Teamwork & Sportsmanship Activities

Teamwork and sportsmanship are essential if you wish to compete in sports or even succeed in your career. Learning how to be a team player and display sportsmanship toward your competitors does not happen overnight. It is a process that takes time to develop. If you want to hone your teamwork skills and learn how to become a better sport, there are activities you can try to help foster these skills.

  1. Helium Stick

    • In groups of roughly 10, instruct the kids to stand facing each other with an equal number of kids on each side. Then, lay a long, thin rod on the tips of the fingers of all of the students. Their job is to balance the rod using only their fingertips and lower it to the ground. Make sure the kids do not pinch the rod or use their thumbs, and they must keep their fingers in contact with the rod at all times. The idea behind this activity is to develop teamwork and cooperation among the kids.

    Zoom

    • Create a story with pictures on approximately 30 cards and hand out one picture to each kid. If creating your own story is too difficult, you can use pages from a picture book that you cut out yourself. The challenge in this activity is for the kids to reproduce the story by laying out the pictures in proper sequential order, but they cannot see the cards of the other kids. The kids can discuss what their picture portrays, however. The idea behind this activity is to teach the kids how to cooperate and work together toward a common goal.

    Secret Poor Sport

    • "Secret Poor Sport" is an exercise that tests kids' ability to both recognize and deal with bad sportsmanship. Select a student who can convincingly act like a poor sport. When you begin an activity, the actor should break all of the rules of the game and display any kind of behavior that is not in accordance with teamwork and sportsmanship. After the activity ends, ask students about their experience with the bad sport. They should include in their answers how they felt, how it disrupted the activity and what they could do to better promote sportsmanship.

    Walk & Talk

    • Start this activity by making 20 to 30 cards that picture both good and bad sportsmanship. Turn them face down, turn on some music and instruct kids to walk around the cards. When you stop the music, each kid should pick up a card. Each kid should then find a partner to discuss for about a minute what type of sportsmanship his card shows and why or why not it is desirable behavior. They should also include in their answers how or how not each pictured card fosters sportsmanship.