Directions:
Before the activity gather enough slips of paper and pens for each person participating. Once the group is together pass our the paper and pens. Ask each person to write a piece of information about himself or herself that no one else in the room knows about him or her.
Instruct everyone to fold the slips of paper once and turn them into the facilitator. The facilitator then reads the information on each slip of paper one at a time. Once the information on the first slip of paper is read aloud, group members are to guess to which person the information belongs. Continue until all information is read to the group.
Computer Keyboard Scramble (Adapted from Tom Heck by Brent Wolfe)
Directions
Find enough computer keys from old keyboards to provide each person with one key (you will want to have enough keys and people to make 3 different keyboards). For example, you will want to pass out three “q's”, three “enter's”, etc. The group must all work together to put the keyboards back together by finding people in the room how have keys that are complimentary to their own. To aid in this process, project the image of the keyboard that they will make on the wall in case there are any questions. Once they begin to locate their other keys, they should physically stand in position to make the keyboard. Facilitators may need to offer some assistance to those who seem particularly lost and if the group size is particularly large (e.g., 50 or more).
Focus
Diversity: Sometimes it’s just easier to hang out with and be friends with people who are like us. We don’t necessarily want to expand our friend base; we want to be friends and get to know people who are similar to us; however, in doing this we can miss out on some amazing opportunities and friendships. This activity looks to promote the concept of diversity in a non-threatening manner so people can see the benefits of meeting and interacting with others who might be different from them.
Equipment
Three full (same) sets of computer keys. You can determine what comprises a keyboard, just make sure that all groups will have a keyboard that looks the same.
Users
Enough people so each person has one key. You can do this with 2 or more keyboards depending on group size and keyboards can be custom made (i.e., the full keyboard, just the letter keys, just the letter and number keys, etc.).
Processing
Describe the scene when the group began.
How did you respond to the task?
Were you overwhelmed? Excited? Confused? Energized?
How did your keyboard start to form?
What was the hardest/easiest part of forming your keyboard?
Would it have been easier to find the pieces that were like yours (e.g., all the "f's" get together) than it was to find the pieces that were not like you?
What is it like to use a keyboard with a missing or broken key?
What can we learn from this?
Is it important to find people who are not like us? Why or why not?
What can we learn from others who are not like us?
How can we find people in our lives that are not like us?
Brent Wolfe is Assistant Professor of Therapeutic Recreation at Georgia Southern and the co-author of Team-Building Activities for the Digital Age: Using Technology to Develop Effective GroupsFELLOWSHIP IDEA: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARTY"
Food: Go to your local super center and order 12 small cakes decorated for each month of the year. On each cake have the decorator write: "Happy Birthday (Month)!" For example, on a cake for February, ask for them to decorate it with hearts and write "Happy Birthday February". Or if you have a talented student, have a student make the cakes.
Also, have ice cream on hand to serve with the cake. Punch to drink.
Decorations: Streamers, balloons and other party favors
Activities:
Greet Everyone with Happy Birthday! As people enter the door, have greeters there with noise makers saying "Happy Birthday" to everyone who enters. Greeters can have bubbles to blow or silly string. (Remind greeters not to blow or spray either of these directly on people)
Each person gets a piece of his/her birthday cake. (Be sure to have servers for the cakes who wish each person a "Happy Birthday")
Play "Pin the Tie on the Pastor" (Or campus Minister or University President). Get a picture of the person you want to use in a tie. Blow up the picture at your local copy center. Cut out several "ties" from construction pastor to fit the picture and put tape or sticky putty on one side of the ties. Hang the picture on a wall. Have a blind fold ready to blind fold participants. Play like "Pin the Tail on the Donkey".
Hang a Birthday Pineta.
Play Musical Chairs.
BE CREATIVE! Ask students what their favorite games were that they played as children at birthday parties. Students really have fun with this one.
This was originally an outreach table with the 12 cakes passed out on campuses created by Carolyn Teague. When people would ask why the group was giving out birthday cake, the students would say, "Because we wanted to celebrate your life!"