Block Plan

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A usual block plan will last a few weeks and have activities and skills for each of the days of the week.  When building cooperation and teamwork, as teachers we want the students to work on these concepts throughout the year, instead of just for a few days.  This is why I decided to have a list of instant activities and then a list of cooperative games or challenges that you as the teacher can choose from according to your students' abilities.  The challenges are categorized from introductory to advanced, and then there are many others that you can choose from that may fit the needs of your students.  Along with the games that I have compiled, there are many books available to help you as well ( References and Links ).

Each of the challenges has an emphasis, so that the students can work on a specific characteristic of teamwork.  For example, if the students were to complete  The Great Communicator , then they would be working on listening and communicating skills.  A great way to find out how these skills help students is to visit the Essential Academic Learning Requirements on Communication and also check out the Developmental Analysis page.

For examples on how to fit cooperative activities into your units, go to Lesson Plans.  There are examples of how you could fit a day into your unit for team activities.  Options of how to fit cooperative games into your unit:

1.  Have cooperative games as your instant activity
2.  Before any competition situation, have students participate in a cooperative game with their team
3.  Set aside a specific day each week for cooperative games.  Monday - establish teams for the week, start with cooperative activities.  Tuesday - start with skills