50+ Team Building Activities that Will Motivate Your Kids 

Team-building activities are essential for kids to get acquainted with each other and break the ice to ensure good relations and trust.

Team-building activities support kids’ social and emotional well-being ❤️‍🩹 and help them feel a sense of belonging and community with their peer groups.  

Participating in these team activities helps them become more expressive and confident as time goes by.

Team Building Activities for Your Kids

Team-building activities improve kids’ communication and social skills, which are essential throughout their lives. 

These activities are perfect to dispel first-day jitters and act as ice-breakers to get kids comfortable 😄 with each other or can be incorporated to turn a rather dull day into a fun-filled day.

In this blog, I have compiled a list of activities that can help kids work as a team with other kids while learning skills and having fun. 

Build a Story

Make storytelling sessions more interactive and fun by letting kids create a collaborative story 📖 as a group.

The first person can start with an introduction of the story, and the next person can subsequently add to it and continue the story with their narrative.

All the kids in the group can contribute to the plot as they go along and craft their own unique story, which lets kids develop their listening skills and the ability to be creative and think on their feet. 

Stack Paper Cups

The classic cup-stacking game that kids love playing and will help improve team bonds and communication.

Divide kids into small groups and urge them to stack with paper cups 🍶 to make a tower🗼within a limited time, ensuring they don’t collapse. The group with more stacked paper cups that don’t fall wins.

Play Tug of War

Tug of War is a classic outdoor team game 👭🏽 that is fun to play and instills a sense of team spirit.

Divide kids into two teams with equal players, give them a rope to hold on to from both sides, and the team that pulls the other over the centerline to their side wins. 

Conduct a Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunts 🔎 are great to play in groups and are so much fun. 

Divide kids into groups and hand them a printed template with a list of objects they need to find. Encourage kids to work in coordination with each other as a team to complete the game with success.

Play Team Sports

There’s no better way for kids to come together than a game of team sports, which doesn’t only get them physically moving but also encourages team spirit.

Divide the kids into groups and choose games where they can compete in groups, like football, basketball, and volleyball, 🏀⚽️ to build better relations and sportsmanship among themselves while having loads of fun.

Complete a Puzzle

Separate kids into small groups and give each group a puzzle with more pieces to complete. This fun and engaging activity of doing a puzzle 🧩 together requires team effort and coordination from the kids to complete their puzzles.

Draw Pictures with Instructions

Divide kids into pairs and make them sit with their backs facing each other. Give one of them a picture that they have to describe to the other person, who has to draw ✍🏼 just by following the verbal descriptions and without seeing the original. 

Kids love this fun activity that helps improve their communication skills.

Follow the Leader Game

Let the kids take turns being the leader and get the rest of the kids to mimic the leader’s actions 🎭 like crawling, jumping, dancing, hopping, and even making funny faces or acting like a monkey. 

This game can help kids loosen up, get comfortable with each other, and have a great time as they copy each other’s antics.

Create an Obstacle Course

Set up a makeshift course with chairs, dustbins, cones, and other objects around the classroom as obstacles. Split kids into pairs – one can act as the guide to help the other blindfolded one walk through 🚶🏽‍ the obstacle course, following only verbal instructions.

Kids love this activity, which is fun and engaging and also helps them develop teamwork and listening skills.

Pro Tip:

You can increase the difficulty of this game by setting a time limit within which kids have to get through the obstacle course. 

Form a Birthday Line-Up

Make the kids form a line in the order of their birthdays from January 1st through December 31st. 🎂 They can interact to figure out each other’s birthdays and form a birthday line based on whose birthdays come earlier or later in the year.

Through this activity, kids learn the different months of the year and also the birthdays of each other. 

Build Lego Towers

Involve kids in a fun Lego-building activity that they can do together.

Divide kids into groups and let them build towers 🗼and buildings 🏗️ using Lego blocks and bricks, working together as a team. The game is to see which team can build taller and sturdy structures than the other.

Pro Tip:

You can also print Lego Challenge templates with different building prompts for kids to try within a time limit.

Form Groups with Forehead Dots

A unique activity of sorting kids into groups – placing colored dots of different colors – red, blue, green, yellow, etc. 🖍️ on each of the kid’s foreheads without them knowing their assigned color. 

The twist in the game is that kids have to find others with the same colored dots and form a group with the help of only hand gestures as a form of communication and no talking.

Find a Common Thread

Assign the kids into small groups to do this fun ice-breaker activity. 

Let them have conversations and discuss among their groups to find a common thread that links 🖇️ all of them together – a favorite food, a pet, a hobby, or anything else they may have in common. 

Pro Tip:

Once they find a common thread connecting them, they can talk about it for a few minutes, and then each group can design a flag to represent that common link they found among them.

Build Marshmallow Structures 

Split kids into equally numbered groups. Give each group an equal number of marshmallows and toothpicks. The goal of this challenge is for kids to work together to create marshmallow structures 🏙️ that are more creative than the others within a time frame.

Kids can channel their inner Bob the Builders to create structures through teamwork and creative thinking.

Pass an Ice Cream Game

A fun passing game with paper ice cream cones to teach kids the importance of sharing with each other.

