Just as building relationships with students is critical for the teacher, positive relationships among students are also a critical aspect of a positive classroom culture. Many teachers are familiar with team building activities. The following activities can be used at any time throughout the year to help establish a culture and community of trust and learning with and among students.

The website teampedia.net has many, many activities that can be used for team building. Review the following activities, and choose at least one to use with your classroom. The activities listed can all be used with content related material. If none of the listed activities fit your needs, choose another from the website. Note, however, that some of the activities listed on the website may require additional materials space outside of the classroom.

1. Back-to-Back Drawing: This activity, which encourages collaboration and communication, can be used with content related sketches.
2. Broken Email: This activity, done in small groups, can be done using content related images.
3. Gallery: This activity can be done individually or in pairs to give feedback to other students on their work or ideas from a brainstorm. The parameter of “positive comments only” is recommended.
4. Friendly Flyers: This paper airplane activity requires students to brainstorm characteristics that represent their team. The activity can also be used to describe characters in a novel, people from history, and more.
5. Group Scavenger Hunt: Consider modifying this activity to have students look for content related facts, current events related to the content, or objects that represent the content in some way. Adding this modification can spark creativity and critical thinking in students as they work with others.