Home >> Games & Cards >> Games

Outside Group Building Activities in the Classroom

When teaching a class full of rambunctious students gets to be a little hectic, you may want to consider taking the class outside of the classroom to release some energy. While outdoors, engage the students in a variety of group-building activities to strengthen their focus and encourage them to work together to achieve common goals.

Popcorn
- Gather the students in the middle of an open area. Standing apart from them, call out both a number and the name of an object -- inanimate or animate. The players then have to quickly form smaller groups made up of the number you called out and work together to come up with a way to represent the object you gave using their collective limbs. Once everyone has come up with something, move on to a new object and a new number. Play until you want to move on to another activity.
Capture the Flag
- Divide the players into two groups and position the groups at opposite ends of the play area. Each end represents that team's base. Give each of the teams a flag. If the teams like, they can set up a sort of housing area using cardboard boxes to keep their flags inside. When you signal the start, the groups try to steal their opponents' flags to win the game. They have to avoid getting tagged by enemy players, otherwise they have to stand in place until a teammate tags them back into the game. The first team to have the enemy flag on their base wins the game.
Caboose on the Loose
- Assign one student out of the group to play the Loose Caboose. Arrange the other players into a single-file line with everyone holding onto the shoulders of the person in front of them. The head of the line plays the Conductor. When you say "Go," the Conductor has to lead the line, or train, away from the Loose Caboose. The Loose Caboose waits for 10 seconds before he runs to catch up with the train. If he tags the last player in line, the Conductor becomes the new Loose Caboose, and the former Loose Caboose joins the train at the end of the line.
T-Shirt Relay
- Line the group up side by side and have everyone hold hands. Hand the person at the left end of the line an over-sized T-shirt. She puts the T-shirt on. When you say "Go," the first person has to move the T-shirt over her head and through her arms onto the other person's arms so he can pull the T-shirt over his head. They do this on down the line without breaking hands until the T-shirt is at the end of the line on the last person's shoulders.

Games