Free team building games exercises
Big Buddy
Everyone stands in a circle. The leader of this game is called "Big Buddy" The others, going clockwise, are numbered: 1, 2, 3 and so on. Big Buddy establishes a 4-beat clapping rhythm, saying "Big Buddy, Big Buddy, Big Buddy (followed by a rest) - repeat this until everyone got the rhythm. Each round begins with this rhythm. The game then goes as follows: Big Buddy passes the buck to someone else, saying Big Buddy followed by a number, Number 7 for example. This takes 2 beats, one for saying "Big Buddy" and one for saying "Number 7."
Person Number 7 then passes in 2 beats to Number 4 for example, saying “Number 7 Number 4”. It then continues until someone makes a mistake or messes up the rhythm: if and when that happens everyone says (in 2 beats) “Oh Snap”, after which they repeat Big Buddy Big Buddy Big Buddy (+ rest on 4th beat). After that, the player that made the mistake goes to the end of the circle, immediately right of Big Buddy and becomes the highest number. This also changes the number of all participants that were after that person in the circle. The goal of the game is to become the Big Buddy by working your way to Number 1. Participants can also try to make Big Buddy mess up ("Big Buddy" can be used in place of a number in the calling sequence).
Elbow Tag
Directions
Choose one person to be 'It' and one person to be free. The rest of the group should pair up, link arms and scatter in their pairs around a playing field/area.
The object of the game is for person who is "it" to tag the person who is "free." The people paired up around the field are to stand still until the person who is free links arms with either member of a pair. When this happens, the person on the other side of the pair, is now the one who is "free" and must run away from the person who is "it."
Musical Chairs (Teamwork Style)
Materials
A Music player and enough chairs for everybody minus one. Set Up
Set up the chairs in a circle facing outward. Que the music. Directions
While the music plays everybody walks around the chairs in a circle. When the music is paused, everybody scrambles for a chair. This version of musical chairs is different than traditional musical chairs because of one added rule: everyone must be seated when the music stops (no one is ever "out"). After everyone is seated, take away a chair and repeat. Do this until there are no chairs left. Debrief
In traditional musical chairs, in the end everyone is a loser except the one person left in the last chair. In this version, everyone is a winner, and everyone must learn to work as a team. It's not really difficult until there are half as many chairs as there are people. At which point, the leader/facilitator can begin to see the players working together and planning their strategy. It's exciting to watch! Ideas are being shouted and fun and laughter abounds. Watch the wheels turn as they try to solve the problem of everyone having to sit even when there are NO chairs! (everyone sits on their neighbor's knee -- but this isn't obvious at first).
Slappin’ Hand Circle
Directions
Stand in circle with elbows in, arms out to the side. Stand with left palm facing up and right palm facing down. Now connect the circle so that palms facing up are flat against the palms facing down of the person on both sides. Using the bottom hand, the object is to gently tap the top of the person’s hand resting on yours. Simultaneously, the object is to avoid being tapped on the hand you have facing palm down. Compete in tournament style until it is between two final challengers.
What are your goals?
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