What are some GREAT team building games for high school students? NOTHING CHEEZY..?

Question

I am leading a camp out in Colorado for four days. We are camping, but I want some cool team building games. Things that will challenge them, and nothing that is cheezy like the human knot or other things like that.

Answer 1

Do a scavenger hunt with teams.

Give them a situation and they have to make up a skit, the funnier the subject matter, the more creative they will be.

Create a "building" kit with things like paper clips, papertowels, popsicle sticks, string and ask them to design a bridge, building, costume, etc.. I've done the bridge and we judged them on creativity and strength. We used small stones and kept adding them to the bridge till it collapsed to determine its strength.

Answer 2

Most high school students will say whatever you do is cheezy no matter what, but if it's fun they'll tell their friends about it later :-)

One I particularly remember was being split up into a few teams, and each team being given several hundred styrofoam cups. The contest was to see which team could build the highest structure with the cups - a pyramid is the most stable, but depending on the dryness of the day, static electricity can make the activity interesting . . .

Another game involves one person secretly being selected the "murderer". (You could have everyone draw a card from a deck and whoever gets a specific card is the murderer, or you can have people draw slips of paper and one has an X on it.) Everyone then mingles, shaking hands with each other and introducing themselves. The murderer "kills" each person he or she shakes hands with by lightly scratching their palm during the handshake (although you could come up with some other suitably subtle way). Each victim continues as if nothing had happened for two more handshakes with other people, then goes to sit down. Everyone who hasn't been "murdered" yet gets together periodically to guess the murderer, based on who they had all shaken hands with. This is a good one for people to make a little small talk while introducing themselves, and to make them try to remember names and faces.

If you've got an active group and you have a handy field, British Bulldog is a great variation of "Red Rover" that isn't hokey. Each round, both sides run to the middle of the field, and try to physically get the other side's members back to their own side. They may make plans ahead of time ("Okay, the four of us are going to get Jim; you two see if you can catch Rachel!"), or they may just want to charge in and wing it. This game is especially fun in a muddy field, and definitely a good one for when you have both guys and girls. It is more injury-prone than some games, so it may not be ideal for your camp, but it's a fun one to have in your arsenal :-)

Answer 3

Pick up a good book on Improv Comedy. There are hundreds of great exercises there, and it is ALL about teamwork.

Good luck.