Traffic Jam

A couple of people have expressed interest in the activity in the Wordless Wednesday pictures. The activity is called Traffic Jam and I found it on a website for team building activities.

Use the duct tape (or masking tape) to make a starting pattern on the floor.

Have the participants stand in the boxes of the pattern: half of the group faces right, half of the group faces left.

Explain the task: Using only legal rules, people on the left side must end up on the right side and the people on the right must end up on the left.

Legal Moves

A person may move into an empty space in front of them.

A person may move around a person who is facing them into an empty space.

You CANNOT:

Move backwards.

Move around someone facing the same way you are.

Make any move which involves two people moving at once.

I didn't use duct tape, but we put the pieces of construction paper on the floor. That allowed us to try it first with just half the class (both halves tried it in different parts of the room). Once they were able to do it several times we took it out to the hall to have the entire class do it. That was at the beginning of the year. I do team building activities all through the first week to emphasize cooperation and to foster community. We've done it again now as a part of math. We've looked at how the pattern works and how to explain it mathematically.

It's my favorite of the team building activities that I do and I was thrilled to be able to come back to it.