Group bonding happens with just about every activity from Great Group Activities. But here’s something extra

Parents were loving it and asking for more.

Here are some favorite ways to add cooperative group bonding and cooperative board game ideas to your activities bank account:

Do group broad jumps once a week to see how beyond-human far the group can jump as a collective whole. Draw a beginning line and have the smallest run and jump from that line as far as possible. Keep the beginning marked, but then mark where the second jump landed. As each participant takes his turn, move that second mark up. Have the strongest jump last. By having the smallest start, he sees his contribution very obviously. By having the strongest jump last, she sees how her strength contributes instead of needing to prove it with bullying or showing off. This was a favorite group bonding activity in our class. The smallest was especially encouraged, all were cheered on; the strongest was the group hero!

For smaller spaces indoors, do a similar group bonding game with ping pong paddles and balls. You don’t need a ping pong table, just a paddle and ball for each. This activity is so good at helping motor skills, it can even help hand and eye coordination in real ping pong games. Hold a paddle and repeatedly hit the ball up, and up again over and over as many times as possible without it hitting any other object.
Start with the smallest person and end with the most physically able again.
Count each hit, creating a group number that they couldn’t reach on their own. Some kids will still compete, pointing out how many more hits they got. Keep emphasizing the group number, and try to beat it in the future as with the above game. Others' contributions will start to become more apparent.
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The group bonding counting game above can be adapted to other activities such as jump rope skips without missing, hula hooping whirls without dropping the hoop, bean bag or ring toss games without missing, basketball shots, and many others. If you want to do a lot of these, do each one once to discover your initial number you want to try to beat as a group. Otherwise, participants may catch on each time you add a new counting game and try to go lower for the first one just to be able to beat the number next time.

Occasionally use cooperative board games for sleep-overs, parties or family game nights. A company called Family Pastimes has many.

Brainstorm regular puzzle, card and board game ideas for turning competitive ones into group bonding cooperative ones. It seems awkward at first, but after a while you’ll get the hang of it. Set a timer and play Scrabble as a cooperative group, seeing how many of the squares can be put on the board by a given time. Part of the challenge is that every family member has to contribute an age appropriate number of words.

As another example, play Monopoly as “one company.” The board and a timer are the challenges for the group to overcome. See if, and how quickly, your company can become top dog within the set amount of time.

Or, time four kids as they each play solitaire with their own deck of cards. The idea is for all to finish in as little time possible with as few leftover cards as possible. The timer supplies the challenge. When one finishes as far as she can go, she can help the others. Kids soon learn to hurry but not rush, and how to help, when to just cheer someone on, or just quietly let him focus. Save the group's time, adding a minute for each unwanted leftover card, and try to beat it later.
The first time you play a timed cooperative game, don’t tell anyone that you’ll try to beat this time in the future, or players may go slow on purpose for the first one.

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