Invention: The Teambuilding Game

This is a fun teambuilding exercise. Divide your group in smaller groups of four to five. You will need a paper bag for each group that contains all the same items in each bag. Things like a piece of string, a couple of paperclips, a rock, some staples work best but use your imagination! For best results, make sure there are about 12-20 items in each bag and that each team bag contains identical items.

The groups separate as much as possible (suggest each take a corner of the room) and try to create an invention of some sort. Allow the teams about 10-15 minutes to come up with their masterpiece. When you call time, the finished project must be placed into the bag. No one is allowed to work extra time.

Draw straws or roll a die to see which group goes first, second, etc. Take the first group to the front of the class. One member of the team is appointed spokesperson and will explain the object and demonstrate its features, The other groups judge the effort on a score of one to ten.

The winning team gets a prize. Include all other teams for their effort. They are all winners for trying!

This exercise is great for teambuilding. You will enjoy seeing just how resourceful the teams can be!

Make sure you present and manage thisgame in a fun, lighthearted way. Do not allow any one to get too competitive or serious. Be encouraging.

End the game by thanking everyone for playing and throw out some chocolate.

Enjoy~

Lorie

Crossword Puzzles!

The Crossword Game
Don’t forget the tried and true crossword puzzles! Here are some new takes on an old favorite.

If you are creative with words and want something everyone will participate in and learn from, then use crossword puzzles. They are certainly not new on the adult learning scene, yet crossword puzzles are a hit every time. Who doesn’t enjoy a crossword puzzle!?

You will need a whiteboard or chalkboard and the tools to write with. You can use a variation as well by printing and giving the crossword on paper to everyone and have them each try to solve it for 10 minutes.

The clues to the crossword puzzle should be about words that are relevant to the topic you are teaching your group. The clues can be questions, answers, etc. Look at a crossword puzzle in a book or your newspaper to get an idea of how to format the clues.

If you do it up on a board as a group effort, then just let them blurt out the answers, but only give out one clue at a time so no one jumps ahead.

If you do this individually, you let each person work on their puzzle for 10 minutes, then have them pass it to their left or right depending on your seating arrangement so that the next person tries to finish the crossword puzzle. Do this again every 5 minutes until all the crossword puzzles are completed.

People retain the things they have to figure out and that they write down. The crossword is a great tool to get them familiar with your topic and to give them the basic information they need to get started with the training you are about to do.

Enjoy!

A Quick and Easy Adult Learning Styles Quiz

Learning Styles Quiz: Which are you? (Auditory, Visual, Tactile)
A super simple method to help you identify the learning styles of your adult participants. For their benefit as well as yours.
This handout is not designed to explain the differences between learning styles. It’s just a short & sweet 10-question quiz and can be used as a fun classroom exercise. Take it one step further and after quizzes are completed, provide a brief lecture/discussion on Learning Styles 101. Your adult students will really appreciate the information!

The Learning Styles Quiz
1. You’re in class for an important lecture and presentation. Do you:
a. listen to what the lecturer is saying.
b. focus on the words written on the slides.
c. take good notes.

2. When making long road trips as a passenger, which of these are you most likely to bring along with you?
a. An audio book or something to listen to.
b. A book to read.
c. A sketchbook to write or draw in.

3. Which of these is most likely to wake you up quickly in the middle of the night?
a. A noise or disturbance in the room.
b. A light shining on your face.
c. Someone shaking you gently.

4. You are waiting at the doctor’s office for your appointment. Which of these do you do to pass the time?
a. Engage in small talk with the person sitting next to you.
b. Browse through a few magazines or picture/art books.
c. Write a grocery or to-do list.

5. You have to conduct a presentation on the new company email system. To prepare for the presentation you would most like to:
a. Ask someone to explain to you how the email system works.
b. Download the printed tutorial and review it.
c. Visit with an email systems engineer to walk you through the steps he or she takes to put a system together.

6. If you were a counselor at a summer camp for kids, which of these activities would you prefer to do with them?
a. Singing songs.
b. Writing songs.
c. Playing the guitar.

7. You just found out some very good news. What do you do?
a. Call a friend and share the news with them immediately.
b. Write a note to your very best friend telling him/her the news.
c. Find someone to hug.

8. You need to go to the grocery store to buy one or two items. What do you do to remember them?
a. Repeat their names a few time until you remember.
b. Close your eyes and visualize them.
c. Write down the items on a piece of paper, even if you don’t take the paper with you. As long as you write it down once, you’ll probably remember.

9. When finding directions to a location you are unfamiliar with, what works best for you?
a. Asking for directions.
b. Looking up the location on a map.
c. Wing it. You’re sure you will find it if you just get in the car and drive.

10. Think of a cause you are passionate about, like PETA. How do you show your suport?
a. Go and speak to audiences about the problem.
b. Make a poster or create a presentation about the cause.
c. Volunteer to work with kids or people affected by the problem.

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Scoring:

If you scored more a’s, then you are an auditory learner.
If you scored more b’s, then you are a visual learner.
If you scored more c’s, then you are a tactile learner.

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A New Take on an Old Favorite! The Memory Game!

Trainers and students will have fun with this Memory Game. You will verbally present four questions to your students. You may choose to ask the questions consecutively and then begin the "memory" time or you may pause between questions and have the "memory" time following each question. This game is appropriate for any new group in the ‘getting-to-know-each-other’ phase.

