On October 16th, the 6th grade went on a field trip to PNW BOCES in Yorktown Heights. There, the 6th graders did numerous critical thinking and team-building exercises. Groups were made beforehand with a teacher chaperoning the small group to an activity leader for the day.
One of the activities consisted of having your whole group cross an area of grass by using tiles. There were the same amount of tiles as people in the group, but if nobody has a limb on the tile, that tile gets taken away. Everyone needed to communicate about when to step on and off tiles, which helped with team-building.
One of the other activities we did was similar to red light, green light. When the group’s instructor turned around, you and your group had to move as much forward as you could, before the instructor said, “Where’s Jeb?” and turned around. Jeb was the plush snake that your group had to get and bring him back to the start to win. Jeb was placed right behind the instructor. If someone touches Jeb, when the instructor turns around, the instructor then gets to guess who has Jeb. If they get it right, everyone restarts. If they get it wrong, then the instructor turns around again and you, your group, and Jeb have to try to make it back to the start.
Another activity we did was a jump roping pattern which mostly involved thinking and trying to get everyone’s idea heard in order to figure out the pattern. The way to play the game was to have your whole group figure out a pattern and have everybody get to the other side of the jump rope safely without getting hit by the rope and having the correct pattern.
One really hard activity was that everybody had to hold hands in a circle and get a hula hoop around everybody without anybody letting go. After that part was finished you would get an even smaller hoop, which was pretty hard.
Another activity we did was where the whole group was in a circle, and we had to throw plushies to each other in a specific order. We also had to say good morning to the person we were about to throw to. If we got the order wrong, we had to restart. Once we beat the first one by having everyone throw to the correct people in the correct order, the instructor added another plush and had it go in the opposite order of the first plush at the same time. Once we beat that, the instructor added another plush, which went in the same order as the first plush, but was brought in a couple throws after the first one had already started. The last level was chaotic though, because you had three plushies being thrown around at the same time, and sometimes a person had to catch two plushies at the same time and throw to two people at a time! This activity needed good communication, in order to make sure the person you were throwing the plush to, was ready for it. When we finished all of the activities, we ate lunch.
After lunch, the instructor was ready to do more activities in the woods. One activity in the woods was where the whole group had to squeeze onto a small platform. There was another small platform about 20 feet away from the one that the group was on. There was also a rope hanging down in the middle of both platforms. The goal was to get the whole group to the other platform without stepping on the ground. “My group did it by finding a large branch, and using it to pull the rope to our platform. From there, everybody used the rope to swing to the other platform,” said sixth grader Wolfie Prescott. This activity required good teamwork because when someone was swinging to the second platform, everyone worked together to make sure they landed on it properly.
Another activity was that you had to get your whole team through a tire without touching the outside of it or the ropes the tire was hanging from. The point of this obstacle was for everyone to get involved with helping your group get to the end. There were lots of other activities, but these were our favorites. Shaun Suppo, a sixth grader who participated in the activities, said, “The activities were fun to participate in.”
People seemed to really communicate with each other well and listen to everyone’s ideas and cheer everyone on when it was their turn to help the team get through an obstacle. Sixth grader Hannah Berk added, “I liked how everybody was included.” That made great teamwork and showed how important it was to be open to other people’s ideas and every obstacle had some action and excitement to it. 
