Getting the young ones to appreciate the importance of working, playing, learning, and doing anything as teamwork can be an uphill task. Whether in school or at home, kids should feel a sense of belonging to a team of people with different personalities. Are you wondering what activities can teach kids to work as a team? You’ve come to the right place. Below are 20 awesome team-building activities for kids. Check them out.

20. Rope Jumping

Group rope jumping is one of the most common fun activities for kids. It’s ideal for the kids big enough to jump or skip the rope. It is an excellent way of bringing kids together and a fantastic exercise game. Also, it doesn’t require a vast space or expensive equipment. To play the game, you need a long and thick jump rope and two teens or adults to hold both its two ends. Kids can stand next to the rope and jump as those holding the ends swing it. Depending on the length of the rope, several kids can jump together.

To make it even more fun, the kids can sing a song and jump until the song ends. Many rhymes are traced many years back, which kids can quickly learn and sing while jumping. The games require coordination between players. You can start with two kids at a time and keep increasing the number until the space is fully occupied. Make it a competition, and those who jump more times than others become winners. You can also put water in clear cups and let them jump, holding them. At the end of the rhyme, you compare the water levels in the cups, and the one with more water remaining becomes the winner. Get creative with the game and let the kids have fun.

19. Get to Know You Balloons

This is another fantastic team-building activity for kids. Here, you give each one an empty balloon and a small piece of paper. Then ask each of them to write a “get to know you” question on their piece of paper. They can write any question they wish to know from any team members. It can be something like; do you have a pet? How many siblings do you have? Which school do you go to? After that, let them put their papers inside the balloon and blow and tie them up. Take all the blown balloons and toss them in the air. Ask the kids to play around with the balloons for 5-10 minutes and tell them to stop. Let each grab one balloon and sit down, forming a circle. Have them pop the balloons one after the other, read the question on the paper, and answer it. In this way, the kids have fun and get to know each other better.

18. The Perfect Square

Another great activity for the kids to engage in is this one here. It’s one of the favorite team-building activities that has been there for quite some time. You need a long rope tied at the ends and many blindfolds for this game. Gather the kids and have them sit in a circle. Blindfold them and give them the rope. The activity here is to have them make a perfect square with the rope with their eyes blinded. Allow them time to think and plan until they feel okay. Also, prevent other team members from talking until the game is over. Making the perfect square might seem easy, but it’s a great challenge. Besides team building, the kids will learn the effects of planning (good and bad) depending on the results. They’ll also learn how challenging communication can be without seeing, and they can appreciate all the features they have.

17. Tug-of-War

Tug-of-war is a tremendous outdoor team-building activity for kids or adults. According to Britannica, it’s among the most common activities practiced for the longest time and still is. You need a long and thick rope to have the kids play this game. It would help if you also had an open place with no obstacles that can cause injuries, so before you start, you should inspect the place to ensure it’s safe for the young ones. Form two teams of eight kids and let each team hold one end of the rope. Let each team pull the rope in their direction. The winners are the team that manages to pull the other team in their direction. To make the game even more interesting, you can further break the teams into four and tie the rope to form four corners with extensions. Let the teams pull each of the four corners. The team that will pull the rest in their direction are the winners. Repeat the exact four times, and those that will win more times are the final winners.

16. Hidden Structures

It’s another perfect way for kid’s team building, ideal for both indoors and outdoors. Here, you must create a structure using blocks or Legos and hide it from the kids. Have the kids from various groups. Let each group select one person to represent them. The chosen person comes to you one after the other, where you show them the structure. Give them a few seconds to check the structure and rejoin their rough. Give them 25 seconds to describe to their team how the structure is built before giving the team 1 minute to recreate the structure. You can repeat the activity with different representatives and different structures and identify the team that made the same structures as yours several times.

15. Scavenger Hunt

According to Very Well Family, The scavenger hunt is an excellent team-building activity for kids. It’s a game where you hide objects and instruct the kids to search for them. The activity can be indoors or outdoors. There are many ways to play the game. You can ask the kids as a team to find something of a particular color in the house, a toy outside, or anything you can hide. Give the kids time to look for the item and bring it. This game keeps the kids busy and helps them to bond with each other as they search for the treasure together.

14. Puzzle Challenge

If you’re looking for yet another fun team-building activity for kids, this is one of them. It’s a perfect classroom activity, especially if the teacher works on a tight budget or a limited time. All you need to set up this game is to group the students into two or more and give them puzzles to build. While all puzzles don’t need to be similar, they should at least be of the size and building difficulty. Offer each group their puzzles, and you can begin the challenge when they’re ready. Here you want to see the group that would complete the challenge first. Twinkl gives a free team building puzzle jigsaw for kids. You can check it out.

13. Community Project

Another fun activity to engage the kids in team building is doing any community project. It can be planting trees, cleaning, or any activity kids can do easily. Although not all such activities can be fun for kids, you need to find something light and creative to make them learn to work together. Let them appreciate that teamwork makes the job easier and fun.

