the order of the line without stepping off the 2 X 4. This exercise will teach problem solving and the necessity of teamwork.
SING A LITTLE SONG
Divide the team into small groups. Each group has to make up a song about Cheerleading to the tune of any television show theme song. They should also create movement to go along with the song. Set a time limit of ten to fifteen minutes to complete the assignment. Have each group perform their song and dance. Creativity and teamwork will also be enhanced through this activity. Example theme songs: Gilligan's Island, Beverly Hillbillies, Fresh Prince of Bellaire, Brady Bunch, etc.
TRUST WALK
Blindfold all members of the team. Have them line up into one long line holding hands. Tell them they must be quiet and listen carefully to all directions. The instructor will lead the class through a "trust" wall. It can be through a building with different obstacles such as a set of stairs. It can be a walk outside that involves hills, puddles of water, trees etc. The instructor (who is not blindfolded) will tell the first girl in the line exactly what to do. For example, if the first girl needs to take a step up, the instructor tells her. The first girl will then whisper the same directions at the appropriate time to the person behind her and so on and so forth. The students must not ever shout out directions. It's also imperative that they whisper directions to the person behind them at the appropriate time. The leader emphasizes the importance of listening to the person in front of them so that no injures themselves with a sprained ankle or anything of the like. The objective is to have the students realize the importance of affective communication as well as trust and teamwork.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU
Have the team sit in a circle. Pass around a roll of toilet paper. Tell each girl to take as little or as much as she needs. Don't tell them the purpose for the paper. They will ask - just reply with, "Take as little or as much as you need." Once every girl has some toilet paper, tell them to write one thing about themselves on each square of toilet paper they have. Everyone then shares with the rest of the team the information they have written about themselves.
BIRTHDAY REARRANGE
Divide the team into smaller groups (no more than 10 to a group). Without talking or writing, each group must put themselves into birthday order from oldest to youngest including month, date, and year. Have the groups race against one another to see who can accurately complete the activity first. Give a prize to each of the girls in the winning group. This will teach the students problem solving skills, the importance of non-verbal communication and teamwork
SPIDER WEB
Have the team stand in a circle. Choose one person to start the activity. This person will have a ball of yarn. The first person will take the end of the ball of yarn and hold onto to it. She will choose one of her teammates to whom to throw the yarn. Before she throws the ball, she has to say something special about that person. Once the second person has caught the ball of yarn, she chooses someone else to say something special about then throws the ball of yarn to her. The procedure continues until everyone has had the opportunity to speak. The ball of yarn can never be thrown to the same person twice. Everyone holds on to a piece of yarn as they throw it to the next person. When the activity is concluded a huge "spider web" has been created. This is a great concluding exercise for a team building class.
BIO CARDS
Each team member receives an index card with three questions. For example, the questions could be: What is your greatest accomplishment? What is your biggest fear? What is your lifetime goal? The girls answer each question and hand in their cards. Then the director reads the answers, and the other team members try to guess who wrote those answers.
M&M GAME
Team sits in a circle. Pass a bag of M&M's around and tell everyone to take as many as they want, but not to eat them yet. When all of the girls have candy, tell them to count the red ones. For each red M&M, she will share a positive quality about herself.
TEAM WORD GIFT
Each individual has a paper with her name at the top. The papers are passed around the team and each member writes a positive word about the person whose name is at the top of the paper. Each girl receives her paper with all the positive words describing her.
POSITIVE CIRCLES
Team members seat in a circle. Beginning with one person, each person says something positive about various subjects. *Tips: Many subjects from which to chose. Pick the subject that will give you the desired results. Even a problem can be disguised and resolved by using the positive circle. Team members can learn to look for positive qualities rather than dwelling on the negatives.
SHOW AND TELL
Have each member bring an object, picture, drawing or poem of their favorite memory of the season so far this year. Give everyone time to share. Or divide into groups and have them make a composite drawing, poem or song about their favorite time.
DUCK DUCK GOOSE
Need a tension breaker or a breather after a hard practice. A quick game of duck duck goose will always do the trick. The silliness will get your team free of stress in a hurry.
SURPRISE TREAT
Bring an edible treat to practice one day. Call a 15-minute break and bring out the goodies.
CHEERS AND BOOS (Peer Pressure Lesson)
Ask a volunteer to step outside the room so that she can't heart what you tell the group. Set a roll of toilet paper on one chair and a candy bar on another chair. Explain to the group that when the volunteer comes back in, their goal is to direct her toward the toilet paper by cheering and away from the candy bar by booing. The job isn't complete until she is standing on the chair with the toilet paper on her head. The team can't give instructions, only cheers and boos. Don't explain to the volunteer what is going on, they have to figure it out when they come back in the room. Afterwards, have a discussion on peer pressure pointing out:
There wasn't anything stopping her from choosing the candy bar over the toilet paper or just returning to her seat
What a ridiculous thing she was pressured into doing
Ask the volunteer what she was feeling
Brainstorm ways to stand up to peer pressure
Give the candy bar to the volunteer for being a good sport
LISTENING (Communication Lesson)
Form equal team of at least 4 members each. Line them up for a relay race. Have the lead person in each group come to you at the center of the floor. Whisper the same phrase in each ear and have them return to the line not telling anyone. Use a nonsensical phrase like "The pig went shopping on Thursday in the rain." On your signal, the lead person races down to the opposite end of the gym, tags the wall and races back to their line and whispers the phrase to the next person, who then takes off. Continue until all the racers cross the finish line and then have them whisper the phrase to you. If the first place team is not exactly correct, go to the second place team, etc. Lead a discussion on importance of clear communication and the danger of being too busy to listen carefully to others.
