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  #1  
Old 11-02-1999, 07:12 PM
SilverTurtle SilverTurtle is offline
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Question teambuilding/ bonding activities

I am trying to create an extensive list of activities for my fraternity. These can be anything from parties to teambuilding games like the 'human knot'. If you have any ideas to contribute, PLEASE let me know! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

carrie_1017@yahoo.com
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  #2  
Old 11-05-1999, 12:53 AM
krunchy krunchy is offline
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10 WAY MIXER!!!!!!!!!
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  #3  
Old 03-31-2003, 12:37 PM
IowaHawkeye IowaHawkeye is offline
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i'm bumping this one up...

i'm in charge of planning a retreat for 40 something people - and i need teambuilding/bonding activities!

if anyone has any really good ones they want to share - or a website with ideas - i'd love to hear them
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  #4  
Old 03-31-2003, 12:51 PM
James James is offline
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There is some stuff on the web . . . but if you go to your local Boarder's Books under leadership/business/management you'll find all kinds of titles like: Games trainers play etc . . . You could just sit there over a cup of expresso and copy the best.

There are only so many out there
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  #5  
Old 03-31-2003, 01:08 PM
texas*princess texas*princess is offline
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Do you know your neighbor?

I used to be an RA, so I have a ton of little team-builders/little games. One of my fav get-to-know-you games is called "Do you Know your Neighbor?" We usually did this one at the beginning of the fall semester since most of our residents were freshmen and didn't know one another.. if you want to incorporate it into your brotherhood/sisterhood events, maybe you could try it when you just get some new members.

(Please keep in mind this is a corny RA game )

Here's how it works:

Everyone sits in a chair in a big circle. There is one person who does not have a chair to sit on and that person stands in the middle.

The person in the middle randomly chooses one person and asks them "Do you know your neighbors?"

*If the selected person knows only one or doens't know any of their neighbors (people sitting on their immediate left or right sides) they respond with a statement like "No I don't know my neighbors, but I know someone who is wearing a blue shirt (or insert whatever else... this part can get kind of interesting ) And then everyone who is wearing a blue shirt gets up from their chair and must find another chair to sit on before there are no chairs left. (NOTE: You cannot move to a chair that is on your immediate left or right side.. that would be too easy ) The person left without a chair must stand in the middle and continue the game asking someone if they know their neighbor.

* If the selected person DOES know both his/her "neighbors", the two "neighbors" must get up and switch seats before the person in the middle steals one of the seats.


**WARNING** Many observations of this game leads me to believe this game can be dangerous when males play**
I'll rummage around my room for my old RA book for more fun stuff...
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  #6  
Old 03-31-2003, 01:25 PM
texas*princess texas*princess is offline
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More teambuilding RA stuff

Yes, I am a nerd.. even though I knew I would never be an RA again I kept my stuff *just in case* Here are a couple more team-building activities I found, some of them are kind of corny, but oh well! :

KEEP IT UP: The players form two or more teams with 10-12 players on a team. Each team gets into a circle. Each teams is given a volleyball (or similar type ball of any size). The players attempt to keep their ball in the air the longest. When a team wins, they get a point. The team with the most points, wins. Do not allow players to catch the ball during play. NOTE: To vary, change the way of scoring...say the all must be hit in the order of the participants in the circle.

MACHINE GAME: The object of this game is to create a machine out of a group of people (i.e. ceiling fan, hot air balloon, watch, etc.). You might want to split your group into two or three smaller groups. Each person is required to be accountable for one noise and one motion of the machine. The group members should then put their motions and sounds together to create the machine. Give each group about 5 minutes to work together and prepare, and then have the groups present to everyone. Ask the other groups to guess what machine the group is.

PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS: All participants are given a bag with pennies (each participant should have one penny for each member in the group - if there are 20 people, players each should have 20 pennies). Participants go around the room to each other and trade “a penny for a thought.” Participants trade pennies - and positive thoughts about what they think of one another. Activity continues until all participants have shared with every member of the group and have a new bag of “pennies for thoughts.”

PIECE OF THE PUZZLE: Facilitator should cut a puzzle out of poster paper ahead of time. (There should be one piece for each member of the group.) Have participants decorate their piece to represent who they are and what they feel they can contribute to the group. Once participants are done, have them share what they have on their piece. Participants should them assemble the puzzle. Facilitator should initiate a discussion on the power of everyone coming together, how much more of an impact a put together puzzle can have, than separate pieces, and how a final product could not be reached without a contribution from every piece of the puzzle.

