Group Bingo

Focus: Mixing with others in the group, learning about others, perspective taking

Materials: Pencils and pre-made group bingo cards (see below)

Time: 10 – 15 minutes

Sequence:  Ice Breaker

Sources: See “Human Bingo” in Adventures in Peacemaking by Kreidler & Furlong, and Journey Toward the Caring Classroom by Frank.

Suggested Procedure

1.      Each person gets a group bingo card.

2.      The task is to get as many different signatures as possible in the amount of time allotted.

Sample Processing Questions

•      Did you learn anything about others in the group?  What?

•      Does anyone have a personal story to tell about any of the things on the card?

•      What else do you want to know about others in the class?

Facilitation Notes

It is important to take some time after the activity to compare notes about people in the class.  Ask how many left-handers you have in the room, or how many people have broken a bone.  Encourage individuals to share stories, so that everyone has the opportunity to learn more about each other.

Variation

Rather than using the pre-made bingo card, have the class make their own.  Split into smaller groups and come up with three to five things they want to know about others in the class.  Then make a bingo card that includes the students’ questions.

Cavert, C., & Frank, L. (1999). Games (& other stuff) for Teachers: Classroom Activities That Promote Pro-Social Learning. Bethany, OK: Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing.

Frank, L., Carol C., & Christ, J. (2008). Leading Together: Foundations of Collaborative Leadership for the Classroom. Bethany, OK: Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing.

The handshake activity we shared is a great method for “breaking the ice,” building rapport, and practicing social introductions and names.

A key ingredient for creating a positive environment in the classroom is to help students know and use each others’ names correctly from the very beginning of the school year.  Even in small school districts where educators might assume students already know each others’ names, many actually don’t or are not always using and honoring each others’ names in a respectful way.  Name activities can help groups of all ages not only learn and practice names but explore the concepts of connecting with others, honoring individual strengths and personalities, and showing respect.

Here are a few of Jen Stanchfield’s favorites from her book Tips and Tools for the Art of Experiential Group Facilitation. These activities engage students in a playful and non-threatening way.

Name Meanings

When people have more information to associate with a person’s name, it helps them make a stronger connection and better remember that name.  I recently learned a simple but very effective activity from a group of teachers in Laconia, NH.

Facilitation Suggestions:

•  Simply ask the group to line up silently by the number of letters in their name, or preferred nickname.

•  Once the group is successful, have them go around and share their name, clarify the correct pronunciation or nick-name, and share anything they would like about “the story of their name” (i.e., what they know about its origin or meaning, whether it is a family name). Most importantly this is an opportunity for students to take ownership and share with the group the CORRECT pronunciation or nickname.  Something that often gets overlooked or mistaken in school settings.

This activity is a particular favorite because groups find it interesting and fun.  It helps students connect, learn more about each other, and make associations that help them remember other group members’ names. It even works with large classroom groups. Students seem to want to listen and share about this kind of “personal” information.  It is especially effective after a few warm up activities (see our previous and upcoming posts).

This activity could stimulate conversation with students and their family members, and be tied to a family tree activity. It also can help students become comfortable with “seminar style” sharing in their classroom.

Name Roulette

I learned this kinesthetic activity from Karl Rohnke (Rohnke & Grout, 1998).

Facilitation Suggestions:

•  Divide participants into two groups and have them form side-by-side circles.

•  Place an object between the two circles that acts as a marker.

•  Have both circles of participants shuffle left or right while facing the center of their circles—no looking over shoulders.

•  When you say stop, the two participants who are at the marker have to turn around and name the person they are now facing.  Whoever names the other person first captures that person onto their team, and the captive must join that circle.

The value in this activity is that when presented with the challenge, participants will study up on each other’s names.  Give teams a few minutes at the start to review the other team’s names together.

Peek a Who

Another favorite, often called “Peek a Who” (Rohnke, 1991), is similar to name roulette but adds the intrigue of hiding behind a blanket.  I’ve used this activity primarily with elementary students, but I’m finding that both adults and adolescents also enjoy the playful, hiding aspect.

Facilitation Suggestions:

•  Have two facilitators or group members hold up a large blanket.

•  Divide the group into two teams and have them stand on opposite sides of the blanket, hidden from the view of the other team.

•  Each team then chooses one person to move up close to the blanket.

•  On the count of three, the blanket drops and the two participants race to name each other.

•  The winner captures that person onto their team.

I often use a variation of this game with groups that either know each other or have been learning about each other.  The following version practices compliments and celebrating individual strengths.

•  In this version, the two players behind the blanket sit back to back.

•  When the blanket is dropped, their teammates describe the person from the other team to their teammate, who tries to guess who is behind them.

