INDUCTION PACK – WHEN YOUNG PEOPLE FEEL MORE CONFIDENT

SESSION: INDUCTION ACTIVITY - WHEN YOUNG PEOPLE FEEL MORE CONFIDENT
Expected Progress:
Young people participate in activities that build communication and teamwork skills / Description:For when young people are feeling more confident. Each activity could be used as a short ice breaker, and some could be expanded to last longer depending on your needs.
Resources required:
Resources required for each activity are listed in the resources column below. / LLN Opportunities:
N/A / STEM Opportunities:
Using activities to test out design, investigation and engineering skills
Teamwork and Communication
Time / Description of Activity / Resources / Learning outcome / Evidence Opportunity
45 mins /
Build a Bridge
Split the group into teams or three or four and give each team the resources for the building kit (see resource list) and bowl of water
Each group has 30 minutes to plan and build a bridge to span across the bowl of water.
At the end of the 30 minutes, add pebbles or other small weights, one at a time, to test the bridges for strength. Whose tower worked best? Why? Encourage investigation for which tower was strongest and why it worked best. / Ice-cream sticks
Straws (or roll up paper into tubes to make a strong ‘girder’)
Blu Tack
Paper clips
String
Glue
Bowl of water
20 mins / Story Time
This builds listening skills and concentration
The group stands in a circle with one young person holding the object.
Read the story aloud.
Every time a word is read that starts with a vowel pass the object left around the group. Every time a word is said that starts with an ‘s’ pass the object right.
Add more rules as you go! Choosing a letter like ‘k’, which is often silent at the beginning of a word, can help with spelling patterns too. / A simple story book
An object, such as a book or pencil case
30 mins / Building Blocks
A good game to encourage the young people to understand the importance of specific words.
Two teams must face away from each other with a table and some building blocks in front of them
Team one builds a shape from blocks. They must then give instructions to the other team, without looking at them, about how to build the same shape.
At the end turn and face each other and reveal the shapes. Are they the same? What went wrong?
What words were commonly used to give clear instructions? Make a list on the board. Examples might include pick up, put down, next to, on top of, right, left, in front of. / Building blocks
Tables
25 mins / By Invitation Only
The young people will need to feel comfortable with each other to enjoy this activity, so try it when you feel they have learned to trust each other.
Select one young person to be a ‘party host’
All other young people are given a card with a personality type or behaviour written on it. Explain that they are going to play these characters and are going to a party together. The aim of the game is for everyone or the party host alone to guess the different traits or behaviours.
The other young people arrive at the party one at a time – in character (personality type)
The host asks questions randomly to different guests. For example:
Hi. Can I take your coat?
Can I get you a drink?
What would you like to drink?
Have you met...?
The guests must respond in an exaggerated way for the personality type of behaviour they’ve been allocated. They can also mingle with each other ‘in type.’ They can use body language and gestures to exaggerate their behaviour too.
The host must try to identify which type each guest is, for example: quiet, shy, nervous, enthusiastic, extravert, outspoken, depressed, rude angry.
Extension Ideas
You could be the ‘party host’ and allow young people to agree their own personality types or behaviours to test you out. / A set of cards each with a personality type or behaviour written on it, if required
20 mins / House of Cards
This is best attempted in teams or two or three.
Put one pack of cards on each table and challenge each team to make the highest house of cards.
Or, try building the tallest newspaper tower. / A few old packs of playing cards
Or newspaper and sellotape
20 mins / Spaghetti Towers

Split the groups into teams of four to six
The aim for the teams is to build the highest and most stable tower using only marshmallows and spaghetti for stabilisation.
To challenge the towers further, the young people could place an egg on top of the tower, and see if it stands.
Investigate which tower worked best, and why. / Several bags of large marshmallows
Several packets of dried spaghetti
eggs
15 mins / Name that Tune
A simple quiz which the young people can play in teams.
Before the session begins, compile a short music quiz (or alternatively use one you have found on Youtube or elsewhere) with five-second snippets of music.
Ask the young people to work together in teams to ‘name that tune.’
Extension Idea: Young people could work in several different teams and prepare and create their own music quizzes to test each other. / A short music quiz on CD or DVD (Some commercial music quiz games are available on Youtube which you can access easily if required)
90 mins+ / Playing the Game
This activity will help young people understand how to give instructions and to work on their communication skills.
Put the young people into two teams. Each team must design and make a board game. They have only one hour. The must include written instructions on how to play the game. You could show them examples of board game instructions from popular games like Monopoly or Cluedo.
After an hour, get the teams to swap and attempt to play each other’s games by following the written instructions. After half an hour or so ask them to feed back to each other on how fun the game was and how easy it was to play based on the instructions. / Pen
Coloured pens or pencils
Paper
Scissors
Tape or glue
25 mins / Team Trivia
Form teams and agree on the answers as a team before calling out true or false. Give each team a pair of true and false answer cards if you’d rather they held these up than shout out answers to the questions.
All the kings on playing cards have moustaches false – the king of hearts is clean shaven
Playing cards were originally invented by the Chinese true
A cure for peeling onions without crying it so chew some candle-wax false
Icelanders drink more Coca-Cola per head of population than any other country in the world true
Clouds fly higher during the night than they do during the day false
The average lifespan of London residents in the middle of the nineteenth century was 27 years true
A flash of lightning strikes the earth about 1,000 times every second false
A woodpecker can peck about 20 times a second true
The average person blinks over eight million times a year true
Baskin Robbins once made ketchup ice cream true / A set of true and false questions
True and false answer cards, if using

1 (August 2016)