This activity is a great way to start out the year so that dancers can connect and share a bit about themselves. Great for teams or classes! Can be led by teacher, director or social officers.
What You Need
Leader Will Need: Yarn, hole punch, and card stock for billboards. You may want to consider providing old magazines, glue, scissors and decorative stickers as well. Plan to have some background music to play while they create their billboards but also to use for share time.
Participants Will Need: markers, colors or colored pencils (decide if they need their own set of if they can share what you provide).
Instructions
Prepare Before Leading by punching two holes in the top corners of the card stock paper so that the yarn can be tied to each hole, forming a necklace.
Distribute supplies to participants so that each person has a card stock.
Let them know that they are to create a Billboard about themselves. That they can share the following:
Their favorite music, color, activities, etc.
Something they are good at
Their name should be on there somewhere
What grade they are in
Once they are done decorating their billboard, have them get some yarn to tie to their card stock and hang around their neck.
After everyone is done, have them stand into two columns facing each other. One column will always stay in place while the other will rotate one person to their right until everyone has shared with each person. When they get to the end of the line, they will rotate to the beginning to keep the flow.
Give them about 1 minute to chat before making them rotate.
Hints For Humps
If they get stuck, prepare a Billboard about yourself as an example to show.
Use the music to help control the talking by having a fun song that you start playing when it is time to rotate. This will help them hear and know instead of you needing to be louder than they are.
Utilize background music while they are creating to keep it from being awkward.
Take the Next Step
If you have the space, have them hang their billboards to be displayed like on the class bulletin boards or across the mirror in the dance room.
Reference: Adapted from the book Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers by Brian Cole Miller