TRAINING PROGRAM “Adaptation to the new team”

The greeting ritual

The purpose: removal of excessive emotional tension in the group, creation of favorable conditions for group work, development of joint norms and principles of work for the group. 

Expected result: The participants get to know each other better, and they can afford more freedom and a variety of experiments. At the same time, participants reach mutual understanding of the content of the group task. 

Running time: 5 minutes. 

It is a common practice all over the world to greet one another. Let’s greet each other in some special way. If anyone wants to suggest their own way of greeting, now is the time to do it (the participants discuss and choose a greeting form). If there is no suggestion, the leader will suggest a greeting. 

– Let’s all hold hands and each of us, in turn, wish the others something nice and pleasant. 

-Let this greeting become our ritual at the opening of each class. 

Warm-up

Exercise 1

Objective: to prepare participants for the main exercise 

Time Frame: 5 minutes. 

As a warm-up for the next exercise, let’s have a little game. I suggest that all the participants stand in two lines. At my command, as quickly as possible you have to line up by hair color: from dark to light (or height, etc.). Now you can begin the exercise itself. 

“Business card”. 

Duration: 20 minutes. 

Objective: Self-presentation of the participants 

Course of the exercise: Each participant writes on a half of a sheet of paper from a notebook: in the center – his or her name; in the upper left corner – favorite food (animal, flower, etc.); in the lower left corner – favorite composer (band); in the upper right corner – purpose of life (activity in free time); in the lower right corner – favorite movie (subject at school). 

When everyone has finished making their business card, everyone will individually present themselves. 

Questions: 1) What was the hardest thing to write about yourself? 2) Did you find like-minded people? 3) Did you learn something new about each other? 

Main part

“The Drop-River-Ocean”. 

Duration: 10 minutes 

Objective: Team building 

Course of the exercise: All the participants stand up from their seats and spread out on the playground. Each player is a drop. It is easy to imagine a window after the rain. There are large drops on the clear glass. The facilitator gives the command: “Join in two at a time.” All players must instantly find a pair and grab hands. Without giving the players a moment’s hesitation, the leader gives the command: “Three by three.” And now the three players are moving to the music, holding hands and not forgetting to dance. The leader’s commands follow one after the other: “Four by four, five by five, six by six. “All in a general circle,” the presenter commands, and all the players form a big circle. 

Questions: 1) Were you quick to find a pair? A threesome? 2) Was it easy to dance and do the exercise at the same time? 

“NO ONE KNOWS THAT I AM…”.

Objective: to make the participants get to know each other better, to raise their spirits, to create a favorable emotional atmosphere

Time: 10 minutes

Materials: Not required

How to do it: Each one of the participants (in a circle or at random) completes the sentence: “Nobody in the group knows that I…”. For example: “No one in the group knows that I didn’t hear my alarm clock ring today,” or “No one in the group knows that I like pickles more than anything else in the world,” or “No one in the group knows that I dreamt tonight… And I won’t tell anyone!”.

You can offer participants other phrases to add: “And today I’m better than yesterday because…”;

“I’m very happy that I’m…”;

“I’m ready to move mountains because…”;

“We’re all going to be…”.

It is important that the phrases have a positive or humorous character; their continuation should not cause participants any special difficulties, sad thoughts, or overly deep reflection.

Mirror 

Objective: To teach how to distinguish between assertive and insecure behavior in practical situations

Time: 20 minutes

The participants form two circles – an outer circle and an inner one. At the signal of the psychologist, the person sitting in the inner circle should represent, without words, with the help of gestures, posture and facial expressions, a confident or uncertain person, while the person standing in the outer circle should guess who he/she was representing. If he or she guesses correctly, both participants raise one hand up. Then, at the signal of the leader, those standing in the outer circle take a step to the side and, being in front of the other participant, try to understand what the other one was portraying. 

After the whole circle is passed, the roles change. Now those standing in the outer circle assume certain poses, and those standing in the inner circle guess. 

Questions for discussion: exchange of opinions, emotions.

Game “A car with a character”. 

Objective: consolidation of the group. 

