High School Team Building Activities

Coordination and teamwork are the two most important requirements when a group wants to achieve the desired goal. Nowadays, school, colleges, management courses and even the companies are working upon the concept of team building training to strengthen the foundation of a team or a group that shares a common goal.

First, let's see how a team is formed. There are four stages on the basis of which a team is built - forming, storming, norming and performing.

Forming focuses on the development of the goal and objectives of a group, storming involves adjustment of the team members with slight contradictions and discomfort, norming involves laying rules and regulations to achieve the goal and finally comes the performing stage where the activities are performed to get the desired result.

All this requires a certain set of team building skills like flexibility, co-operation, understanding, etc. that are inculcated in an individual right from the school. This article would focus on some high school team building activities that would enhance these capabilities in the students. Following are some team building activities for high school students.

Team Building Exercises

The team building activities would help the students to understand that working as a cohesive unit for achieving the objectives of a team is more productive rather than working alone. It also provides an opportunity to establish rapport with the team members and generate quality ideas together. Here are some indoor games for team building that would help in breaking the ice and building a healthy relationship within a team.

Icebreakers: Let's Know Each Other
Icebreaker activity is one of the important high school team building games that would help to introduce the newcomers and make them feel comfortable in the new environment. This is a must so that the members get acquainted to each other before they actually start working together. This is also called warming-up team building exercise.

The teacher would have to do a little bit of homework like finding out the hometown, birth-date, favorites, etc. of each of the students and make a questionnaire or fill in the blank exercise out of it before executing this game.

For example, "Mr./Ms............. were born on ..... (write date of birth)". The handout should include at least one characteristic or information about each member of the group. Now give the handout to the students and ask them to complete the questionnaire by asking about each other within a stipulated time. Such team building activities for high school students would give them an opportunity to overcome initial hesitation and mingle with each other.

Cooperation: Lighthouse
High school team building activities for students would motivate them to work in a group by understanding and helping others. Such team building games for schools and colleges promote a sense of cooperation and group action among the students.

For this game, make two separate teams comprising ten members each. Scatter the chairs in the room and ask the team members of one team to stand anywhere in between the scattered chairs as lighthouses. Now blindfold one of the members of another team who becomes the boat and ask other to guide the boat by telling only the directions to get out of the river without hitting the lighthouse. This is one of the interesting team building activities for college students as well.

Problem Solving: Get Through the Toxic River
These team building activities for high school students would help them in learning the team building techniques for problem solving by thinking in critical ways. This activity again demands cooperation and understanding.

Demarcate an area by drawing two parallel lines that are at a distance of at least five feet and name it as a toxic river. The team has to safely cross the river in a stipulated time limit. Provide a pair of shoes to a team and ask them to cross the river by wearing the shoes. A member can wear the shoes just once in the whole game. Once a member has crossed the river, he or she has to personally pass on the shoes to the other member. Keep in mind that the shoes cannot be tossed over the river. Stepping into the river without shoes will declare the member to be dead. The hint for this game is, a member can carry another member while crossing. The students would enjoy playing these kinds of high school team building activities for students.

These were some of the indoor high school team building activities. In a similar way outdoor team building games can also be planned that would add thrill and adventure for the students. The teachers or the trainers can even generate their own high school team building ideas by focusing on certain skills that are required in the members for teamwork.