•  Encourage participants to use positive, non-physical characteristics about the person they are describing (i.e., “she is very creative,” “he is good in math,” “she climbed Mt. Washington last week,” “she was the leader of the last group challenge”).

Stanchfield, J. (2007). Tips & Tools for the Art of Experiential Group Facilitation. Bethany, OK: Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing.

Along with the upcoming activity posts, readers might find it helpful to refer back to some of our older Friday Lessons on the subject of facilitating community building including: Laurie Frank’s Creating Conditions for Community and Jen Stanchfield’s Designing the Group Experience and Increasing Involvement, Buy In, and Building Trust. These articles share practical facilitation tips and insights into why,  how and when educators might choose to implement community building strategies in their classrooms.

This weeks lesson is taken from Springboards by Micah Jacobson, Mary Beth Campbell and Carolyn Hill and adapted from Karl Rohnke’s Funn ‘N’ Games. It is a great activity for actively engaging students, learning and reinforcing names and practicing pro-social communication and positive interactions.

Handshake

Possible Themes: Greeting others, mixing it up, taking risks
Supplies: None
Physical Set-Up: Large standing circle

Have the entire class stand in a circle with no furniture in the middle. Stand with the group as part of the circle, and actually go through the motions as you talk.

Give the following instructions: I am going to walk across the circle, approach someone, shake this person’s hand, and say “Hi I’m ___insert name___.” And this person will respond, “Hi ___insert name___, I’m ___insert name___. Nice to meet you.”
Once I introduce myself to this person, we will switch places. That person will take my place in the circle, walk across the circle, and greet someone new. We will keep this going by continuing the process of approaching, shaking hands, introducing, and trading places with others in the circle.

Watch the students begin this activity, and then start a second string of introductions. There will be 2 people greeting at the same time. With a large group, you can continue this process, placing as many people in the center as you want. Some students may even continue to move and greet on their own.
When you’ve given this enough time, ask all the students to step back into the circle formation to stop movement.

Activity Notes: This is a great activity to get students mixing early in the year. It’s also a good tool for mixing up a circle of students for whatever reason. If the students already know each other, just change the greeting/interaction. It will still mix them up.

Source: Funn ‘N Games by Karl Rohnke. We first saw this activity at the Association for Experiential Education International Conference.

Purpose (goal)
• To have fun and break the ice.
• To begin the process of self-disclosure.
• To gather personal/assessment data through a quick, fun and non-threatening activity.

Age Level and Type of Group

Penny for Your Thoughts is a fairly non-threatening assessment tool that can be used with all age groups and with any number of family participants or families at any point during a program.

Description of the Activity

1. The family/group members are asked to sit in a circle with a large pile of pennies in the middle. The facilitator asks a series of “personal” questions (see Penny for Your Thoughts Question Sheet on the next page).

2. Each family member is asked to answer the question in a round-the-group, circle fashion. They must answer as quickly as possible when it is their turn. If they answer the question, they are allowed to grab one penny from the middle of the circle. If they do not answer, or if they do not answer the question quickly (within a few seconds of their turn), or if they speak out of turn, they do not receive a penny. The person with the most pennies at the end of the game wins.

Note:To make the game fair, each consecutive question should begin with a different group member (the next in-line).

Penny for Your Thoughts
• How old are you?
• When were you born?
• Where do you live?
• Where do you work or go to school?
• How many brothers do you have? sisters?
• Do you still live with both your parents?
• What is your favorite food?
• What is your favorite sport?
• What is your favorite hobby?
• What do you want to do when you grow up?
• What other languages do you speak?
• What’s your favorite movie?
• What was the last book you read?
• What’s your favorite social activity?
• What’s your favorite arts activity?
• What is your favorite kind of music?
• What was your favorite vacation?
• Who do you most admire in the world?
• What do you like best about yourself?
• What is one thing you would change about yourself?
• What is one thing you would change about your family?
• What do you like best about your family?
• What is the best gift you ever received from your family?
• What is the best gift you ever gave to your family?
• If your dad was a cartoon character, who would he be?
• If your mom was a cartoon character, who would she be?
• What feelings are easy for you to express?
• What feelings are hard for you to express?
• Where is a safe place you typically go?
• What one thing would you like to be remembered for?

Gerstein, J. (1998). A Place of Connection: Expressive Counseling Techniques for Families and Individuals. Bethany, OK: Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing.

• Practice visual mapping.
• Practice controlled behavior.
• Practice safe physical behavior.

Method:

• Have the group stand in a diagonal line across the room, evenly spaced.
• Tell them that each  person on the line symbolizes a flag in a ski slalom.
• Ask for a volunteer to stand at one end of the line.  This person is the skier.
• Instruct the skier to look down the line and remember where all the flags are placed.  “When you can see them in your mind’s eye, close your eyes.  Take off down the hill and ski around them.”
• The last flag (person) at the other end of the line stops them when they get to the end.
• Then everyone moves “up the line” one place and the next person begins skiing down the slalom.

