Breaking the Silence

Team Building will be a collection of daily activities with the goal of unifying the class and building a strong sense of community and belonging for the students. The activities will include whole class activities, team sports, small group and one on one tasks. They will incorporate time spent outdoors, physical education, creative tasks, and activities designed to create a safe space for students to open up with each other. Each will be ongoing and many will be repeated throughout the unit. Two hours every day will be assigned for team building, often correlating with a variety of curricular outcomes.

 

Pep Talks - students will spend time searching for or writing their own inspiring quotes. Every morning, the class will begin with a pep talk which will be shared with the whole school.

 

Random Acts of Kindness - students will brainstorm as a class and create a list of 50 different ways that they can commit small acts of kindness (ie. holding the door for someone). They will make it a goal to do each of them over the course of the project, crossing them out as they go. They will also share a suggestion to the school every morning after their pep talk. 

 

Show & Tell - each student will bring something that is valuable to them from home to share with the class in a 15 minute presentation. The teacher will start and 2-4 students will present each day. This encourages the students to open up to each other and create a community of sharing and caring within the classroom

 

Relay Races, Soccer, Belly Baseball, Kickball, Yoga - In correlation with the Physical Education curriculum, students will spend time outside playing sports and discussing how this relates to their mental health. 

 

Improvisation Games - students will play a variety of games like charades or pictionary

 

Volunteering - students will contribute to their community by picking up litter, reading with younger students, and spending a whole day at the local animal shelter. They will also reflect on how this relates to their unit. 

 

Nature Hike - students will spend a whole day out in nature on a hike that is guided by a local Aboriginal expert 

 

Human Knot, Scavenger Hunt, Laughing Game - within their triads, students will work together as a team with a shared goal through a variety of fun activities 

 

Song Sharing - students will share 1 minute of their favourite song to the class and explain why they love it. The teacher will go first and the students will take turns sharing throughout a few days, with 2-4 students sharing each day 

 

Orf Jamming - As a whole class or in small groups, students will spend time playing around with their Orf instruments. 

1 on 1 Challenges - with a partner, students will work together to accomplish a variety of challenges such as trust leading, trust falling, 3 legged races, wheelbarrow races, pass the egg, brain teasers etc.

 

Students will be assessed based on each individual activity and its curricular outcomes. Participation, effort, and willingness to work as a team will be contributing factors.