12. Marshmallow Challenge

Toothpick or spaghetti marshmallow challenge is another great activity for kids’ team-building. Like the other challenges, marshmallow helps the kid understand the need to work as a group and have fun. According to Hyper Island Tool, for this game, you need to place the kids into various groups and give them an equal amount of marshmallows, spaghetti, or wooden toothpicks. Choose a duration to allow them to make a structure using the materials given. Let them take turns in building the structure. At the end of the agreed time, have each team explain what structure they constructed. This challenge gives the kids first-hand experience in building together.

11. Human Knot

This game is common among adults. However, it can also be done by middle-aged kids. Group the kids into groups with at least 6 members. Let them form a circle. While standing in the circle, have each one hold the wrist of the person next to them. After they have all held each other’s hands, ask them to untangle themselves without letting go of the other person’s wrist. It can be a tough challenge but guide them to hold hands gently. The game is one of the best activities for kids to learn the importance of working together. Since each one is working towards the same goal as everyone in the team, it can be a fantastic way for team building for these young people.

10. Trust Ball

Are you looking for a perfect activity to promote kids’ teamwork skills and strong communication? Trust Ball is it. It’s one of the fun activities that kids enjoy taking part in. For this one, you need to give them a ball, make them stand in a circle, and let them pass the ball to each team member without dropping it. While doing this, the students are not supposed to speak until each touches the ball. If they drop the ball before all the members touch it, you make them start again until they manage to.

9. Build it Challenge

Working together toward solving the same problem has always been the method to improve team building. Have random items, let’s say cups and plates or anything else. Place the kids into separate groups and let them build a tower. Allow them to do the work to ensure each team member participates in the building. The team that builds the tallest tower becomes the winner.

8. Rock Paper Scissor Challenge

According to Guide Inc., this challenge was introduced by Georgia Teen Institute. This challenge is one of the best activities, regardless of age. It’s one of the most common kids challenges you’d find in schools or homes with kids. It starts with teams of two people challenging each other. The winner joins a winner from a different group, and the loser follows the winner and becomes their cheerleader. The game ends with two players with several people cheering both of them, and the one who wins the last challenge becomes the overall winner.

7. Line Up

Team building activities can be as simple as teaching kids to stand in a line! The aim is to have them manage themselves by organizing themselves in a straight line. In this game, you’ll ask kids to make a straight line according to the day of the month they were born. The kids have to communicate with each other to know their birthdays for them to know where to stand in the line. You can also make it more fun by telling them not to speak but use signs to communicate birthdays.

6. Balloon Walking

Balloon walking is another simple but fun activity to get kids to interact actively with each other. To play this game, you need to put the kids in pairs. Let them hold each other’s hand and put a balloon between their shoulders. Make them walk a certain distance without dropping the balloon or popping it. It’s a simple game but full of fun as well.

5. Relay Races

Relay races can be an excellent way to teach the kids to work in collaboration with each other. This outdoor activity is a good way for kids to exercise and team building. There are many ways to practice this fantastic game. You can make the kids form four groups and let the members stand in designated points. Give similar objects to the first members of each team and instruct them to take the objects to the members next to them. On receiving the objects, the second group should also run with them and hand them to the third. At the end of the game, the person who leads in the race represents their team, and all become winners. The game can be played where there is plenty of space for the racers.

4. Build a Bridge

Another challenge for encouraging team building is getting the kids to build a bridge using blocks. Although it might be a bit complex for smaller kids, the game brings together kids and helps them think about the same course and solve a common problem. What you need for this game is a lot of blocks. Have the students form various groups and give them the blocks. Ask each team to build half of the bridge and join them later to form a whole bridge. The challenge encourages communication as they’d have to communicate to make identical structures that, when combined, forms one bridge.

3. Flip the Sheet challenge

Do you want to engage the kids in the most creative activity ever? Try this one! Have the student form two or more groups. Spread a sheet or blanket and have all the team members stand on it. Let the first team play while the others watch, and let them switch positions later. Let the kids fill the space leaving about a quarter of it, then ask them to flip the sheet or blanket so that they stand on the other side of the sheet without stepping on the ground. This encourages critical thinking among the kids as well as proper communication.

2. Spider Web

Spider web is a fantastic game that teaches kids that regardless of how different they may look or be, there is still a connection between them. You should put the kids into groups and make a big circle for this one. Give one of the members a ball with a long twin. Then, have one person tell a weird or embarrassing story about them and throw the ball at one team member in the circle. The person with the ball should also tell an embarrassing story about them and throw the ball to someone else again. Let them keep doing the same until all the members hold the twine to form a spider’s web.

1. Night Trail

Looking for an activity to help the kids build trust and cooperation? Try the “night trail” challenge. The challenge can be done indoors or outdoors, depending on your preference. To play the game, have the kids form groups of five. Blindfold one of the team members from each team and let the others instruct them in turns. Let them direct their blindfolded member to navigate the obstacle course you created beforehand to reach the end. Let them repeat the game as long as they still enjoy playing it.

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