Focused, hardworking teachers need to have some time-outs for themselves. Zoom is a great way of introducing play into the workday and bringing staff together! Here are 5 games that will keep your team energized while covering important topics like collaboration and creativity.
Break the Ice
This quick game offers a great way to get your staff together at the beginning of the day. Have everyone introduce themselves in pairs and talk about their weekend. When you blow your whistle, ask one staff member from each pair to come up with something ridiculous that they could do on the spot (e.g., jump out of a chair!). Everyone else then has to guess who said what! If you like this game, there’s also an advanced version where you play with 3-4 people instead of two or more teams.
Storm Watch
This is a great game for all staff members. The goal of the game is to list out as many potential threats to your school’s safety and brainstorm ideas for how to deal with them (e.g., natural disasters, fire, etc.). You can also make it more challenging by asking team members to come up with solutions rather than just listing off dangers. This way players get points if they come up with solutions that have already been mentioned or if their idea could be applied in another area of the building! Once someone says ‘storm warning’, the round then ends and everyone moves onto a different topic. This helps prevent you from getting stuck on one problem for too long!
Creativity Challenge
This is a great game to spark creativity in your staff. It’s also ideal for brainstorming new ideas! All you need are 3-4 random objects (e.g., chopsticks, pencils, paper cups, newspaper), which should be put into the center of each table beforehand. Once everyone has been given 5 minutes to look at the items, they then have 2 minutes to write as many creative uses for them as possible. This game can help encourage collaboration among staff members by getting them talking together about how to use things creatively rather than competing against each other to come up with the best answers themselves!
Trivia
Trivia questions game is great for everyone in the school, not just staff! As well as working on your knowledge of different subjects, it can also help your team bond and feel like a part of something bigger. The more ‘general’ the question, the better. For example, instead of asking “What color is a polar bear’s skin?” you could ask “What colors are there?”. This way players are less likely to be able to answer questions off-the-top-of-their heads but they will still have a lot of fun trying!
Two Truths and a Lie
This is a fun game for all ages. If you like this idea, I’d also recommend “Two Truths and a Lie about You”, which is basically the same thing but everybody has to talk about themselves rather than quiz each other. The goal of Two Truths and A Lie is simple, when you’re asked something (e.g., What’s your favorite color?), give two answers that are true (one ‘real’ fact and one not-so-true) and then one lie!
The best part of this game is that it encourages people to guess whether what they’ve been told is true or false. It helps them put down their phones, laptops, books etc., while still having fun!