Draw vertical and horizontal lines with a marker on one of the sides of cream-colored sheets of paper, and make ice cream cones by folding them. 

Add a ball to one of the cones for the ice cream. Give kids the paper cones to receive and pass the balls to each other as an ice cream-sharing game. 🍦

Play a Hot Seat Game

Divide the kids into two teams and seat them facing the board. Place two chairs as hot seats for one kid from each to sit, facing their team members. 

Write down a word on the blackboard, and team members can give clues 🕵️‍ to the hot seat members to guess that word to earn points for their team. Repeat until all the kids get a chance at the hot seat to guess the word.

This makes for a fun group activity, which is also perfect for kids to build their vocabulary.

Pro Tip:

Clues can include synonyms, antonyms, or definitions associated with that word. 

Pass a Hula Hoop

Make the kids assemble in a line next to each other, with them holding hands. Give a hula hoop to the first person standing in the line, and direct the group to pass the hula hoop ⭕️ to the other end of the line, to the last person, without letting go of each other’s hands.

Passing the hula hoop this way is a widely popular team-building activity that is so much fun, and kids learn to think critically.

Design Friendship Art Wheels

Cut a large circle from thick paper and fold it into multiple sections, having a good amount of space. Kids can choose a slice, write down their names, and draw and color their portions with designs of things they like while sitting together around the circle.

This is a great way to create beautiful friendship wheel art 🖼️ as a team-building activity and for kids to express their creativity.

Pro Tip:

You can ask kids to explain the sections they designed and what they represent about them.

Play a Spiderweb Anecdote Game

Gather the kids in a circle, either standing or sitting. Start the activity with one of the kids sharing a funny anecdote 🗣️ about themselves and pass the ball of twine to another kid who does the same thing. 

Repeat the process until all the kids narrate their funny anecdotes and a spider web is formed across the circle with the twine.

Have a Caterpillar Race

Divide kids into two teams and make them stand in a straight line with their hands placed on the shoulders of the kids in front of them.

The idea behind the game is to crouch like a caterpillar 🐛 and race from the start to the finish line without letting go of each other.

Play Tic-Tac-Toe

Everyone’s favorite game, but in life-size with hula hoops for kids to play as a team.

Place hula hoops on the floor to recreate a tic-tac-toe frame. Divide kids into small groups and time them as they place objects ♟️in the hula hoops, taking turns until they achieve a row of threes for the group to win. 

Play a Jump Rope Game

Kids love this outdoor activity that also promotes teamwork and coordination.

Split kids into small groups to jump at a time. Adults can hold the two ends of a long jumping rope 🪢 and swing it for a fun jumping rope game. 

The key to being good at this is for kids to jump at the same time together.

Pro Tip:

Time the groups to see how many times they can jump over the rope.

Turn Over a Blanket

Divide the kids into small groups of 4-5 people. Give each team a blanket big enough for them to stand in.

The teams have to find a way to turn over the blankets they stand 🧍‍♀️🧍 on to the other side without stepping out of the blanket. 

Freeze Dance to Music

A unique activity of dancing and music is incorporated into a game.

Split kids into two teams. Play some good music and get them grooving to the beats. Abruptly turn off the music and make the kids freeze 🥶 in their spots. The ones who don’t freeze lose some points for their team. 

Pro Tip:

This is also a great game to play with siblings to increase their bonding while they have loads of fun.

Throw a Celebration Party

Turn the classroom into a themed party for celebrations and festivals 🎉 – New Year, Easter, Halloween, Christmas, or even a class party. 

Involve your kids in decorating and organizing the place by allocating responsibilities for food, decor, and games for them to oversee.

Kids learn to work together as a team in planning and executing their responsibilities and assigned tasks.

Play a Human Knot Game

My kids love playing this game, which is so much fun and enjoyable. 

Make the kids stand together in a circle, with 6-10 of them. To create the human knot, 🪢 kids can stretch their hands towards the middle and take another’ hands.

The fun part of the game starts as they have to untangle themselves without letting go of the other’s hands while working as a team.

Stack Paper Cups with Strings

Play the classic cup-stacking game that everyone loves, but only a bit more complex, with string and rubber bands involved.

Kids in teams of 4 or 6 are ideal for this game. Each team gets one rubber band and strings 🧶 according to the number of teammates. Tie them to the rubber band, which kids can use as a tool by expanding and contracting as they move. 

The goal of this game is for kids to pick and stack the most number of paper cups using the rubber band tied to the strings.

Pro Tip:

You can set a time limit to make it more competitive and fun.

Have a Dance Session

Divide kids into groups, turn on some groovy music, and get them dancing to the tunes for a fun dance session. 💃🏽🕺🏾

You can host a dance performance where each group choreographs a dance to their favorite song and performs in front of the other kids to let them showcase their creativity while working together.

Maintain Eye Contact

Pair up kids together and urge them to make eye contact 👀 with their partners for about 60 seconds.

This is a sort of trust activity, although not easy, and does help kids bond and become comfortable with each other at some level.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog about the various activities you can incorporate to develop team-building and cooperation among kids to help them become confident and socially interactive.

Please comment below if you liked these activities and would recreate them with your kids. ❤️