The match game allows students to work in large groups and use their combined knowledge to solve a puzzle. Separate students into two groups. Give each group a pile of photos along with a separate pile of names and titles that describe the photos. Each team must race to match all of the words to their proper photos before the other team does so. Once a team claims to be done, check to make sure that they matched all of the items correctly. If they did not, the game continues until one team accurately does so.
This is a fun game that can be played in gym class using a giant parachute. The students have to work together in order to control the parachute and the other objects involved. Most students enjoy playing with a parachute, which involves exercise but doesn't require any prior experience or skill. Spread a giant parachute out flat in the middle of the floor. Have your students stand around it, each picking up a piece of the edge. Let them get used to moving it by working in unison to repeatedly wave the parachute up and down in the air. After the students have practiced a bit, throw a ball onto the parachute. The students will have to use their combined energies to keep the ball from bouncing or rolling off. Continue to throw more balls onto the parachute to make the game increasingly challenging.
Students can work together to complete a variety of bean bag challenges. Split the children into groups of two or three. Set up a variety of small stations around a room, each one containing directions for a different bean bag activity. This can include everything from passing the bean bag back and forth from one partner's left hand to the other partner's right hand 30 times, to balancing the bean bag on their heads. Each group must work together, doing its best to complete the assigned task, and then record its results. The children will have to help each other out in order to achieve a higher score in the end. You can then collect the results and determine the winning team.
This variation on the game of tag has students working together instead of independently to win the game. Separate the children into groups of four and have three of them join hands with their partners. Choose one of the students in the triangle to be the one that the chaser will attempt to tag, while the person outside of the triangle will be the chaser. The group will have to work together, moving strategically to protect their members from the tagger. Once the person is tagged, he switches rolls with the tagger and the group begins the game again.