Goals of the exercise: To encourage teamwork among the participants by giving them a specific goal.
Age of the participants: 14-17 years old
Number of participants: 25+
Duration of the exercise: 1 hour
Materials: 5 envelopes and small forms of squares and triangles which will be used for making a puzzle. (PDF)

Step by step

1. Divide the participants in 5 groups. Each group should have 5 members. The others are observers.
2. Give each group one envelope with the forms of squares and triangles inside. They have to make a puzzle out of these forms where the final picture is a big square.
3. The participants can communicate only in their group. It is not allowed to talk to the other groups or to change the forms from the envelopes.
4. The observers are also involved in this exercise but only to check out if everybody is respecting the rules and how is the teamwork between the members going. The groups should try to make the square as soon as possible but the point is to work together.
5. At the end of this exercise open a discussion.

Exercise materials

(Download as PDF)

Cut each square in specified parts from A-Z. Then certain parts should be placed in special envelopes:
Envelope 1: A, V, Z, J
Envelope 2: A, A, A, D
Envelope 3: S
Envelope 4: G, C
Envelope 5: B, V, C, E

Debriefing

• How did you feel in your group?
• What did you do?
• Did you contribute in your group?
• Did you respect the rules?
• Did someone in your group what to be a leader?
• What is the opinion of the observers?

Authorship/adaptation or source: unknown source, adapted by Dragana Manevska
————————————————————————————-