Processing:

• What did it feel like to slalom?
• What did you do to be successful?
• How hard is it to keep hold of something in your mind?
• What did you have to overcome in order to do the exercise?

Reference:
Challenging Experience: An Experiential Approach to the Treatment of Serious Offenders. John Bergman and Saul Hewish (2003) Oklahoma, City, OK: Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing.

Executive Functions are the cognitive processes that enable individuals to engage in goal-directed or problem-solving behavior such as developing and executing a plan, flexibility, attention, memory systems, organizing information, evaluation of situations or self-monitoring.  Weaknesses in Executive Functioning have been found to be an underlying factor in behavioral problems, ADHD, autism and learning disabilities.  Many education experts believe that focusing on executive functioning from an early age helps all learners.

A strength of experiential approaches is their value in helping learners improve these cognitive skills through practice. The authors of Challenging Experience offer many examples of these kinds or practical activities for improving cognitive and social and emotional skills. Here is one of their simple exercises to practice cognitive flexibility (the ability of a person to see different aspects of an object, idea or situation and switch and respond appropriately) and explore emotional and social reactions to life situations.

Fortunately/Unfortunately

Aims:
• Develop verbal and cognitive flexibility.         • Activate cognitive skills.

Method:
• Split the group into pairs, each pair consisting of A and B.  Each pair has a conversation.
• A always begins his sentence with the word “Fortunately,” while B always begins her
sentence with the word “Unfortunately.”
• After a while switch so that B’s sentences begin with “Fortunately” and A’s begin with “Unfortunately.”

Example:
A: “Fortunately, I have a bicycle.”
B:  “Unfortunately, the tires are flat.”
A:  “Fortunately, I have a pump.”
B: “Unfortunately, a friend borrowed that pump.”
A:  “Fortunately, that friend lives next door.

Processing:
• What did you feel when you were having the conversation?
• Which of the phrases were more comfortable for you?
• What did the exercise remind you of?

Extension 1:
• Same as above except have A begin telling a story and periodically have B disagree (i.e., “No, you don’t.”)
• At this point A must agree with B, change the story, and continue.  
• After a while switch roles.

Processing: • What was it like when your partner said, “No.”  What did you feel?  
• What was hard about changing the story?

Extension 2:
• A begins with a statement, B responds by beginning with “Yes, but… (and adds some other possibility).
• The conversation proceeds with each partner beginning his sentence with “Yes, but…”

Processing as above.

Reference:

Challenging Experience: An Experiential Approach to the Treatment of Serious Offenders. John Bergman and Saul Hewish (2003) Oklahoma, City, OK: Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing.

The subtitle of this book can make it sound intimidating or exclusive. But we encourage you not to let that keep you from tapping into some of the most creative and original activities Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing has to offer. Facilitators in the area of experiential education are experts at taking an activity and seeing all kinds of possibilities in it. While John and Saul have focused on serious offenders, we encourage our readers to think big and use or adapt these activities to fit their particular program or classroom.

Experiential activities using role play help us move beyond the limited powers of verbal expression. Clients/students can learn to tell their stories in some new ways as well as investigate fresh strategies for real-life behavior. These experiential tools help facilitators encourage “in the moment” responses very similar to real-life behavior, setting up the perfect situation to effectively solve problems and respond to situations just as we really do “in the now”—in the world.

When using role play, John and Saul recommend that you make it as simple as you can. The participants will then be able to make it their own and solve the problem in real time. Also, consider talking to participants about the range of affect they might experience and let them know THEY ARE FREE TO SAY NO TO ANY EXERCISE.

Statues In the Park

Aims:
• Connect word, body and memory as a preparation for cognition and memory.
• A prelude to work on emotions such as rejection.
• Stimulate the imagination.

Method:
• Split the group into small groups of three or four.
• Ask them to imagine that they are statues in a park.
• Tell them you will call out a title, and they have to create statues that correspond to the title.

Examples:
“Yeurgh, that’s disgusting!”
“Someone took my…”
“We won!”
“It’s a hurricane!”
“Oh, no! Pigeons!”
“Where’s my…”
“What a lovely Summer’s day.”
“It’s raining…”

Extensions:
• Try titles from themes such as: vacations, shopping, driving.

Processing:
• What feelings did you have?
• What pictures came to mind as you were doing the statues?
• What memories did you have as you were doing it?

This lesson is compliments of The Wood ‘N’ Barnes Collective.

Thanks for joining us for Friday Lessons!