Insight

Lost at sea - a team building game

Another ‘pen and paper’ group survival game and a team building activity to encourage interaction and teamwork among your young people. The chances of ‘survival’ depend on their ability to rank the salvaged items in relative order of importance.

You have chartered a yacht with three friends, for the holiday trip of a lifetime across the Atlantic Ocean. Because none of you have any previous sailing experience, you have hired an experienced skipper and two-person crew.

Unfortunately in mid Atlantic a fierce fire breaks out in the ships galley and the skipper and crew have been lost whilst trying to fight the blaze. Much of the yacht is destroyed and is slowly sinking.

Your location is unclear because vital navigational and radio equipment have been damaged in the fire. Your best estimate is that you are many hundreds of miles from the nearest landfall.

You and your friends have managed to save 15 items, undamaged and intact after the fire. In addition, you have salvaged a four man rubber life craft and a box of matches. Rank the items correctly and you will survive until rescue comes. Make too many mistakes and...

Download (pdf) the complete 'Lost at Sea' team building game.

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Moon landing - a team building game

Team building activities can be simple games, creative problem-solving tasks, or ‘pen and paper’ group survival situations. ‘Moon Landing’ falls into the third category. Apart from the ‘fun’ challenge of trying to stay alive, it can help encourage communication, cooperation and decision making skills among your young people.

You are a member of a space crew scheduled to rendezvous with a mother ship on the lighted surface of the moon. However, due to mechanical difficulties, your own ship was forced to land at a spot 200 miles from the rendezvous point.

During re-entry and landing, much of the equipment aboard was damaged and, since survival depends on reaching the mother ship, the most critical items available must be chosen for the 200-mile trip.

15 items are listed as being intact and undamaged after landing. Your task is to rank them in terms of their importance for your crew, to allow them to reach the rendezvous point. The 'expert' answers were compiled by a team of scientists and engineers at NASA.

As the young people work together in a team, sharing thoughts and ideas, this should produce an improved score over the individual results. But will this be enough to survive?

Download (pdf) the complete Moon Landing team building game.


MORE TEAM BUILDING GAMES

For more, click on team building games in the category list on the sidebar.
 

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Each month I add more youth ministry ideas, resources and personal reflections on leadership. May I encourage you to subscribe to INSIGHT and you won't miss a thing.

Labyrinth - a team building game

Team building games help young people develop a range of skills. They can be great fun, and beyond the more general learning goals, they can also be a useful entry point to teaching themes i.e. working together (the church), making choices (guidance), and trusting others (faith).

The aim of Labyrinth is for your group to work together to all find their way through the maze. There is only one correct path through the maze (created by you on your answer grid.) The path can go left, right, forward, or diagonally.

Create a 10x10 grid on the floor using masking tape. Mark the starting square with an ‘S.’ Each square needs to be big enough for a person to stand within it. If you wish to use a smaller grid, 5x5 is good option for younger groups.

Only one young person may enter the labyrinth at a time, testing each square to discover the correct path. After each move the game leader (you) indicates if they are standing on the correct path or have made an incorrect move...

Download (pdf) the complete Labyrinth team building game.

MORE TEAM BUILDING GAMES

For more, click on team building games in the category list on the sidebar.

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Each month I add more youth ministry ideas, resources and personal reflections on leadership. May I encourage you to subscribe to INSIGHT and you won't miss a thing.

Team builders - more than icebreakers

Team building games and activities are great ways to help groups develop cooperation, decision making and communication skills. Team building exercises can be adapted for many different settings and public domain examples are found freely available across the web.

In the next few days I will post some of my favourites, used over the years in youth clubs, youth weekends, camps and as team building exercises with new groups.

A key part of these exercises is facilitating a time of group discussion after the activity. Remember to ask open-ended questions, helping the young people to reflect on what they have learned. Team building games can also provide a useful entry point to teaching themes for your group i.e. working together (the church), making choices (guidance), values and leadership.

Much depends on the role of the youth leader. A well planned and prepared activity, followed up with thought-provoking questions can be a significant learning experience.

Team building activities can be simple games, or involve creative problem-solving, or ‘pen and paper’ group survival situations. These games can challenge your young people’s values, cooperation, decision making and leadership skills.There are two classic types of ‘pen and paper’ survival games – selecting equipment and selecting people.