Time: 20 minutes

Course of the exercise: The whole group has to build an imaginary car. Its details are only the coordinated and varied movements and shouts of the players. No talking is allowed during the game. Ask one volunteer (player 1) to step into the middle of the circle and tell him: “I want you to start doing some repetitive movements now. Maybe you want to alternately stretch your arms up, or stroke your belly with your right hand, or jump on one foot. Any action is fine, but you have to keep repeating it. If you want, you can accompany your movements with shouts. When player 1 has decided on his actions, he becomes the first piece of the machine. Now the next volunteer can become the second part. Player 2, for his part, performs movements that complement the action of the first player. If, for example, player 1 looks up, strokes his belly and in the meantime alternately says “Ah” and “Oh”, player 2 can stand behind him and spread his arms every time player 1 says “Ah” and jump up once at the final “Oh”. He may also stand sideways to player 1, place his right hand on his head and say “Ow” while doing so, choosing a moment between “Ah” and “Oh” for his “Ow”. When the movements of the first volunteers have become sufficiently coordinated, a third player can join them. Each player must become a new part of the enlarging machine and try to make it more interesting and versatile. Everyone can choose where they would like to position themselves, as well as come up with their own action and shouts. When all players are involved. You can let the fancy machine run for half a minute at the group’s chosen pace. Then suggest that the pace increase slightly, then slow down slightly, then start to stop. At the end, the machine should fall apart. 

Game discussion: At what point did you become a part of the machine? Why? How did you come up with your actions? What happened when the machine accelerated or slowed down? How did the fact that you were not allowed to talk to each other affect your performance? Options: Participants, in groups of four or five, can act out real-life mechanisms, machines, and machines: an alarm clock, a coffee grinder, a motor, a glider. Players may construct a machine that allegorically represents a conceptual concept, e.g., a machine of love, war, peace, etc. 

Reflection: 1.what did you like most about the lesson? 2.what would you like to change during the session? Which exercise was of special interest to you and which difficult to do? What would you like to say to the coach? 

Conclusion .

Reflexion – participants talk about what they liked and did not like in the training, what they will take out of it and apply in their everyday life.  

The ritual of farewell

Objective: To raise the general emotional mood and emphasize a benevolent attitude toward each other. 

Running time: 5 minutes 

Materials: not required 

I suggest that we all hold hands, take turns thanking everyone (simply or for something) and say ‘goodbye’ together.

The trainer asks all the participants of the training to stand in a circle. The trainer talks to the participants about the last session. He asks to express the opinion, wishes, remarks. Thanks everyone for the day, reminds about the next meeting. Says goodbye to everyone.

Day 2

Time of training: 115 minutes

The ritual of greeting.

The goal: release of excessive emotional tension in the group, creation of favorable conditions for the group’s work, development of joint norms and principles of work for the group. 

Expected result: The participants get to know each other better, and they can afford more freedom and various experiments. At the same time, participants reach mutual understanding of the content of the group task. 

Running time: 5 minutes. 

It is a common practice all over the world to greet one another. Let’s greet each other in some special way. If anyone wants to suggest their own way of greeting, now is the time to do it (the participants discuss and choose a greeting form). If there is no suggestion, the leader will suggest a greeting. 

– Let’s all hold hands and each of us, in turn, wish the others something nice and pleasant. 

Warm-up 

“Good events”. 

Duration: 15 minutes 

Objective: To create a positive mood for the training 

Course of the exercise: Everybody tells in a circle about at least one good thing that happened to them this morning. 

Questions: 1) Was it hard to remember the good events? Why do you think so? 

“Sense Relay.”

Objective: To develop the ability to use body language, facial expressions, and the body to communicate effectively in a non-verbal way and convey the emotions experienced

Time: 15 min.

The group sits in a circle. The task is to convey nonverbally – with the help of gestures and facial expressions – the feeling or emotion given by the leader. The first player gets an expression of an emotion from the leader. All the other players do not see the emotion because they are sitting with their eyes closed. The first player decides how to convey this emotion, then touches his neighbor’s hand and, when he opens his eyes, conveys the emotion to him. 

From someone else’s voice. 

