TREE OF STRENGTHS
Duration 10-15 min
Number of Persons 20+
Description
Before you kick off your end-of-day cocktail drink of your event, this simple closing activity helps participants meet others that they did not get a chance to interact with throughout the day.
Goal
To help participants to get to know each other at the beginning or ending of a session. To help participants identify their personal strengths.
Materials and preparation
- A5 green colour card cut into “leaf-like” shapes
- Thick multi-coloured markers
- Large room with a large table in the centre
Instructions
- Have everyone stand in a circle.
- Pass around a leaf-like card to each participant.
- Invite everyone to grab a marker and write in bold letters on their leaf-like card the ONE THING people come to them for help.
- Once everyone has their word written on their card, ask them to hold it up to their chest.
- Instruct the group that they now have 3 minutes to get into groups of 3 – with people they have not interacted with throughout the day – and share how they practice their word.
- When time is up, invite them to create another group of 3 persons and share how they practice their word for another 3 minutes.
- When time is up, get everyone back into the circle and invite them, one-by-one, to call out the word on their card and place their card on the table in the middle of the room.
- Once everyone has placed their leaf-like cards on the table, close the session by pointing out that the tree represents the strengths of our community that shelters and nourishes us.
Background
I designed this activity as a closing session at an education hackathon organised by Ashoka Belgium – Education Innovation Programme “Education Shakers”