On Saturday, August 27, 2022, Macaroni Kid Monroe-West will be participating in Camp BPW (Business and Professional Women's) as one of the guest speakers. Camp BPW will provide an opportunity for young ladies (14-18) to experience goal setting, decision making, teamwork, positive communication skills, reality store, and the mirror and me.
We will be teaching a workshop on team building with the fun, "Cross the Chocolate River" game.
This event is free for youth to attend and takes place at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church Life Center, 211 Mt. Zion St., Monroe, LA 71201.
According to UNICEF Kid Power kids between the age of 7 and 13 are starting to discover that they have a real curiosity about the world, with an understanding that they have some independence as well. In order to fuse together these two notions of curiosity and independence, kids need to learn skills. And because kids are often with other kids, they need to learn how to do activities with other kids. Call it a team.
Games are a wonderful way to encourage children to work together. Here are a few that UNICEF Kid Power recommends.
Indoor Team Building Games for Kids
Raining outside? Stuck inside for whatever reason? No problem – there are plenty of awesome and fun indoor team-building games for kids. The games listed above may apply here, but if you’re looking for games and activities that are exclusive to the indoors or a gym, then here are 3 great choices:
- Cops and Robbers: This classic gym game is also an underrated team-building game that kids will almost always love! The kids who are labeled as cops must work together to corral all the robbers behind the cones. Teamwork at its finest!
- Protect the Castle: Though not as well known as Cops and Robbers, this fun kids team building game makes kids coordinate with each other in order to successfully knock over all the targets. Read the instructions here.
- Sink the Ship: The indoor team-building game for kids requires a gymnasium but is a highly entertaining game that requires teamwork and working together. See the tutorial video here.
Outdoor Team Building Games for Kids
Things are always more fun outside, whether it's the sunshine or the cool breeze flowing through a park or a field. Outdoor activities are always more fun and adventurous. Oftentimes, sports provide the best team-building exercises. Get your kids together for these awesome outdoor games which should help with teamwork and team-building chemistry and rapport:
- Basketball passing lanes: If you can secure an outdoor court, have your kids line up on opposite ends of the court, and then instruct the kids to start running in the same direction. The premise is for each kid to pass the ball and to never hold it for more than 1 second. This forces the kids to constantly be looking for teammates, and to securely pass them the ball.
- Soccer passing lanes: This game is the same premise as above, but replace the basketball with a soccer ball. This is obviously trickier, since catching a soccer ball with legs is harder than catching a basketball with hands. To improve the quality of play, have the kids stand closer to each other so that the passing goes off in a simpler format.
- Tag with a twist: Set up a normal game of tag, but instead of one kid being “it”, there will be two kids who will be “it”. This forces the pair to chase other kids together, and in order to tag someone, both of the pair must successfully tag the target. This forces the pair to work together and build chemistry and rapport.
Our Kids Become Employees
In the workforce, there is a pretty solid chance you are going to be part of a TEAM. One study says 52% of all jobs require interaction as a team with the average team size being between 4 and 9 people. Smaller teams tend to make decisions quickly and get projects turned around on time. TeamStage reports that “the right amount of feedback and respect can scale up team members’ emotional well-being by a staggering 80%”.
We need to work harder to reach our children in effective ways to communicate and be part of a team. So many children are tied up with devices these days that they have lost touch with how to communicate with others. Group projects at school can help. Summer camp programs allow children to work in teams to play sports or create things together. Some video games out there push for teamwork, and that’s good if they can communicate. There are some e-sports teams now where students can work together as a team. And robotics clubs. There are loads of ways to get kids involved in the ideas of “Teamwork”.
Sometimes we need to slow down to notice that the kiddos are looking to us to see what teamwork looks like. Teaming up to knock out homework is something that can build teamwork and allow them to create study groups.
We need our children to realize that teamwork is something that goes on long after school is over. And if they can get a grasp on the idea now, it can go a long way down the road.
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