Team-building P.E. Activities

Team-building physical-education activities encourage students to work together to accomplish goals. Team-building in group sports and relay events allows players to understand their individual responsibilities within the group and how their efforts -- along with other players' efforts -- help the activity succeed.

  1. Advantages of Team-building

    • Kids must behave in concert with one another and openly communicate thoughts, questions and ideas to achieve a goal. Students learn the rules of games and sports and they discover that positive reinforcement helps build confidence and motivates the team. Playing baseball or football in P.E., for example, lets students learn the game's field positions, guidelines and objectives and allows them to cheer for teammates during the events.

    Life Skills

    • Students apply various life skills to team-building. Playing soccer or tug-of-war, for example, children learn to cooperate with one another, respect teammates and leadership and trust that each team member will do her best to accomplish the goal. Sportsmanship, patience and sharing are other life skills learned and used in team-building activities. Using and trying strategic ideas from all team members encourages the group to problem-solve together, listen to different opinions and allow all students to participate in constructive ways.

    Teaching Team-building

    • The object of any team-building activity should be positive. Keep students focused on the primary goals of all exercises, sports and activities. Encourage the use of life skills and commend students when life skills are applied. Modify activities to suit students' needs. Rules and expectations of a game may require changing if safety equipment is unavailable or if the activity's positive elements are overshadowed by competition and the need to win.

    Explore Challenges

    • Consider activities that challenge the mind and the body. Act out a survival scenario in class. For example, tell children they must find a dozen items that can help save the lives of plane crash survivors. Alternatively, ask students to build a safe and cushioned container for an egg. Students must toss the container back and forth -- with the egg inside -- once it is constructed. See how well students can build the container without having the egg break.