Team-Building Projects

(To be used for summer reading or with teen youth groups)

Date:               Tue, 10 Aug 2004 19:56:41
From:              ceverhart@carmel.lib.in.us (Chelsea Everhart)
Subject:            [PY] Team Building Craft and Pumpkin Program Ideas
To:                   pubyac@lists.prairienet.org

First and most important, I want to thank Carol Hoke, Beverly Bixler, Jenny Grenfell, Joanna Perth, Alisa Burch, Linda Peterson, Milly Blair, Jamie Holtsclaw, Stacey Irish-Keffer, Kathy Nelson, Kelly Girard, and Erica Glenn for sending the following ideas:

TEAM BUILDING

1.   Team building - how about a quilt or a mural?

2.   Every year our library system has a huge party for SRP kids & teens at a local park. One of the activities is the newspaper construction. All of us children’s librarians (about 25 of us) are asked to bring a week’s worth of rolled newspapers for this annual project. At the park, everyone is invited to contribute to one big main construction, and they also work on smaller ones to take home with them. The rolled newspapers must be rolled VERY, VERY tightly in order to work in these constructions. Only double-page sheets of newspaper will work. And they must be rolled diagonally, NOT from top to bottom. Starting at one corner, make 2 or 3 extremely narrow folds, and then start rolling, keeping the roll as tight as possible. When you reach the other end, the roll should be about ¼ inch in diameter. Tape the end to keep it from

unrolling. These sturdy newspaper sticks can then be used to build anything

you and your patrons have the imagination and creativity to build. Use scotch tape or masking tape to tape newspaper sticks together; they can also be bent if necessary.

3.      I once saw (and used) an idea where each child draws one portion of a large picture. The picture was divided into a grid, and each kid was given a square to copy onto a larger piece of paper.  I have no clue where I saw it, but it seems like it would be pretty easy to carry out.  You could blow up some coloring pages and cut them into squares, then have some butcher paper for the larger picture.

4.      You could do a joint collage picture for your team building session. Just choose a theme, like the circus, have a BIG sheet of paper with a circus ring sketched onto it, then have the group discuss all the different elements of the circus. They can then each draw and add their own parts like the ringmaster, the animals, etc. You can cut faces out of magazines for the crowd. You can do the same thing with a jungle theme, or the Australian bush, or fish on a coral reef.

5.   One summer our summer reading program was on art. But we did an art project that could be used for a group-building project. We projected a lined drawing of the Mona Lisa on to the wall covered by an extra extra large piece of paper.  We copied the picture using a bold black marker. Then we cut the drawing up into 25-30 pieces. They were about the size of copy paper 8 by 10. The day of the program the children were given a piece of paper and told to color it in any way they wanted. Using the numbers on the back of each piece of paper, the kids put the picture back together. It was really impressive when it was completed.  Any picture (lined drawing) could be used for this project.

6.       For the team building craft, you could have everyone make their own quilt square then put the quilt together.  I have used paper squares in the past and then box tape to hold it together.

7.      Our library has a quilt on display that was created by a group of kids in 1993. The quilt might have been done as part of an “Earth Day” program.

I believe each child was given a square of fabric to “decorate” (I’m not sure what medium they used, but you could probably use fabric paint or any other medium appropriate for fabric). Each child also signed and dated their quilt square. Then the squares were sown together into a quilt (You could probably get a dedicated patron to do this for you). Our quilt is prominently displayed on a wall in the children’s department and we still have patrons ask about it. Of course, you could pick a different “theme” to tie into just about any event or celebration.

8.   Take a look at

http://www.learningpage.com/free_pages/pdfs/teachers_notes/oceans/otn01.pdf It’s a mural that is broken into pieces; everyone colors one part, then the parts are put together to make one mural. Maybe this is too babyish for your group (I’m planning on using it with my K-3 group one of these days) but maybe it’s an idea that you can adapt.
9.   I’ve done something that you might want to try for your Team Building Program. I drew out a painting by Jacob Lawrence - he’s done some geometric-y paintings with primary colors - but Matisse might be another option - and had the kids paint it in his style. We had a range of ages (from 6-10, if I remember correctly) and I talked a bit about the life of Lawrence and his artwork, and then had the kids each pick a color (some kids got the same color). They had to paint using only that color and be very careful not to mix their colors with their neighbor. The painting was big, though, to give them room to move and paint. I was nervous about how it would work, but it was a grand success.