The group stands in an inward-facing circle and is asked to throw juggling balls amongst the group in a specific order. As the activity develops more juggling balls are introduced and the pressure to work well as a group increases.  This works as a great icebreaker during the forming stage of a team.
Equipment Required: Juggling balls, bean bags (or even a rolled-up sock).
Space Required: Small. Delivered either indoors or outdoors.
Group Size:Â 8 to 14 ideally (however it still works with slightly larger or smaller groups).
Total Time: 20-30 minutes
- 5 minutes to brief and set up
- 10 minutes for the challenge
- 5 minutes to review
Group Juggle Ice Breaker Instructions
- Organise the group into a circle, and set up a juggling system that processes juggling balls by throwing them across the circle of team members from one person to the next.
- When a ball is thrown the thrower must shout the name of the recipient
- They catch it and throw it to another group member.
- This continues until each group member has caught & thrown the ball just once. (It should have eventually ended back at the start point).
- Ask each group member to identify who they received the ball from and who they threw it to.
- Test this out by throwing the ball in the same original order until it arrives back at the start point.
- The next stage is to introduce more balls and see how many you can get moving around the circle in the original order. Having as many balls as people is extremely difficult. You can also add another ball to be sent in reverse order to add a bit of confusion to the mix.
Learning Targets
- Goal setting
- Cooperation
- Continuous development
- Communication
Group Juggle is featured in our eBook, The Team Building Activity Book. The book provides an easy-to-use, step-by-step guide to teaching team building with full descriptions for over 30 team-building challenges and ice breakers including printable challenger briefs, ready-to-use programmes, and access to exclusive member downloads. Check it out here..
[…] students experienced challenge and perseverance as we attempted the Group Juggle with a rubber chicken. Despite wanting us to give up with the silliness that ensued, we pushed […]
Thanks for the shout out for our Group Juggle Ice Breaker.