Bonding/team work games

Silverlily80 · #1 07-21-2001, 11:27 PM

hey guys! I was wondering if any of you have suggestions of bonding and/or team building games you have played. I am the sisterhood chair and our recruitment director wants me to plan some games to play during Spirit Week. Thanks for your help!

AlphaSigLana · #2 07-22-2001, 10:10 AM

A game I remember happened when I joined the house so we all could get to know eachother. You stand in a cirlce and you say an adjective/verb that begins with the first letter of your name and then you do in action that represents that- example: I am little lana( i crouched down low), the trick is that when the next person goes they have to say your name-with everyone else and do the action. Anyway it was a lot of fun and after I was initiated some of my gifts were labeled littlelana and that nickname has stuck with me!

AlphaSigLana · #3 07-22-2001, 10:11 AM

Another thing we do happens at retreats: we all bring something that is meaningful to us and late into the night we gather into a circle and share our stories about why such and such holds values- usually this results in tears and laughter. It is a great way to bond with your sisters. You'd be surprised what you learn about your sisters!

33girl · #4 07-22-2001, 02:47 PM

Note: I wouldn't try this with a chapter that has 100+ members! You could be there till after rush is over.

We all got strips of paper in the sorority colors and passed around a stapler and stapled the strips into links in a chain. As each sister added hers she had to say why she thought she was a strong link in the chapter's chain and why she was a weak link. When the chain was completed it made a circle and showed that with all our strengths and even all our weaknesses, we are unified. It was very meaningful and we all BAWLED!! It was a really good bonding exercise.

SoCalGirl · #5 07-23-2001, 09:37 PM

Get into groups of 10-12, stand in a circle and have everyone grab a hand of someone who is not standing next to them. The girls then have to unknot themselves w/o letting go. This will develop teamwork/communication.

Also, go to Barnes&Noble or Borders and look in the area on business management. There'll be some books on giving presentations. These always have good icebreakers in them. There also be lots of resourceses on other team building and communication exercises. If you find a really, really good one, buy it for the chapter. That way future sisterhood and rush chairs will have a good reference book.

Dianne · #6 07-24-2001, 12:35 AM

We took the drinking game Thumper and made it into a non-drinking game. It was a good way to learn the names of the new members (usually we have around 45, so it's a lot of new names to learn!).

aphiprincess · #7 07-24-2001, 03:11 AM

We break up into small groups of 6-8, usually our rush bump groups and each sister gets a piece of paper and a marker. You pass your paper to your right and each sister rights 3-4 positive things about you. It is a great way to make you feel good about yourself and brighten a sisters day.

#8 07-24-2001, 04:39 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by SoCalGirl:

Also, go to Barnes&Noble or Borders and look in the area on business management. There'll be some books on giving presentations. These always have good icebreakers in them.

To add on to this, there are even books dedicated SOLELY to icebreakers...big thick books I might add!

I went to help our Activities Director with our recent New Student Orientations and I was shocked to see the Icebreaker book. He mentioned that he got it at Borders. In fact, he said there were at least 5 different books just about icebreakers.

You can bet that I'll be xeroxing those pages like crazy for Fall Recruitment.

PhiSigFly · #9 07-24-2001, 11:16 AM

We had a meeting dedicated to teamwork and it really helped the chapter out! Here are some of the things we did:
1) bring a big towel or blanket and have every sister put both hands on it. Then ask questions (i.e who missed the last fundraiser) and whoever missed the event has to take 1 hand off the blanket. You keep asking questions and before long, there are 1-2 people holding it up or none at all. It shows that everyone is responsible for the chapter and if everyone doesn't do there part, the chapter will not hold up.
2) We made compliment sheets where everyone has to say something nice about every sister, but can not repeat something that has already been said about that person.
3) we stood in a circle and had to hit a beach ball back and forth between all of us 50 times and if 1 person messed up, we had to start all over again. That shows the same thing as the blanket thing-- everyone is important and if 1 person doesn't follow through, it messes things up for everyone.

James · #10 07-26-2001, 07:08 PM

These are some links on ice breakers team building etc. Hope they help!

Make sure you check out page two also on the first one, not all the links are good but some are very good.
http://adulted.about.com/msubicebrkrs.htm?once=true&
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadtrn.html
http://www.angelfire.com/ks/teachme/icebreakers.html

Laine4JC · #11 07-26-2001, 07:51 PM

Last year my chapter used this idea at out sisterhood retreat. We got a huge ball of yarn and gathered in a circle. One person began by holding on to one end of the yarn and throwing the ball of yarn to another sister. When it was thrown you had to say why you appreciate that person / what that person means to you / a time when that person was there for you, etc. Eventually as we continued to throw the yarn around, we created a web. The web represented how no matter how many members we had (at that time around 100 for us), we were all tied together somehow. In the end, we laughed, we cried...it was great. I hope this helps.

------------------
Whitney

Silverlily80 · #12 07-27-2001, 01:05 AM

Thank you so much for your help! I got some great ideas. It was also interesting to see the similarities in the games we have previously played, such as the yarn thing, the writing compliments to each other thing and some others, but I want to try some of the other things we haven't done like the blanket thing and the chain thing. Those links also had some cool stuff on them. Thanks so much for your help!

LeslieAGD · #13 07-27-2001, 08:38 AM

This is something that I did with my youth group a long time ago...

Get posterboard and cut it up so that everyone has a large 9 x 9 (or whatever) name tag. Punch two holes in it, attach some string, and then everyone puts on the nametag with the tag on their back. Then you have to go around and write nice something on every sister's tag.