Whenever students, whether they are high school students or middle school students get together for the first time things can be awkward. Team building activities for students are designed to not only break that awkwardness, but to help students become comfortable with each other so they will be able to work together in the future. One great way to do this is to engage in a little activity I like to call positive spin.

What is positive spin?
Positive spin is a game designed to help people put value into others so that they can feel comfortable. It works best when the two people engaging in it are not familiar with each other or look like they would not talk to each other otherwise.

How does it work?
It works quite simple; students will get together in small groups of four or five. Each group will select a team leader to select which students are going to go up in front of both groups of students. After this the student that has been chosen will tell what their first name is. The leader of the group that chose that student will select a member from the other group to come up and face the other student.

Each student is going to take turns coming up with positive words and descriptions that start with the first letter of the other students’ first name. If they fail to do this then a default person will be chosen by the dispelled student. The challenge to this game is to go for as long as possible, meaning first and last name. Once that has been done students from each group can contribute to the other person in order to keep things going.

An example
This team building activity for students is designed to establish trust and break the ice, what better way to do that then by giving each other compliments. Let’s say we have our two chosen students and the first students name is Robin. What the other student from the other group will do is come up with a positive word for each letter (Resilient, Observant, Brilliant, Intelligent, and Nice).

See how this works? Then the other student will do it, once this has been completed things are made tougher by going to the last name before starting over. When things start over both groups can now join in because doing it again with one student can be tough. Now you have everyone or at least multiple people giving compliments to one student. This team building activity makes everyone feel good and accepted.

I know games like this might sound weird at first, but they are a good way to get students comfortable. There are other team building activities for students you can try, but this one works really well because most students want to feel accepted by their peers. This activity is one of the best ways to do it.