4 Team Building Activities in a Classroom & Their Importance
During school, it is important to incorporate team building activities in a classroom. That goes for Science too, especially because most of what we do requires collaboration. Team building is one of the biggest parts of community building. Let’s explore why it’s important and what team building activities in a classroom are useful.
In this post
We will talk about why team building activities in a classroom are very important. I will also share four different types of team building activities you can do any time of the year, along with a few examples.
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Why Team building in Science class?
When it comes to Science, we use Science and Engineering practices. We want our students to learn to explore, collaborate, and explain concepts and ideas to each other. The 4C’s of 21st Century Learning include collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication. That is why we need to use a variety of team building activities in our Science classrooms.
It’s also important because having fun and positive relationships will increase dopamine in our students’ brains. They will feel a sense of belonging and value in our classrooms.
Read more about building a positive classroom community in this blog post.
What are some team building activities in a classroom?
There are a lot of different things you can do in your classroom throughout the year. At the beginning of the year, you’ll want to use team building activities that are non-threatening and feel safe to the students as they get to know each other. As the year goes on, you can add more competition and activities that require a lot of collaboration and communication to be successful in the task.
During the Summer Olympics, we began the school year with a 7th grade Sci-Olympics challenge. We incorporated a variety of activities that would build on all students’ strengths while they got to know each other. We did a few simple STEM challenges, an escape room, a Science Categories game (based on Scattegories), and used their lab safety test averages to earn medals for each class.
Here are four types of team building activities in a classroom you can use anytime. You can also adapt activities to fit your curriculum.
Cooperative Learning
I love Kagan’s Cooperative Learning strategies. They offer a lot of team building and class building activities.
Here are some great resources: Team Building Smart Card and Teambuilding book
Morning Meeting activities
You can use the morning activities from one of my favorite books The Morning Meeting Book by the Responsive Classroom. These are easily adapted to fit our Science curriculum.
One activity students can do is a scavenger hunt around the room. Here is a scavenger hunt for the beginning of the school year that is editable. Students can also come up with as many three or more letter words using the words “Team building” or a word of your choice.
STEM challenges or Simple Science Experiments
STEM challenges are so much fun to do for team building activities in a classroom! There are a ton to choose from.
Here are two STEM challenges I have done with my students over a 2-3 day period. In one the students design a protective cover for a town that gets a lot of dust storms. In Arizona, we can relate, because we have those every summer. The second one involves students creating catapults and sending marshmallows to a kingdom without sweets.
Here are two other ones I’ve done that are simple to do, and only take about 20-30 minutes.
Red Solo Cup Stack– Tie several strings to a rubber band. Have a stack of red solo cups stacked upside down. The goal is to only use the rubber band to move the cups into a predetermined pyramid or tower.
Construction Paper Designs- We did this in a professional development, and I thought it was really cool and simple. First, brainstorm problems in your state. In Arizona, we came up with problems like little water and extreme heat. Then using two pieces of construction paper, a couple of pieces of cardstock, a certain amount of masking tape, and scissors, create a solution to the problem. My partner and I created a large tower that collected condensation from the atmosphere to collect water.
Another great resource for STEM is from Teaching Science with Lynda Williams. Here is a STEM challenge where students build a rubber band car.
You can also do simple science experiments. Here are some from my friend Amanda at the Sci-Ed Teacher. Check out 5 Easy Experiments of Science for Students that are Fun and Educational. Amanda has a lot of great ideas for engaging students and collaboration.
Games
And finally, games are a great team building activity. Students tend to get competitive but are also having fun. There are different types of games you can play with your students.
Trivia Games are great because they require teamwork. Show What You Know About…review games are so engaging and fun for students. My students love playing games to review concepts they are learning in class.
Escape rooms are another fun game to play with your students and encourage team building.
Read more about using games in the classroom in this blog post.
Wrap Up
Team building activities in a classroom are very important. We need to incorporate these in our Science classrooms so students feel safe, valued, engaged, and belong. It also goes with the 4Cs of 21st Century Learning- collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication. We talked about four different types of team building activities you can do any time of the year. These include cooperative learning activities, morning meeting activities, STEM or easy Science experiments, and games.
Your Turn
What are some ways you use team building in your classroom? What new ideas do you have that you’d like to try? Reply and let me know!
Read More/links
3 Simple Ways to Incorporate the Use of Games in the Classroom blog post or watch the video
3 Essential Components for Science Classroom Management Focus 1: Building a Positive and Safe Classroom Community Blog post or watch the video
Blog from Teaching Science with Lynda Williams Build a Rubber Band Car STEM Challenge
Blog from The Sci-Ed Teacher: 5 Easy Experiments of Science for Students that are Fun and Educational.
STEM challenges: Town Covered in Dust and Sweet Tooth Kingdom
Show What You Know About…Review Games
