I have been a big-time fan of using picture cards as hooks, or connectors to experiential moments. As many of you know I use Chiji Cards a lot for processing. I've also created my own set of picture cards from images in magazines and graphics on greeting cards. I've purchased a large (3-inch diameter) circle punch at one of those big-box craft stores. When I see a picture or graphic that suits a processing situation I might find myself in, I "punch out" the visual and eventually laminate it for my set - I've collected over 50 cards so far. 

A recent favorite for me has been the Climer Cards - I wrote about these cards a while back (blog post here). Amy Climer hand painted some wonderful images and then got them made into cards. Get your set here.

Another great idea for picture cards comes from Jen Stanchfield of Experiential Tools. She sells the "Pick-a-Postcard" set of picture postcards that are great for picture processing. Of course you can start a collection of postcards yourself, but Jen provides a nice set to get you started. 

With all this said, I just posted to the Resources page of FUNdoing two pages of questions developed by students from two of my Adventure Education Curriculum Design courses. Once at the Resources Page scroll down to the "Activity Tools" and look for the "Picture Processing Questions." They can be a reference for any type of picture cards. Here are a few examples: 

Get To Know You Questions:

• Which card represents something about you?
  
• What is the most interesting card you see? Why do you think so? 
  

Processing Questions: 

• Choose a card that helps you describe the way your group worked together?
  
• What cards represent good qualities of teamwork? 
  

Processing Questions with Follow-Ups: 

• To you, what card best represents communication? Follow-Up: What was good about your communication during the program? What could have been better about your communication? 
  

Processing Questions with Variations:

• (Purposefully or Randomly Pick a Card) How does THIS card apply to your team/group?
  

Wrap-Up Processing Questions: 

• In your mind, which card represents your group at the beginning of the activity/program? 
  
• Which card best represents your group at the end of the activity/program? 
  

My students hope these questions are useful to you and they encourage you to change them up in any way that works for your groups. And, they invite you to share your favorite picture processing questions in the comments below. 

All the best, 

Chris Cavert

(This post was updated on March 7th, 2021)

I follow a few educational blogs that often include visually enticing infographics - "visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly" (Wikipedia). Recently one of these infographics created by Mia MacMeekin was included in an Edudemic post (no longer online) entitled Teamwork in Schools - it inspired the idea for Team Building Cards. 

With Mia's permission (thanks Mia!!) I took the information from her inforgraphic and created a set of 24 printable/usable cards for face-to-face group work.Below is the PDF download of cards and a working list of ideas for how we could use them. 

Each card has a team building related term along with a suggestion as to it's meaning (other meanings can be used as well). Here are the 24 terms included: Set Rules, Try, Scrap, Offer, Open, Suggest, Help, Relax, Team Build, Contact, Listen, Engage, Acknowledge, Ask, Discuss, Share, Party, Complement, Forgive, Appoint, Cooperate, Privacy, Dispute, Feedback. There are some interesting terms here with a wide variety of meanings - check out the cards for more. 

POSSIBILITIES:

Spread out the cards on the floor or a table and provide one of the following prompts:

• Find a card/term that represents something important to you about team building.
• What card/term might help us through our current situation? 
• Use a term in a sentence that will help us to be a better team. 
• Choose a card/term that represents something we do well as a team.
• Together let's choose three cards we can agree to work on for the next week.

Activity Idea: 
As the group facilitator, choose ten cards/terms from the deck that you believe/feel the group can benefit from and lay them out on the floor or table. Then, ask the group to rank the cards in order of importance to them. This might be a challenging process so be flexible with the outcome. 

Activity Idea: 
Lay all the cards face down on the floor or table and have participants choose one at random and then talk about why they think this card was meant to be picked up (like a Fortune Cookie) at the particular time - how might it be relevant to the group in the moment? 

Let us know how you end up using the cards and how it went for you! Leave a Comment below. 

All the best, 

Chris Cavert, Ed.D.  

Team Building Cards Download