Team Building Games: Starting Your School Year Strong

Welcome back to school PE Nation!

I created a new e-book "Team Building Games and Activities in PE," featuring games that help physical education teachers build culture and community in the first weeks of school. The 21-page resource contains engaging activities for grades K-5 that get students moving while developing teamwork skills.

• Getting-to-know-you games like "Pass Your Name" help students and teachers learn names while participating in movement challenges
• Large group team builders such as "Fish Relays" work well under pavilions during hot weather and incorporate passing challenges in different directions
• Small group team builders like "Group Juggle" develop communication as students pass objects in patterns while saying each receiver's name
• The activities are designed to create excitement, build culture, and avoid starting the year with students just sitting around
• These games help establish a solid foundation for the school year through movement and camaraderie

Take care and happy teaching!

Dave

Team Building Games Ebook (with preview): https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Team-Building-Games-and-Activities-for-PE-Class-14063095

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Chapters

• 0:10 Welcome to Super Size Fizz Ad
• 0:51 Team Building Games E-book Introduction
• 1:36 Getting To Know You Games
• 2:30 Large Group Team Builders
• 3:30 Small Group Team Building Activities
• 6:32 Cowbell Tip and Closing Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Hello and welcome to the Super Size Fizz Ad podcast. My name is Dave and today I want to talk about the beginning of the school year, weeks one and two, and games you can play to build your teams, to build your culture, to build the community that you want to build. So, without further ado, here we go. Welcome in PE Nation. So I wanted to share my exciting news of an ebook that I just created recently and it is called Team Building Games and Activities in PE. It is 21 pages of different games and activities that you can play in your PE classes with grades K through five. There's all sorts of learning, fun and engaging just games and activities that you can play and build that culture, build the excitement and start off the year moving and not just sitting around. So let me go through what this ebook covers so you get a kind of a glimpse of it and there is a preview if you click on the link in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 1:25

All right, let's make this a boomer. These are the three categories. Here's the first one. So first we have getting to know you games, and I'll give you a couple examples of in each category. So the getting to know your games are things like where you pass your name. That's one of the games. You have to get in a circle or down the line, students pass their name instead of passing an object, and they see how fast they can do it, and with accuracy, and even learning each other's names in the process. So it's games like that that just gets to know, they get to know each other and you get to know their names, which is very important. Just gets to know, they get to know each other and you get to know their names, which is very important, as that's probably one of the hardest things for me to do is learn. You know over a hundred kids' names at a time. It's very difficult and I spend a lot of time studying yearbooks and playing games that will incorporate that, especially the younger kids. If they'd been with me for a few years, I think I know most of their names. Not all of them, unfortunately, but these are games that allow you to get to know your students and they get to know each other. That's a great way to start the school year.

Speaker 1: 2:36

So number two of the three categories are large group team builders. Now, I use these quite a bit in the beginning of the school year, especially when it's hot under the pavilion. We'll be in the shade, so we'll spend some time under there and I'll give you a game we use a lot. It's just fish relays. So you don't have to have inflatable fishes, you can use critters or really anything to pass and we get them to pass down the line as fast as they can. And again we time them or just say you know, whichever line comes first wins. But they do need to pass in different ways. So we'll first have them pass just kind of sideways, then they'll have to pass kind of behind them, like over their head and behind them. Then they will do down and back. We will do things like they'll stand up and do it and twist, and so they're adding, you're adding exercise and you know different kinds of movement as well as relay race kind of style, where they're working together for a common goal. So that is one of the large group team builders in the ebook and there's more explanation in there, probably a better job than I just did. So that is number two.

Speaker 1: 3:50

All right, number three are the small group team builders. These are actually my favorite because you can do a lot with these. You can and you could add different wrinkles to them. There's all sorts of hula hoop challenges and there's my favorite is group juggle. So group juggle is kind of an oldie but a goodie, where students I have them around hula hoops. Like the hula hoop is set down and then they form a circle around it, and I strive for groups of five, six or seven, and that's doable because you can always rearrange groups. I say five is the best number, seven's, pushing it a little bit, but it's possible.

Speaker 1: 4:30

So what they do is you give them an object and they have to pass in a set pattern and they they make the pattern and they have to figure out how. This is another kind of figure out kind of thing, where they have to work together and figure out a pattern where it goes to everybody once but it does not. You do not pass to somebody next to you. So if there's a group of five, that's actually perfect, cause that's like a star pattern. Six is a little tougher and seven is tough as well. It's just a matter of them working together, talking about it and figuring out the pattern, and every time they pass they have to say the person's name and they pass on the object and then it just continues around the circle. If they get that right, we can add another object.

Speaker 1: 5:14

Now you can also do questions. Sometimes I'll add questions in there, like, okay, you have to say your name and your favorite I don't know sport or game or activity you like to play, and so I'll say, oh, I'm Dave and I like to golf, and I pass it to the next person, and then they say their name and pass the next person. Eventually, though, though, you can again add another object. So then, if I'm well, I'm Dave, and I'm passing to my daughter's name, savannah, so I'll just say Savannah, I'll pass it, I'll say Savannah, and then she'll pass to her friend, paige, and I'll pass another one. I'll say Savannah, so it'll be like a rubber chicken and a deck ring, something like that, and then it goes around. So that's two objects. Then you can have three.

Speaker 1: 5:57

Now the. This is awesome. I do have a video I'll have to find it, maybe post it in here Of my students last year doing four objects. It was amazing, and they really were concentrating. That's a really cool game and really need to see them working together, because that means everybody has to work for the common goal, like if one person's not paying attention, it doesn't work and it's just a lot of fun and it builds that camaraderie and you know just that team building aspect of it. So that is one of the games in the small group team builders. And that is number three.

Speaker 1: 6:32

And now it is time for your cowbell tip of the day. All right, so your tip of the day is to check out the e-book. Again, there's a preview in the show notes. If you click on the link you can see the. It's the teachers pay teachers. There is a preview in there.

Speaker 1: 6:58

So again, I'm just going to read part of this, where that I wrote this about this e-book. It covers all the basics of building a winning PE culture, from cooperative games to name games to large and small group games. It is everything you need. So my hope is that you get a ton of ideas and value from this book and it sparks joy and laughter in your PE program. Furthermore, I hope you use these games and activities to build the culture you want for your program and I this is I'm going off script here you know I've used these games a lot.

Speaker 1: 7:25

It's not like I've used them one time or I just read about them. I've used these games and you know some I use more than others. Some I've used for, you know, the last 10 years and some I just started and some I kind of, you know, phase out here and there and or I bring them back. But it helps you build that solid foundation for your school year of movement and not just sitting there building the culture, you know, getting teams going, getting the camaraderie going, like I said, and so I hope you pick up a copy of that. Again, it's in the show notes, everything's in the show notes. I'll link it up there. So that is it. That is your cowbell tip of the day.

Speaker 1: 8:09

Thank you everybody for tuning in today. I really do appreciate it, as always. Go to the show notes or supersciencephysedcom for more information and definitely follow me on Substack or Medium. Those are where my articles are written and then you'll get actually it's two per week if you sign up for the email list two articles a week. Sometimes it's a podcast link, sometimes it's an article, but two things a week just on strategies, tips, inspirational stories, things like that. That'll help you with your PE program. So take care, pe Nation, have a great day, week, weekend, whenever you're listening to this, and let's keep pushing our profession forward. Thank you.