And of course the Chalkboard or Whiteboard draw: Divide everyone into teams of equal size. All group members are standing in a line facing the chalkboard/whiteboard. The facilitator should have simple drawings (for example: a sun, a moon, a house..etc .. you can also try fraternity/sorority symbols) already on pieces of paper. From each team, a team leader is selected. Each team leader gets a different piece of paper containing a finished drawing and "draws" the same picture on the back of the last person in their team line. Each person then "draws" the picture on the back of the next person, and so on, until it is at t he first person in the line. The first person in the line runs up to the chalkboard/whiteboard and draws (on the board) what he/she believes is the picture. Then when all the teams are done, you can compare how much the original picture is to the picture the team "drew".

If I didn't make any sense in these, let me know, and I'll try to clarify!
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  #7  
Old 03-31-2003, 01:40 PM
Peaches-n-Cream Peaches-n-Cream is offline
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Fill a bowl with candy and tell everyone to take candy, but not to eat. For every piece of candy that each person has taken, he/she has to tell the group something about him or herself.
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  #8  
Old 03-31-2003, 03:01 PM
Little E Little E is offline
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can you clarify the whiteboard draw? i'm confused how it goes down the line...

This is a website our school gave us (RA's) to do our floor programming. www.residentassistant.com this is where you're RA gets a lot of those cheesy games we make you play

look team building games up on the google and you'll get some orgs that have sample games for free online, some want you to pay but if youlook there is some free stuff out there.

Tau love
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  #9  
Old 03-31-2003, 03:22 PM
texas*princess texas*princess is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by Little E
can you clarify the whiteboard draw? i'm confused how it goes down the line...
Sure no problem.

Ok, let's say there are two teams with four people in each team. They are standing in two lines facing the whiteboard.

The 'team leader' that is chosen from each team gets a picture (we'll say it is a picture of a sun) from the person facilitating the game. The team leader (of each team) then goes to the back of their team's line behind the last person and 'draws' the picture on their back using their pointer finger.

The person who had the sun drawn on their back, then 'draws' it on the back of the person in front of them and so on. And the last person who had it 'drawn' on their back (first person in line) runs up to the whiteboard and draws what they think the picture was.

You can use this to compete for best times, or best finishing picture (how closely it matches the original picture)

I hope that helped!

p.s. www.residentassistant.com was one of my most frequently visited sites when I was an RA!
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  #10  
Old 03-31-2003, 03:31 PM
Little E Little E is offline
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OHHHHH. I thought they drew it on paper and that confused me! That is a great filler game! thanks!

(isn't that site amazing, I've used it so much for my floor and for my sorority, it is great!)
thanks so much!
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  #11  
Old 03-31-2003, 04:39 PM
emb021 emb021 is offline
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Re: teambuilding/ bonding activities

Quote:
Originally posted by SilverTurtle
I am trying to create an extensive list of activities for my fraternity. These can be anything from parties to teambuilding games like the 'human knot'. If you have any ideas to contribute, PLEASE let me know! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

carrie_1017@yahoo.com
Here are some resources:

Project Adventure: www.pa.org
High 5 Adventure: www.high5adventure.org
Learning Unlimited: www.learningunlimited.com

All have books and other resources for team building stuff. Some will require some equipment, others none.

Also see if your school or some local non-profit group has a team building/ropes course setup you can use. Boy Scouts call this Project COPE, and others have this for school-age kids (including college kids) and corporate groups.

Hope this helps
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  #12  
Old 03-31-2003, 05:18 PM
Kevin Kevin is offline
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Jump Rope Excercise

Goals:
1. To focus on the importance of encouragement within a team in order to successfully complete a task.
2. To encourage proper planning.

Materials Needed:
A large jump rope (15-20 ft. long)

Optimal # of participants -- 4-25

Directions:
(Do not tell them what the goal is at the beginning. After a while, tell them their goal is encouragement).

