Ice breaker exercises promote a sense of group cohesion, and help people to relax and let down their guard. Ice breaker exercises involve everyone doing similar things, which are often silly or energetic. These activities enable individuals to let go of feeling self conscious, and to feel less isolated from others. The group members can move around or throw things to each other while playing word games, or make physical contact with each other by creating human chains or human sculpture.
Social barriers are not as perceptible when the territory -- like the countryside -- is neutral. Outdoor team building exercises require group members to work together. The cross-country terrain can involve water, forests, steep hills and mountains, and other challenges. The group must work together to achieve a goal that has been set by the group leader. Because outdoor activities are physically challenging, everyone involved experiences a sense of healthy exertion and well-being.
The group leader should check with class members who have a disability that they are happy for these activities to take place. Disability activities give everyone a chance to experience what it is like to be deaf, blind, in a wheelchair, or unable to speak, in a group. These activities show not just how someone with a disability experience interaction with non-disabled people, but also how difficult it can be to trust those around her.
The best way of breaking down stereotypes and wrong information about cultures is to facilitate activities where each culture that is represented in the class can be presented. Class members can try to live a day as a different culture, or learn to become a spokesperson for a culture that they had little previous understanding of.
Contact sports can be an exhilarating and empowering way for outcast groups to feel that they are strong and equal. The right training should be provided, by someone who recognizes the ways in which this sport may become an anger management exercise as well as team activity.