Team Building Activity

The staff at Learning on the Log are infamous for making a great team-building game out of nothing.  Here is an example of how:

Find a log in the woods, and provide some rope...

Ask the group to use all the rope, everyone must participate, and carry the log from point A to point B.  In this case the group was asked to carry the log up a steep stair way...

Have a follow up discussion after the activity is completed.  This is the most rewarding and fruitful part of the whole team-building game.

Noodle Tag

Here is a new version of playing the Tag.

You Need:

• People (4 or more for optimal fun)
• Noodles (cut in half)
• Good attitude

Rules:

1. One noodle per person
2. Every person for themselves
3. Can only hit below the waist
4. 5 push ups in order to come re-join the game

DIR®/Floortime perpective

I was reading through Dr. Greenspan and Dr. Wieder's book "The child with Special needs".  At the beginning of chapter 10 (page 160) was an interesting scenario I wanted to highlight and reflect on.  There are so many times we, as playing partners, can become frustrated with the play or interaction.  Here is what Dr. Greenspan and Dr. Wieder described and then suggested.

Three-year-old Sam sat on the floor playing with a car.  Paul, his father, tried to join in.  "That's a nice car," Paul said.  "Look how fast you're moving it.  Look at it go.  Oh, now you're moving it slowly.  Now it's going to the right.  Now it's going to the left."  Since Sam was patently ignoring his father's running commentary, Paul tried to be more interactive.  He switched to questions.  "Can you move the car here?" he asked, cupping his hands into a a garage.  Sam continued to ignore him.  "Look here's a tunnel," Paul said making a tunnel with his hands.  "Can you drive the car through the tunnel?"  Again, Sam ignored him.  Paul decided to be commanding.  "Bring the car here," he ordered.  Sam didn't.  Finally, frustrated, Paul grabbed the car from his son and hid it behind his back.  Sam, predictably, threw a tantrum; then he sulked and refused to touch the car again.

Why did this encounter fail?  Paul was trying to interact above his son's developmental level.  Because of receptive and expressive language delays, Sam couldn't understand or respond to his father's words (although he heard them) or sophisticated gestures.  His father's sudden frustrated move to grab the car frightened Sam into a tantrum.  Had Paul found a way to interact with Sam through very simple gestures, the scene could have  gone quite differently.

With coaching, here is what happened next...

When Sam began rolling the car back and forth again, Paul got a second car and rolled it towards his son's.  Sam saw it coming and pulled his car out of the way, closing a circle of communication.  Next, Paul turned and chased Sam's car.  But this time Sam didn't pull his car away; he held it tight and let Paul crash it.  Another circle closed.  Over the next few minutes the game escalated as father and son chased each other with the cars, going first fast then slow, sometimes crashing and sometimes not.  At the end of the game, Paul again cupped his hands in front of Sam's car - this time not as a garage, but as a barrier.  With no hesitation Sam drove his car around his father's hands, understanding and responding to this more complex gesture.  The game had become a full-fledge, nonverbal dialogue.  

Feel free to share your opinion after reading these paragraphs.

Minute to Win It

These deceptively difficult games need to be completed in 60-seconds with ordinary household objects.  As each challenge is completed, the difficulty level increases. Each time we play we offers new twists and turns.  

      

Some examples of the challenges we have presented our guys: 

POKER CHIP STACK,     TILE TURNOVER,     SPEED CHIPS

Below are some examples of games we could play in the future.  Find out more @  nbc.com/minutetowinit.

CHOCOLATE UNICORN
Stack 7 Ding Dongs on the forehead.

TORTILLA HEAD
Use swim flippers to pick up a tortilla from the floor and flip it up onto a plate balanced on the head.

STICKER PICKER UPPER
With one hand holding an upside down pizza tray, contestant rolls an egg onto it to collect four small upside-down stickers.

DENTAL CAP
Wearing a baseball cap, contestant picks up a toothbrush from a toothbrush holder by hooking the bristles on the cap's brim, and then transports it to another toothbrush holder.

SPARE ME
Put marbles into one end of a pool noodle, then roll them out the other end to knock over three standing sticks of sidewalk chalk.

EGG TOWER
Contestant alternately stacks 4 paper towel rolls and 4 eggs into one freestanding tower.

FLOATACIOUS
Stack 5 empty cans on a plastic plate floating in a large bowl of water.

Staff Reflection

We always encourage our staff to reflect on their experience with us.  It is an effective way to put the day into perspective and relive some of the interactions.  Here is one excerpt from last summer.  (Names have been altered due to confidentiality reasons)

Today was defiantly a tough day. I had two interactions this morning that were kinda different but ended in the same way and I just thought it was kinda interesting. Both Johnny and Suzy were upset about something (at different points in the morning) and I tried a few different ways of trying to get them to settle down but what worked the best for both was to have a plan of what we were going to do that was going to solve what they were upset about. In Johnny's case we needed a plan of something to do when we got into the pit. It turned into a top secret mission to push someone in the pit, but once that idea was planted in his head he was much more willing to entertain the idea of going in and playing. Although Suzie's case was a little different, the only way I could get her to stop crying was to have a plan to go talk to Armann about what was making her upset. I just thought it was kinda interesting how both situations could be so similar at the same time. 

Summer Camp Swimming

Summer Camp is coming up shortly, so we wanted to feature one of our activities.  Swimming has always been a fan favorite and we expect this year to be no different...

There are 4 areas to choose from:

1. Shallow end
2. Splash Pad
3. Deep end
4. 2 slides

This activity will give the campers the opportunity to:

• Enjoy social interactions while in the water
• Improve on basic swim skills
• Continue to strengthen new or existing peer relationships
• Participate in team games that will challenge each child's problem solving and negotiation skills
• Strengthen self help skills while in the locker room

Tennis/Lacrosse

Many times we invent, adjust, or modify known sports or team building games.  Last week, there was a failed attempt to play hockey on an astroturf field, so we had to think fast.  In the van there was a bag of tennis racket and the goals were already set up...
So Tennis/Lacrosse was invented.

The Rules:

1. Two teams
2. Each person must have a tennis racket
3. One tennis ball
4. Each person is able to use both hands to secure the ball,
5. Once the ball is secured, the person needs to run with the ball balanced on the racket face
6. The other team could lightly bump the person with the ball
1. This was reported as the best feature of the game
7. We had two small goals to score on
1. No goalie