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5 Teamwork Activities for Your Kindergarten Classroom

September 29, 2018

Inside: Teamwork is an important concept for kindergarten and beyond. In this post, I share 5 teamwork activities that you can use to help children learn how to collaborate and work together. And before you go, be sure to download your free Community Building Toolkit found at the bottom of this post. 

Teamwork Activities For Kindergarten

Preschool and kindergarten provide some of the first social experiences that children receive and it was initially designed to support children in growing and developing these interpersonal skills.  But today, with all the academic demands coming down on us, we might easily overlook teamwork activities and hope that children develop these and other social skills on their own.

teamwork activities - building a spider web

But if you take a moment and think of all of the ways in which you work together with others in your adult life, you can easily see how important it is for us to give it some attention and support children in developing this strength.

Here are some teamwork activities and ideas that I’ve used with my own kinders to help them work better together.

Establishing Table Teams

Each of our tables is considered a “team,” and the children that sit there together are called teammates.
Here’s how they work!

Each table has a team name that we co-created, based on a current interest or inquiry. (i.e. sun, moon, Earth) Each team is encouraged to use table manners and good work habits while working at these tables.

kindergarten table manners

kindergarten work habits

Table manner sticks (craft sticks) are awarded to positively reinforce these behaviors.

At the end of the week, we count these sticks and the team with the most sticks becomes the VIP table for the following week. They get to keep a trophy (balloon weight) at their table and are always called first to line up.

kindergarten teamwork activities - table manner trophy

Since there are times when one or two of the members are not showing good table manners/work habits, we talk about what they can do to help everyone be a good team player (ie. remind them, help them, etc.)

Reading About Teamwork in Books

Teamwork is a common theme in many children’s books including those categorized as “pulling stories,” such as The Enormous Potato, The Gigantic Turnip, The Enormous Carrot, and Big Pumpkin.   The children love these outrageous books that show characters working toward a common goal and they illustrate well how everybody’s contribution matters.  They are also great for retelling and illustrating a plus one, staircase pattern in math.

children's books about teamwork
In addition, books like Swimmy, Up the Creek, and Pumpkin Soup, all open a door to talking about what happens when working together isn’t going so well.

Exploring Teamwork in the Natural World

Some of the best examples of teamwork show up in nature!  Watch this video, Why Do Animals Team Up in Nature?  to learn how many different animals live and work together. And this video, showing ants working together to build a bridge, was a big hit with my kiddos!

In addition to ants, learning about the social nature of bees is also a great example of teamwork.

exploring how animals show teamwork

I shared these objects and asked kids if any of them were good examples of animal teamwork. Then, we discussed how wax, honey, and the wasp nest were all the result of cooperative efforts.

an activity to explore animal teamwork

Posing Team Challenges

Kids love a challenge, but it’s through these experiences that they realize that it isn’t always easy to work as a team.
I challenged table teams to untie the human knot, (you can find the directions on the video),

teamwork activities - human knot

work together to do a puzzle,

kindergarteners building a puzzle to show teamwork
build a bridge,

teamwork activities - building a bridge
and assemble a red collage using objects found around the classroom.

teamwork activity - assembling red objects

They were told that if problems came up, they would have to try to work them out themselves rather than asking for my help.

Most of the teams did an amazing job working together.  But some had difficulty, mostly due to a few children “taking over” and not including everyone in the work. In talking about this, I was able to point out that while the goal was important, the people are always more important!

Teamwork Activities Through Choice Time

In addition to establishing table teams, reading about teamwork, exploring teamwork in the natural world, and posing challenges, children need regular opportunities, in natural settings, to experience working together and solving conflicts through play.

To do this, I regularly offer choice time centers,  where children work together to build towers, tell stories, sort math shapes, make pictures, and more.

teamwork through choice time

As they do, they naturally encounter problems and are challenged with using creativity and critical thinking to figure out ways to solve them.  I teach into these “problems,” either on the spot or during a mini lesson or morning meeting.

And while all of the above ideas can lead to better teamwork skills, it’s through choice time centers that I find the richest opportunities for growing their abilities to work together.

Building Community Beyond Teamwork Activities

Fostering teamwork, is just one element of building community and creating a more student-centered classroom. To read more about other elements, check out the Student-Centered Classroom Toolkit, where you will find practical ways to support children in becoming more active and engaged participants in your classroom environment.

It includes one section on forming teams and partnerships along with ideas on negotiating curriculum, igniting student voices, sparking curiosity, fostering self-regulation and much more.

And download this FREE Community Building Toolkit for more to ideas on how to build classroom community.

Kindergarten community building toolkit

This post contains affiliate links. Roots & Wings is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

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Categories: Growing a Community, Growing Character

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