Hand's on, physical activities are so powerful for reinforcing lessons and concepts!
-Team Building Games
-A friend posted info on the following book for ideas:
"104 Activities That Build: Self-Esteem, Teamwork, Communication, Anger Management, Self Discovery, Coping Skills" by Alanna Jones-the following is a quote from the book:
Education/Group Games. "...this popular book makes teaching and learning by playing games a simple and fun experience for everyone. Games can be used to encourage people to modify their behavior, increase interaction with others, start discussions, address issues and build relationships. ... Games that can be used in any setting with minimal budget! It's more than pen/pencil worksheets; it's interactive and fun."
-Scouting youth leadership programs teach great activities that work as well. Many games that are commonly played in an area can have lessons tied into it. For instance, we played a game called "Down by the Banks," which requires focus and continuous play. We spoke about how when one person doesn't do what they are supposed to, it holds up the whole thing, and the end result is affected.
Leadership games:
-many games that could be used to teach different concepts: http://4h.missouri.edu/projects/curriculum/10minuteleadershiplessons.pdf
-Follow the Leader group games
-Team-building games
-For more "Synergy of the Mind" type activities that try and incorporate scientific principles, as well as different spacial/creation strengths, it is fun to mix building challenges and creative brainstorming. This helps the youth not only have to work together, but they soon learn how to appreciate other people's strengths. For some ideas, you can try some of the following that we have used in the past (one nice thing is that each individual group that is divided out for these activities is different, so activities from the past can be re-used, learned from, and improved upon as the same students learned from their past experience and try the same challenge again with new peers):
-given certain resources (pencils, rubber bands, popsicle sticks, 6 inches duct tape, etc) create a catapult that can launch a ping pong ball the farthest
-given various sandwich/lunch creating supplies (lunch meat, olives, tomatoes, chips, dressing, pickles, different kids of breads, etc), make it into some type of "sculpture"
-use whatever supplies that you have on hand, divide them equally between groups and challenge them to build high, build strong, build long, etc. with whatever limitations you chose to give them.
-have a more long-term project where they have to work on it for a couple of months, like the one where they had to invent something in a given scenario that they could market, and then they had to use ads, commercials, and jingles to try and "sell" it.
-show them some type of abstract picture and go around in the team's circle, having them tell you what it looks like or what it can be used for--give points for an answer and more points for creative ones.
* I like to give points for the different projects based upon "team-work"
Following are some ideas and resources you can use for more scientific/building challenges or activities:
http://www.mcrel.org/whelmers/
www.ehow.com/list_7408675_fun-science-challenges-kids.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/educator/act_cha_ei.html
http://adventureskids.blogspot.com/2011/01/lego-building-challenges.html (I thought this looked like a fun way for the lego-geniuses to show off a little...)
http://www.swopnet.com/ed/OM/spontaneouses.html (I love using any of the Odyssey of the Mind "spontaneous" activities--that are not copy-righted, of course.)
http://ncome.org/spontane.html (it looks like there are a bunch of ideas on this website that are Odyssey of the Mind type problems)
-Team Building Games
-A friend posted info on the following book for ideas:
"104 Activities That Build: Self-Esteem, Teamwork, Communication, Anger Management, Self Discovery, Coping Skills" by Alanna Jones-the following is a quote from the book:
Education/Group Games. "...this popular book makes teaching and learning by playing games a simple and fun experience for everyone. Games can be used to encourage people to modify their behavior, increase interaction with others, start discussions, address issues and build relationships. ... Games that can be used in any setting with minimal budget! It's more than pen/pencil worksheets; it's interactive and fun."
-Scouting youth leadership programs teach great activities that work as well. Many games that are commonly played in an area can have lessons tied into it. For instance, we played a game called "Down by the Banks," which requires focus and continuous play. We spoke about how when one person doesn't do what they are supposed to, it holds up the whole thing, and the end result is affected.
Leadership games:
-many games that could be used to teach different concepts: http://4h.missouri.edu/projects/curriculum/10minuteleadershiplessons.pdf
-Follow the Leader group games
-Team-building games
-For more "Synergy of the Mind" type activities that try and incorporate scientific principles, as well as different spacial/creation strengths, it is fun to mix building challenges and creative brainstorming. This helps the youth not only have to work together, but they soon learn how to appreciate other people's strengths. For some ideas, you can try some of the following that we have used in the past (one nice thing is that each individual group that is divided out for these activities is different, so activities from the past can be re-used, learned from, and improved upon as the same students learned from their past experience and try the same challenge again with new peers):
-given certain resources (pencils, rubber bands, popsicle sticks, 6 inches duct tape, etc) create a catapult that can launch a ping pong ball the farthest
-given various sandwich/lunch creating supplies (lunch meat, olives, tomatoes, chips, dressing, pickles, different kids of breads, etc), make it into some type of "sculpture"
-use whatever supplies that you have on hand, divide them equally between groups and challenge them to build high, build strong, build long, etc. with whatever limitations you chose to give them.
-have a more long-term project where they have to work on it for a couple of months, like the one where they had to invent something in a given scenario that they could market, and then they had to use ads, commercials, and jingles to try and "sell" it.
-show them some type of abstract picture and go around in the team's circle, having them tell you what it looks like or what it can be used for--give points for an answer and more points for creative ones.
* I like to give points for the different projects based upon "team-work"
Following are some ideas and resources you can use for more scientific/building challenges or activities:
http://www.mcrel.org/whelmers/
www.ehow.com/list_7408675_fun-science-challenges-kids.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/educator/act_cha_ei.html
http://adventureskids.blogspot.com/2011/01/lego-building-challenges.html (I thought this looked like a fun way for the lego-geniuses to show off a little...)
http://www.swopnet.com/ed/OM/spontaneouses.html (I love using any of the Odyssey of the Mind "spontaneous" activities--that are not copy-righted, of course.)
http://ncome.org/spontane.html (it looks like there are a bunch of ideas on this website that are Odyssey of the Mind type problems)
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