Teamwork activities for Key Stage 2 pupils

Teambuilding activities are a fun and educational way of encouraging communication and soft skill development in Key Stage 2 pupils. Enjoying learning in primary school has been shown to have a positive impact on educational achievement later in life. So, games and teambuilding aren’t just a fun way to spend a school day, they’re providing long term benefits to your pupils. Here are some of our favourite games for Key Stage 2 pupils.

For suggestions for younger pupils, read our blog about fun teambuilding activities for Key Stage 1 pupils.

How to adapt teambuilding activities

Most teambuilding activities can be adapted to suit your pupils’ abilities. Activities can be made more difficult by adding in other challenges, like safely limiting children’s senses through blindfolds or headphones. Similarly, if pupils are finding a task too tricky, games can be made easier by removing time limits or giving clues to problems.

Elements of the curriculum can also be added to teambuilding games to help embed classroom learning. Ask your pupils to use the cardinal directions (north, south, east, west) instead of left, right, forward, or back to improve their geography. Or test their maths skills by delivering instructions as sums to be solved.

Teambuilding activities

Towers of Hanoi

The Tower of Hanoi is a maths-based puzzle, thought to have been invented in 1883. While the game is often a small toy made of wood or plastic, you can scale the puzzle up and use tyres or plastic hoops.

Equipment

• Eight discs of different sizes
• Three pegs or bamboo canes

Instructions

1. Place the eight discs onto one of the pegs, with the biggest on the bottom and the smallest on top.
2. Each team needs to move the stack of discs to another peg, so that they end up in the same order with the biggest on the bottom and the smallest on top. Only one disc can be moved at a time, and a disc can never be placed on top of a smaller disc.
3. Fastest team to correctly move their tower across to another peg wins.

Untangle the human knot

This hands-on activity will keep your pupils engaged and will encourage all members of the team to get involved. It can be completed quickly without any equipment, so is a good warm-up exercise.

Equipment

• No equipment needed

Instructions

1. Divide your pupils into teams of at least six.
2. Ask the pupils to stand in a circle facing each other, and link right hands with another player. This shouldn’t be someone standing next to them. Do the same with their left hands, so that everyone is holding hands with two different pupils.
3. Without letting go of each other’s hands, pupils need to untangle the knot. They can go over, under, or through linked hands.
4. Fastest team to untangle the knot wins.

It might not be possible to untangle the knot. If this is the case, teachers can ask their players to explain where the problem is or call the game a tie. Make the game more difficult by adding in more players or asking your pupils to only communicate using animal noises or single words.

Blindfolded minefield

This activity builds trust between your smaller groups of pupils and encourages team bonding.

Equipment

• Blindfolds
• Small objects like balls, cones, or hoops

Instructions

1. Scatter a large space with the objects. These will be the ‘mines’.
2. Divide your class into pairs. Ask one member of each pair to put on a blindfold. Only this person can cross the field.
3. By giving verbal instructions, their team member must guide their partner across the field. If the blindfolded pupil touches any of the obstacles, then they must go back to the beginning and start again.
4. The quickest team to get the blindfolded person across the field wins.

Make sure that there’s enough space between pairs so that everyone remains safe throughout the activity. If you’re short on space, make the groups bigger so that there are fewer pupils navigating the course and more people directing them.

Increase the difficulty of the game by changing the rules of what your pupils can say. Lengthen the game by asking the teams to get the blindfolded child back to the start again to win.

Farmyard friends

Have fun and bring a light-hearted element to teamwork with this group forming exercise.

Equipment

• None

Instructions

1. Ask your class to close their eyes. Assign them different farmyard animals (e.g. cows, pigs, chickens) making sure that each animal is repeated an equal number of times.
2. Ask the pupils to find their classmates who have been given the same animal as them using only the noise the animal makes.
3. Quickest team to find their full group wins.

To make this game more difficult, you can blindfold your class to restrict their senses.