Tapeball.

I wanted to pass along a fun, team/class building game I lovingly borrowed from my 10th and 11th grade English teacher and now use in my classroom.  This awesome game is called TAPEBALL.

Here's how you play:

• Get several pieces of paper (the thicker the better) and wad it up.  Then take masking (or my favorite blue painters' tape) and "tape" the ball until all of the paper is covered.  Your tapeball should be about the size of a softball or bigger.

• Have your kids sit in a circle in their chairs...there shouldn't be any "holes" in the chair circle.
• Explain the rules:
• You have to remain in your chair...seated...at all times.
• You can only hit the ball once, then someone else has to hit it (no juggling)
• You can't "rally" the tapeball between 2 people; diversify the tapeball movement throughout the circle (try and get everyone involved!)
• The tapeball should be hit in a "lifting" manner (meaning no volleyball spikes or swats!)
• No catching.  No throwing.  All hitting (use either one hand or both hands held together).
• The goal of this game is to get as deep into the alphabet (or highest number, whatever you prefer) as possible.  Each hit equals a letter.  If you get to Z you just start back over at A (and make note that group got through the alphabet and back around a second/third/fourth/etc... time).

For added team/class building, you can have the students brainstorm first their strategy/strategies for the game and then they can assess how well they worked or what needs improvement when the game is over.  You can play this game for as short or as long of a time as you want.  I use it a lot for those "time fillers" when my lesson gets through faster than anticipated and I don't want to start something new (maybe only have 5-10 minutes left in class) and just want a fun activity to end the day with.  I keep a scoreboard on a poster in my room so we can keep track of all of the different periods' scores throughout the year.

Honestly, my kids LOVE this game.  They get really into it and ask to play it ALL the time (which we don't, cause if we did I think it'd lose it's attractiveness).  It really gets everyone involved, interacting together, and working as a team trying to come up with different strategies of how to keep the tapeball in the air the longest.  I bet this game would work in office settings too.  I think someone needs to pilot this for me and let me know if it's an adult work environment game.