Warm-up

Warm-up

Activity number: Type of skills: Competences (21st century skills) covered: 1

Physical Initiative / Social skills / Leadership

Activity title: “The communication game”

Type of activity Warm-up Abstract The communication game presents an activity that can improve participants’ ability to exchange information. The purpose of this activity is to show the importance of clear communication and to strengthen one’s verbal and nonverbal conversation skills

Goal

The main goal of „The communication game“is to display the importance of proper communication and demonstrate how the same message might be converted in so many different ways while traveling from the source to the destination.

This activity represents a great example of how communication can go wrong if someone misinterprets the things that have been told to him. The activity makes the team practice better communication and supports participants to find a way to bridge a gap between themselves and any person they come in contact with. Objectives The specific objectivesare focused to develop how we relate to one another, including how we share information and get along. they help us develop our interpersonal skills and improve our capacity to relate. Target group Adults and youngsters; the minimum number is 3, the maximum 20 participants Duration 5-10 minutes (depends on the size of the group) Venue Anywhere, it can be played inside or outside Requirements Optional: A device for recording the activity (smartphone, camera, tablet…etc)

*An observer can record the whole activity and show it to the participants in the end

Content

Description of the activity, approximately 1-2 pages; after general description use the table to introduce all the phases within the activity, time and requirements needed for each phase/part of the activity, the role of the trainer and the role of the participants:

Description of each phase/part of the activity Duration The role of the trainer The role of the participants Requirements 1. An observer can record the whole activity and show it to the participants in the end 2. The trainer comes up with an / idea/item/object/term or short sentence that he wants to describe by using non-verbal techniques (pantomime, gesture or mimics, or any physical movement) 1-2 min The trainer needs to come up with the item/term/object or idea that he is going to present to the first participant, only by using nonverbal/physical movements

3. The trainer needs to form a line, in which every participant is facing the back of the participant in front of him 1-3 min The trainer needs to help the participants to form a line, in which every Participants need to form a line, one participant is standing in a line behind the participant in front of

4. When the line of participants has been adequately formed, the trainer comes to the last participant, taps him on the shoulder (from the backside), and reveals to him the clue, using only charades rules (no talking allowed no noises only acting/pantomime). The second person then taps the third person and acts out his or her understanding of what was acted out. This continues until it reaches the last person in line, who must guess what the action is. 5-10 minutes The trainer comes to the last participant, taps him on the shoulder (from the backside), and reveals to him the clue, using only charades rules (no talking allowed no noises only acting/pantomime). After the trainer has revealed through the charade methods the clue to the first participant, the first participant then turns and taps the next participant on the shoulder and shows him what he understood from the trainer, again, only by using charades rules (no talking allowed no noises only acting/pantomime).

participant is facing the back of the participant in front of him him. The point is not to have any eye contact

This game is funny because the action mutates and changes based on each person’s interpretation of what is going on, often leading to confusion and silly motions.

When the first clue has been “guessed” by the last participant, the trainer reveals the term he initially thought of. 1-3 min The trainer reveals the term he initially thought of and explains where the “communication” went wrong if they didn’t manage to guess his clue The participants should talk to each other about how they understood the clue demonstrated by their colleagues / other participants and connect if to reality, how in reality the message can be falsely transferred or

Self-assessment and evaluation

Suggested resources Handouts / References

misunderstood

The trainer needs to think of a second term and repeat the whole activity once again by shuffling/reordering the places of participants The participants should talk to each other about how they understood the clue demonstrated by their colleagues / other participants and connect if to reality, how in reality the message can be falsely transferred or misunderstood. The activity will be considered as successful if the participant understood the importance of proper and clear communication and how the same message might be converted in so many different ways while traveling from the source to the destination. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muhb97Bh4rk

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