To begin, decide which format (from above) of the game will be played. Each student will need one sheet of paper and pen. Instruct students NOT to write names or other identifying marks on the paper. Next, ask the following questions, one at a time, until all students have answered: (1) What is the strangest thing a customer has ever said to you? (2) What is your most unusual talent? (3) If you had to pick one adjective to describe you, what would it be? (4) What Country, State, City are you from?

Go around the room and have each student share their answers with the group aloud. Encourage respectful chatter, laughter, and a light tone. Make sure every student has a turn to share his or her answers out loud.

There are two ways to end the game. One: gather all papers, mix them up and draw one out at a time. Call out the answers and see if students can call out the correct person to whom the answers belong. Two: Post papers along the whiteboard and have students write their guess on each papers. Give them until the end of the day to put names on every paper. For example, let’s say Robert thinks a particular set of answers belongs to Jane. He would write something like, “This paper belongs to Jane by Robert.”

Right before breaking for the day’s session, quickly call out how many and who voted on each paper, have the owner identify him/herself and move on to the next until all students have identified their paper.

For the finale, see which student had the most correct answers and pass out a treat to one or all! Have fun!

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The 'What We've Learned' Game

This game is best played near the end of the day or the end of the training session and used as a review of what has been covered.

For the game, you’ll need one die. Each team should be between four-six participants. One person from each team is appointed die roller. Taking turns, each die roller will roll the die. The face number rolled will be the number of “Things We have Learned” the team will have to come up with and share with everyone else. For example, if Team A rolls a four, they will have to provide four things they have learned in the training session. After rolling, the team will provide their answers to you to write up on the whiteboard or easel or you could have a team member write as the rest of the team calls out answers.

Members of a group will collaborate with each other to come up with the “Things We Have Learned.” Once the first team is done, the next group will roll the die and give their number of ‘Things We Have Learned’ and so on until each team has a turn.

Do not allow repeated items within the group or by other groups. Pass out some treats at the end of the game and thank each participant for playing. Make this a light and fun learning experience. Your participants will be surprised with how much they have learned!

This game provides a great way to review a topic or entire training session and helps participants remember/recall what they have learned.

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The Name & Gesture Icebreaker

This game is a lot of fun! There is room to modify as needed so use your imagination to create an icebreaker that engages and inspires your learners!As always with 'name games' this one works great for the first day of training to get to know each other, break the ice and have some fun.

First, you'll say your name and accompany your name with a gesture. You can hop on one leg, wave, hop, say woohoo, or whatever gesture you want.

Then you’ll point to someone and they must immediately say your name and repeat your gesture, then say their name and add a gesture. Then they point to someone who hasn’t been called on. That person repeats his or her name and gesture then does their own with a gesture and so on around the room until everyone has been called on.

You can add on to the game by pointing to someone and asking them what someone else’s name and gesture was to see if they remember. You can even score points when someone remembers. To increase to difficulty, have each person recall the name and gesture of everyone who came before them.

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Enjoy!

Poker for Training Groups

So poker is all the rage right now. Even movie stars and rofessional athletes all in onit. The Poker Tour on TV is filled with recognizable faces usually seen on the big screen or in superbowls. Poker can also be used in the classroom! Here's how:

To prepare this game you need to have 1 deck of cards for every four or five players in your group. You need to put questions about your topic on each card of the deck. Near the end of the session divide your group into smaller groups of 4-5 players each. This will help them review the topic and help them retain what they have learned.

Give each a deck of cards. They each take turns dealing five cards to each member of their group. The person to the left of the dealer turns to their left and asks a question that is on their card. If that person answers incorrectly, he or she has to take the card that had the question on it and now has 6 cards while the person that answered the question only has 4. If the person answers correctly, the person asking the question discards the card with the question on it and the person that answered correctly give them one of their own cards. Now the questioner still has 5 cards while the person who answered correctly only has four.

Then it is that person’s turn to ask the person to their left any question from a card in their hand and so on around the table until someone has no cards left and is the winner from that group. If time is remaining, the cards can be re-dealt for a new hand. If you do not have enough decks of cards, you can just be the dealer and deal to more than one group at a time.

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The Analogy & Metaphor Exercise

For this exercise you need to bring in several miscellaneous items. They can be office items, household items, or anything else you want to throw into a paper bag. You also need to make a list of lead-ins like these examples; (I will use teaching Basic Internet Skills as my topic for the examples.)

A search engine is like this (item) because . . .
An ISP is like this (item) because . . .
A website is like this (item) because . . .

In the middle or at the end of your session, you will explain the game, Let a person pick an item from your bag, then give them the first/next suggestion on your list of analogies and metaphors. They need to complete the sentence. You can reuse items from the bag if you run out because the analogies and metaphors you associate with them will be different.

Get a Clue! A fun check-for-learning game for trainers

This is a great way to make your students into assistant trainers. This game should be done halfway through the class or at the end. Just be sure to leave about 15 minutes to play. Students will all need something to write on and you'll need sometime with which to keep time. You could use a stopwatch or any clock or watch that has a second hand or digital display.

Have each person in the class write down 4 things they have learned about a specific topic you have covered. Pair people up into teams of two. Each team will have a clue giver and guesser. For each item on the clue-giver's list he or she has to give clues to the answer without using the actual words in the answer. The guesser tries to give the answer written on the paper. The answer does not have to be given verbatim; close is good enough as long as the main point is covered. The team gets 15seconds to give/receive clues before you move on to the next team.

When the teams have all had a turn, the person who was doing the guessing now does the clue-giving for their list of four things. This continues until everyone has been a clue-giver and a guesser.

This game is a great way to see how much the group has learned, a great way for them to do their own review of the topic, and gets them involved in the teaching as well as the learning.