Do you ever wonder how teamwork helps kindergarteners collaborate more easily?
Team building helps children learn about teamwork and empathy. Human activity is basically teamwork, and teaching students very early about teamwork makes them understand that very quickly.
A student will do group work with a friend of the same age. In kindergarten, children learn to communicate through activities.
Those team-building activities might be games or things that get students talking to one another.
Kindergarten school has mostly indoor/outdoor games like puzzle races, group jump rope, paper tower, etc. Outdoors, you have relay races, tug-of-war, human knots etc.
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What are Team Building Activities?
Games or activities the team does together are called team building. That is how team building helps children to communicate and to learn.
Students may be taught empathy, leadership and responsibility for work in team building activities. So you could argue team building is necessary for studies as well as for emotional intelligence.
Among the team building activities are races / group sports, obstacle races / relay races, puzzle games and many other similar games for students.
They are good for peer learning and interaction between children. Great work in a team is possible because of good practice.
Team Building Activities for Kindergarten Kids
The team building activities are further divided into indoor and outdoor activities for early learning kids which help the kid to learn in a cooperative way. So there you have it – team building activities for kindergarten.
Kindergarten Indoor Team Building Activities
Indoor team-building activities can be any kind of play that a kid can do in the room without going out. A kid can be friends with other kids and indoor team games are hide and seek, blindfold game, dance and other indoor games.
1. Puzzle Race
Kids can all work together to make a picture – and while they’re making the picture they think of ways to help one another.
When it comes to racing against time though, the kids are all excited and everybody makes a picture that is barely complete. Here is the fun part – they help their friends and cheer them and keep them motivated too.
2. Indoor Scavenger Hunt
Kids can work in groups for the indoor scavenger hunt. They also go look for things in certain spots.
And the lesson for kids there is sharing – helping other people find the right thing. So this game teaches children to ask questions and develop problem-solving skills.
3. Paper Tower
So kids make paper towers – whoever builds the tallest paper tower gets a prize. So any kid who wants to work or looks good can join in with the rest of the kids and hear their opinion too.
If you get papers in different colours you can be colourful too. You get patience and teamwork out of this game.
4. Group Jump Rope
Two kids are turning a long rope but 20 or more kids can jump on board. And kids keep jumping when the rope gets close to their feet.
Here, kids focus better, everybody gets closer to each other, kids get more unity and physical awareness. It is a group game as the name implies.
5. Group Juggling
Playing with soft balls or bean bags – kids sit and pass the balls around. Kids make a circle so it can be passed out easily. In this game a child learns to be gentle when catching the ball, to concentrate, and some rhythm music may be playing in the background to help with some accuracy.
They have to play with the balls gently and not hurt other children, and help out if a fellow mate flies the ball out too.
6. Trust Walk
Trust walk is a child walking with their eyes closed or blindfolded. And another kid about their age points them there.
Essentially it is a silent trust building activity – the child gets trusted/understood and the guide learns to communicate. That exercise teaches a child to depend on others, to know them.
Kindergarten Team Building Outdoor Activities
Games outside the room may be part of outdoor team-building activities. Below is a list of kindergarten outdoor team building activities.
1. Fingertip Hula Hoop
For kindergarteners, there’s the fingertip hula hoop. Youngsters hover and hoops in fingertips make a circle.
It is eventually passed to children who run it around the circle, sweeping the other kids’ hands clean. Kids learn while they do this.
2. Human knot
In the human knot there is an outdoor activity for children. In this activity one child ties the other in a knot.
Now they go and take the hand of some other child. This requires good command and coordination skills.
3. Relay Races
Another way to get kids working together is a relay race. Put kids in line, they run from shorter distances, pass the streamer to the kid behind that one who is running from behind them.
Children do it quicker because they stand in quick spots and are more cooperative.
4. Simple Obstacle Courses
Make a low-tech obstacle course using almost no props. All that is required is cone balancing, cone rolling, crawling tunnels, couch cushions & handrails.
Arrange them so children can help each other hold the cone. And for some students it makes them more alert.
5. Birthday Line-up
You put children in rows on birthdays. None of them should tell children what to do next or put children chronologically according to birth dates. Then the children play with signals and expressions.
This is the right balance of play, learning and emotional contact that the activity lineup provides for the child’s development.
Final Thought
These team building exercises are very useful for social skills of communication, cooperation and empathy in kindergarten children. Outdoor group games are something children might like.
So they will help one another out and plan together how to help kids solve problems in groups. Those very early experiences make the child emotionally stable and secure about school and life.
Children working in teams from a very young age gives them confidence and social skills.