1. Get 2 students to swing the rope.
2. Tell the group that their task is to get everyone to jump the rope without missing a beat. If there are 17 people, all 17 people have to jump the rope consecutively. If someone misses, the group has to start from the beginning. The people that start off swinging the rope also have to go through.
3. As each person jumps the rope, the entire group has to count. Each person represents a number.
4. Challenge them to increase the number of people that they can get through without missing a beat.

Process Questions (asked after activity)
1. Did you achieve the task?
2. What was the most frustrating or difficult thing about this exercise?
3. How did you approach the task? Act first, think second? The other way around?
4. What was important for the task to be completed?
5. Ask the participants who felt they were not great at jumping rope how they felt during this exercise.
6. Themes that you could use in processing the activity include encouragement, planning, roles in a group/chapter, listening.
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  #13  
Old 03-31-2003, 05:27 PM
Kevin Kevin is offline
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The Grid

Goal: Proper planning, listening

Task: Your task is to get your whole team to the other end of the grid by discovering the set path through the grid.

Materials Needed: a 12' x 12' plastic tarp, one roll of duct tape.

Optimal number of participants: 5-30

Preparation:
Choose your map and get a pen to mark the incorrect steps. It is best to put a line through each square each time a person steps on an incorrect square and then another when the square is stepped on again.

Facilitator Notes:
Choose your map and get a pen to mark the incorrect steps. I have found that it is best to put a line through the square each time a person steps on an incorrect square and then another when a square is stepped on again. Put the grid on the floor. Blindfold at least one of the participants.

Read instruction sto the team:
The team may only send one person at a time to discover the path from one end of the grid to the other. As you discover the correct path, any adjacent square may be tried. If you tried jumping rows, you might never successfully discover the path.

The facilitator will be able to give your team verbal information limited to whether the squares you have chosen are on the path or not. If you choose a square off the path, you must follow the correct path back to the start and someone else on your team must be sent out to try again.

A correct square is always correct and an incorrect square is always incorrect.

Each time you take a step in an incorrect square a second time or more, the team loses one of its resources (team members). That person becomes an observer and cannot talk or assist during the rest of the exercise. If you take risks and choose incorrectly, a start over is required for the entire team.

The team may coach the person moving through the grid from any position outside the grid. You cannot mark the trail in any way, and no physical maps may be constructed. Once the team has started, any square touched by anyone counts as a try even by accident.

Process Questions:
1. Did you achieve your task? Did you achieve your goal(s)?
2. What was the most difficult part of this activity? What wen twell? What could have been done better?
3. How do you feel your group worked together? What went well? What could ahve been done better?
4. How important were listening skills? How did you listen during the activity compared to what you normally do when working on a project?
5. Themes that could be used in processing the activity include: utilizing the resources of the group, organizational memory.
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  #14  
Old 03-31-2003, 05:41 PM
Kevin Kevin is offline
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Giant's Shoelace

Goal: Problem Solving and Communication:

Task: Tie the giant's shoelace

Directions:
Tie a piece of rope around the base of a telephone pole or a tree. Divide the group in half and have each person grab one side of the rope with his/her left hand.

Explain that they are holding onto the untied shoelace of a Giant.

Each person's hand may slide but may not come off the rope.

Process Questions:
1. How di this exercise unfold?
2. What new thing did you learn about yourself or other group members?
3. Did the group act as a team? Was there any competition between the two sides?
4. What made this exercise difficult?
5. How did members communicate during the exercise?
6. What happened to the order of the group when both started crossing over eachother?
7. How did the limitation of only using one hand hamper the speed in accomplishing the task?
8. Were individuals' feelings and skills taken into account during the exercise? Why or why not? How did this affect the group's ability to complete the exercise?
9. Themes that could be used in processing the activity include: how the chapter solves problems, how the chapter communicates with members/resources.

Application:

What are the common barriers that continually arise as leaders and followers work together in our organizations?

How do you as a Greek leader go about appraoching complex, unclear problems?

Who/what are some important resources to the Greek community that often go untapped? Why?
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  #15  
Old 02-07-2008, 02:02 AM
lromitti lromitti is offline
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I am the new Phi Director of my sorority Phi Mu in Bethany, WV. This new group of pledges are not close at all and this could be bad for our house. Does anyone have any ideas of things we can do at the meetings so that they get a really close bond with each other. They need to get to know one another and be able to trust each other!!!! I could really use some help.

L.I.O.B.
Leann
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