Getting to Know You: Cheering Each Other
Divide the group into smaller groups of 4 -6. Each group is to create a cheer that encourages success, much like cheerleaders encourage athletes. If it is an academic setting, they can cheer about a subject. If it is a business setting, it may be about a product, service, or department. If you are a community group, suggest they use your purpose or an upcoming event. Each group will need to write the words as well as choreograph the motions that go with them. You may want to review a few typical cheers, such as those based on pride of the group, spelling a key word, and echo cheers. Once in their groups, they may want to start with sharing cheers they’ve heard to get some ideas before starting the writing. Assure them that bad puns, corny rhyming, and awkward rhythms are acceptable. (You may want to prohibit the use of pyramids unless your liability insurance is good.) Let each group practice their cheer and then perform it for the group. When the cheers are done, you may want to make signs out of them and hang them in the classroom or office, or use them as meeting starters or ice breakers.
Addition – Subtraction – Math gives us Traction!
Production is our Name – Quality is our Game!
To process this activity, ask these questions:
When you heard the topic, did you dread it or look forward to it?
If you dreaded it, did you end up enjoying it?
Did anyone in your group or others surprise you with their ideas?
What did you think of the cheers as a whole?
When you were doing your group cheers together, was there a sense of connectedness as you performed? (It doesn’t matter whether you were good or bad!)
If it was ‘bad’, did being bad with others make it sting less?