Human Knot Icebreaker Summary: A good icebreaker or teambuilding activity for new people to learn to work together in close

e physical proximity! The goal is to figure out how to untangle the human knot without letting go of hands. Ages: 12 and up. Recommended number of people: 7-200 (group sizes of 10 are ideal). Messiness factor: Might break a sweat (close proximity hope youre not claustrophobic!). Materials required: None. Recommended setting: Both indoors or outdoors. Human Knot Game Goals of the Human Knot Game:

Team building and communication Problem solving Ice-breaker or get to know others better

Setup for the Human Knot Game:

This game is versatile in that multiple group sizes can play. Form groups of about 10 people each. Have each group standing, facing towards each other, in a circle. Each person should be standing shoulder to shoulder. First, instruct everyone to lift their left hand and reach across to take the hand of someone standing across the circle. Next, have everyone lift their right and reach across to take the hand of another person standing across the circle. Make sure that no one is holding hands with someone standing directly beside the person. How to Play the Human Knot Game To play, the groups must communicate and figure out how to untangle the knot (forming a circle of people) without ever letting go of any hands. If you wish, this icebreaker can be played competitively, in which the facilitator says Ready.. Set.. Go! and has all the groups race to become the first group to finish. If any group member lets go of a hand (breaks the chain), then the group must start from the beginning, or you could impose a penalty/punishment for that person (e.g. wear a blindfold). This game typically takes 15-30 minutes to complete. You can impose a time limit if you wish to make the game more challenging. When you are done with the Human Knot activity, you can ask some debrief questions if you wish, such as How well did you group work together? What strategies did your group adopt? How did it feel to solve the game? etc. Variations To increase the difficulty level, you can either (1) blindfold some of the players or (2) require that the game be played silently (no talking).

Telephone Charades How to Play

The Telephone Charades Game (also sometimes called Charades Down the Line) is an icebreaker/stationary game that is a hilarious blend of the classic telephone down the line and charades game. This group game is fairly simple to play. Select five to six participants and ask them to leave the room. The audience chooses an action that is specific, silly, and obscure to act out (e.g. a nerds romantic first date, washing an elephant, going skydiving, etc.). Once the clue has been decided, bring in all the participants and instruct them to face the right side. The moderator reveals the clue to the first person, who taps the second person on the shoulder and acts out the topic using charades rules (no talking allowed, no noises). The second person then taps the third person and acts out his or her understanding of what was acted out. This continues until it reaches the last person in line, who must guess what the action is. This game is funny because the action mutates and changes based upon each persons interpretation of what is going on, often leading to confusion and silly motions.
Commonalities and Uniquities Summary: A group team-building activity in which people identify common things that everyone has in common, along with interesting characteristics that are unique to a person in the group.

Ages: 12 and up. Recommended number of people: Groups of 5-8. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: Two sheets of paper and a pen for each group. Recommended setting: Indoors.

Commonalities and Uniquities

Form groups of five to eight people and give them two sheets of paper and a pencil or pen. The first part of the activity is Commonalities, where each subgroup compiles a list of the things they have in common. In order for it to make the list, it must apply to everyone in the subgroup. You want to avoid writing things that people can see (e.g. everyone has hair, or we are all wearing clothes). Try to get them to dig deeper. After about 5 minutes, have a spokesperson from each subgroup read their list.

Then, depending on your goals for the session, you can have half of each subgroup rotate to another group for Uniquities or you can leave everyone in the same group. On the second sheet of paper have them record uniquities, meaning that each item applies to only one person in the group. The group tries to find at least 2 uniquities for each person. After 5-7 minutes, you can have each person say one of their uniquities or have a person read them one by one, having others try to guess who it was. (Again, you want to go beyond the superficial, avoiding those things that people can readily see). This is an excellent team-building activity because it promotes unity, gets people to realize that they have more in common than they first might realize. The awareness of their own unique characteristics is also beneficial in that people can feel empowered to offer the group something unique.

Wilma Rudolph was born into a poor home in Teenessee. At age four, she had double pneumonia with scarlet fever, a deadly combination which left her paralyzed with polio. She had to wear a brace and the doctor said she would never put her foot on the earth. But here mother encouraged her; she told wilma that with God-given ability, persistence and faith she could do anything she wanted. Wilma said, "I want to be the fastest woman on the track on the earth" at the age of nine, against the advice of the doctor , she removed the brace and took the first step the doctor had said she never would. At the age of 13 , she entered here first race and came way, way last. And she entered her second, and third and fourth and came way, way last until a day came when she came in first. At the age of 15 she went to Tennessee state university where she met a coach by the name of Ed Temple. She told him,"I want to be the fastest women on the track on this earth." Temple said, "with your spirit nobody can stop you and besides, i will help you." The day came when she was at the Olympics and at the Olympics you are matched with the best of the best. Wilma was matched against a woman named Jutta Heine . Who had never been beaten. The first event was the 100-meter race. Wilma beat Jutta Heine and won the first gold medal. The second event was the 200-meter race and Wilma beat Jutta a second time and won her second gold medal. The third event was 400-meter relay and she was racing against Jutta one more time. In the relay , the fastest person always runs the last lap and they both anchored their teams. The first three people ran and changed the baton easily. When it came to Wilma's turn, she dropped the baton, But Wilma saw Juta shoot up at the other end, She picked the baton, ran like a machine, beat Jutta a third time and won here third Gold medal. It becomes history, That a paralytic woman became the fastest woman on this earth at the 1960 olympics.

Don't You Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will When the road you're trudging seems all up hill. When funds are low and the debts are high. And you want to smile, but you have to sigh. When care is pressing you down a bit. Rest, if you must, but don't you quit. Life is queer with its twists and turns. As everyone of us sometimes learns. And many a failure turns about When he might have won had he stuck it out. Don't give up though the pace seems slow You may succeed with another blow. Success is failure turned inside out The silver tint of the clouds of doubt. And you never can tell how close you are. It may be near when it seems so far: So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.