The Group Popcorn Activity
Group Popcorn is a super fun and energetic activity that focuses on exercising the skills of concentration, patience and persistence.
Gather your group in front of you, and by way of demonstration, teach your group how to act like popping corn, ie start by crouching down, knees bent, teetering on the balls of your feet, and then jump into the air clapping your hands once and yell “POP!.” Invite your group to practice popping like corn.
After a few moments of practice, announce that you would now like to challenge your group to complete a very difficult task – over the course of the next 60 seconds, every person must pop once only, but not at the same time as another person. No one is permitted to establish a pattern, nor are they allowed to indicate or gesture to another person their intention to pop.
The popcorn exploding sequence is determined purely by chance and intuition.
Finally, announce that if two or more people pop at the same time, the group shall be asked to restart the exercise to have another go. To start, invite everyone to crouch down, and when ready, say “GO.”
Remember, everyone has to pop within 60 seconds, so even those who want to wait until the very end have to pop at some point. Continue play until the task is complete, or your group’s energy starts to wane.
Moment of Reflection
- What feelings did you experience during the task?
- What did it take for your group to be successful?
- How might you define success in this exercise?
- Are there lessons to be learned from this exercise that may apply to the life of your group?
The topics of this publication: interactions, teamwork, focus, motivation, disinhibition, distension, energize, integration, foster relationships
