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10 Team Building Activities for Back to School

Looking for team building activities to help your students get to know each other and work together? These 10 fun and engaging activities are perfect for the first few weeks of school or a new semester.

The start of a new school year can be both exhilarating and anxiety-inducing for students. Building strong relationships among students plays a vital role in creating a positive and inclusive learning environment within your classroom. One way to promote a sense of community among students is through team building activities. 

In this blog post, I’ve compiled a list of 10 fun and engaging team building activities that are perfect for the first few weeks of school or a new semester. From virtual escape rooms to paper airplane challenges, these activities are designed to help your students get to know each other and work together. 

Here are 10 team building activities to help your students get to know each other and work together.

1. Team Building Escape Room

Virtual escape rooms are a fun and engaging way to promote teamwork. These interactive and immersive experiences are designed to strengthen your team’s bond and enhance their problem-solving abilities.  

These back to school themed escape rooms are a great option for the first few weeks of school or a new semester. 

Here are some must-try virtual escape rooms that may end your search of team building activities.

Back to School Breakout
Back to School Breakout 

Teams must work together to visit various school buildings and uncover the secret code to enter each one. At the end of your school tour, you will receive a new class schedule.

Catch The Bus
Catch the Bus

Players find themselves in a race against time to collect their missing school supplies before the bus arrives at their house.

Alien Among Us! VirtualEscapeRooms
Alien Among Us! 

As a secret agent your mission is to identify an alien imposter who has infiltrated the local school and has been posing as a student for the past semester.

Learn more: Team Building Escape Rooms: The Ultimate Engagement Activity

Discover why virtual escape rooms are the perfect choice for your next team building event and how you can use them to take your team’s collaboration to the next level.

2. Rock Paper Scissors Tournament

Everyone knows how to play rock paper scissors. And even if they don’t it’s easy to learn. This is a fun twist on the classic game of rock paper scissors. It turns this simple game into an exciting tournament that will have your class cheering! 

Learn more: Icebreaker: Rock Paper Scissors Extreme from Guide Inc.  Get the rules and instructions on how to play.

3. Pictionary

This one is one of the most loved team building activities among students! Divide your class into teams and have them take turns drawing pictures while their teammates try to guess what they are drawing. You can have the word list be anything but making it school related, like supplies or different locations, makes it especially perfect for back to school.

Learn more: You can use this Random Word Generator to generate random words for the game.

4. Google Classroom Banner Quilt

Many of us use Google Classroom with our students and the banner at the top is prime real estate. Having each student create a square for a class banner quilt using Google Drawings will make that banner a reminder of who your class is made of. 

Learn more: Get a detailed guide on how to create a Google Classroom banner quilt along with the templates in this mega back to school post.

5. Classmate Bingo

Prior to the activity have students share a few facts about themselves on an index card with their name on it. Create bingo cards with students’ names in each square. You can use Canva’s Bingo Card Generator to create a unique card for each student. Read a fact from the index card and have students guess who it is. The first few times you play be sure to tell them who the facts are about so they can mark off the name on their card. If you play more than once you can rely on students to remember the facts about their classmates as you play.

Alternative way to play: Instead of (or in addition to) Classmate Bingo, you can use this Find Someone Who Bingo Card from Kami. 

6. Tarp Flip Challenge

In this activity the objective is to flip a tarp so that the side touching the ground and the side being stood upon are reversed. The catch is that everyone on the team is standing on the tarp and can’t step off. To play all team members stand on a flat tarp (or blanket) and they must flip over the tarp so that they are standing on the other side without stepping off or touching the ground. 

Learn more: Get detailed directions, pictures and a video of this activity at Fit Kids Healthy Kids from Sportmanitoba.ca.

7. Human Knot

The Human Knot is a popular team building activity that promotes teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills. Have students stand in a circle and hold hands with two different people across from them. The group must then work together to untangle themselves without letting go of each other’s hands. 

Learn more: Human Knot: Step by Step Guide from Teambuilding.com.

8. STEM Challenges

STEM activities are a great way to engage students and promote collaboration. By working together to solve problems, students will develop important skills that will help them succeed in school and beyond. 

Here are a few easy ones to try.

  • Index Card Tower: Create the tallest free standing index card tower. The tower must hold a stuffed animal. Materials: 100 index cards, clear tape, scissors
  • Watercraft Challenge: Build a watercraft that can float and hold 25 pennies for at least 10 seconds. Materials: 10 straws, duct tape, 10 inches of plastic wrap.
  • Marshmallow Challenge: In 18 minutes build the tallest structure with the marshmallow on the top. Materials: 20 sticks of spaghetti, 3 ft of tape, 3 ft of string, 1 marshmallow

Learn more: EfficienTEACH Ice Breakers and Team Building Activities from Ditch That Textbook.

9. Paper Airplane Challenge

The paper airplane activity is a fun and engaging team building exercise that involves designing, building, and testing paper airplanes. Simply give each group a piece of paper and see who can create the airplane that flies the farthest. 

Learn more: Ultimate Ice Breaker? Making & Flying Paper Planes! from Edutopia.

10. Code a Friendbot

In programming, team members must work together to solve complex problems, share knowledge, and collaborate on projects. By working together on programming projects, students can develop these essential skills and learn how to work effectively as part of a team.

Code a Friendbot Activity Directions:

  1. Divide students into teams.
  2. Provide each team with a paper and markers.
  3. Each team will create a program using up, down, right, and left to navigate a friend through a grid to reach a specific destination. You can use a carpet with squares, draw a grid with chalk or use construction paper to make your grid.
  4. The teams will take turns presenting their program to the class and running their friend through the grid by using the program they wrote.
 
Alternative activity: My Robotic Friends from Code.org.

Building a sense of community and teamwork among students is crucial for a successful school year.  By promoting collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills, your students will develop important skills that will help them succeed in school and beyond.

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