Can’t Do it Without You

We hear students love this! The easiest way to connect people and form a supportive group is to give them a shared goal (rather than individual or competitive goals). This game is brilliant in its simplicity. It’s a trust game — but there’s no physical risk involved — and the goal cannot be accomplished without teamwork and focus.

Let tamariki know this game is all about working together.

Explain, all they need to do is pick something up! Ask them to pick up something near them and see how easy that was! Check in – pretty simple right?

BUT to do this activity they’ll need to pick something up in a pair, but using ONLY ONE INDEX FINGER each! You may need to show them which finger this is, and they can use either hand, but not both.

Ask tamariki to work in pairs.

Offer each pair an inflated balloon or screwed up piece of paper and ask them to pick it up. – with 2 tamariki this might be tricky, but doable. If some are finding this tricky, offer your own index finger to help out.

Ask them how easy this was?

What did it take to pick it up?

What’s it like relying on another person to complete such a simple task?

Keep trying objects with the aim to bring the class together to pick something up - keep adding tamariki and their handy index fingers to complete tasks.

Try picking up:

• A pen
• A glue-stick
• A pencil sharpener
• An eraser
• A ball
• A ruler
• A thick book
• An apple
• A cushion
• A tin can
• Something breakable! A musical instrument (guitar!), a cup or vase… we double dare you – after lots of practice! This is a great goal you can let tamariki know you’re working towards, and then when the big day comes, make a big deal about it! Oh, and send us some photos (we'd love to see too!)

If it’s a nice day and you feel tamariki need to be with nature, this activity is a great way to get them outside, without injecting too much energy!

We recommend trying 3-4 new objects each time you play.

For older tamariki you can discuss trust much more in-depth:

• How do we know we can trust someone?
• What can we do if we want to gain someone’s trust?
• What other things can we do in this classroom or school to help build a culture of trust? You could also link this to your school values and offer some new school policies or ideas…

Have teams try passing an object to another team… and back!

Run a non-competitive (one team only) relay.

This is a great platform to begin other Trust games including:

• Up and Down
• Loop de loop
• Tangled
• Intrepid Adventure

Trust games are also a great starting point for any of the kindness and friendship activities.