Objective: To practice listening, listening, memorizing and reproducing information, consolidate the skills of dialogic style of communication

Time: 30 min.

The whole team gets in pairs. For 10 min a participant tells a free-form story about themselves to their pair. The next 10 minutes they swap roles, when the players in pairs get to know each other, all the participants in the training come together. Then the second stage of the exercise begins, in which each partner introduces the other. Thus he speaks in the first person, tries to use gestures, intonation, a mimicry of the comrade, tries to enter his image and to conduct the story as if on his behalf. 

“The Animal Family”. 

Duration: 15 minutes 

Objective: The exercise develops the ability to find common ground with other people as quickly as possible. 

Material: Notes with the names of members of animal families (for example, granny is a monkey, daddy is a cat, daughter is a frog, son is a parrot, etc.).  

Course of the exercise: Each participant pulls out a card, but does not immediately look at what is written on it. Only when all players have pulled in their cards can they be read. The leader can make a beeping signal indicating the beginning of the game. Each participant tries to find their family as quickly as possible through the sound imitations and movements of the animal that is written on their card. When the animal family has found all its family members, it must in the correct order (in order of seniority – grandpa, grandma, dad, mom, son, daughter, the game leader must explain these rules in advance) sit down on one chair. The animal family that did it correctly wins. 

Rope 

Objective: Possibility to touch the participants, which contributes to their adaptation to a new environment and to releasing fears of each other.

Time: 30 min.

Trainer: “Who wants to walk on the rope with their eyes closed?” / “Will you walk by yourself or do you need help?” 

If help is needed: 

Option 1: ask the participant who he/she wants to take as a helper? 

Option 2: The trainer points to the helper when the participant is blindfolded. And then asks the person who passed the rope, “Who do you think helped you?”

It’s okay if the participant can’t guess. 

The number of passes on the rope is a maximum of 10. 

It is very important if the teacher walks the rope. 

Coach: “Who wants to help the teacher?” (Let everyone who wants to help help). 

Analysis after the end of the whole game as a whole, in a general circle (if the group is large – after each participant) 

“How did you feel when you walked the rope?”

“How did the group feel?”

“How did you feel when you were helped…? How did you feel…?” 

“How did you feel when you helped…?” 

Closing

Reflection – participants talk about what they liked and did not like about the training, what participants will take out of it and use in their everyday life.  

The ritual of farewell “A round of applause”. 

Materials needed: Not required. 

Time: 5 minutes. 

Description: The leader invites the participants to form a circle. Then he offers the game “Give a round of applause”: “we did a good job today, and I would like to suggest that each member of the group praise his neighbor to the right with a round of applause”. Then the group members applaud all of them, and so on. 

Discussion: What did you like about this activity?  What was challenging?  What did it help to do? 

Day 3

Time: 115 minutes

The welcome ritual.

Objective: Relief of excessive emotional tension in the group, creation of favorable conditions for group work, development of joint norms and principles of work for the group. 

Expected result: participants get to know each other better, and they can afford more freedom and a variety of experiments. At the same time, participants reach mutual understanding of the content of the group task. 

Running time: 5 minutes. 

It is a common practice all over the world to greet one another. Let’s greet each other in some special way. If anyone wants to suggest their own way of greeting, now is the time to do it (the participants discuss and choose a greeting form). If there is no suggestion, the leader will suggest a greeting. 

– Let’s all hold hands and each of us, in turn, wish the others something nice and pleasant. 

Warm-up exercise “Atoms and molecules”. 

Objective: To adapt the participants of the training to each other

Time: 10 minutes 

Facilitator: “Now everyone is slightly shrinking into a ball. You are lonely atoms. Starting a chaotic Brownian motion, where you can easily bump into each other. Be careful. On my command, you join together into molecules, the number of atoms in which I will name. Some time after the start, the leader says a number, for example, 5. The participants form groups of five. Those who are not in any of the “molecules” are out of the game. Then “ten” and so on, but no more than four or five times. As a result of the game, the group is divided into two subgroups – those who dropped out and those who stayed on the floor. 

Discussion: why didn’t everyone enter? What is the difference between those who stayed out? 

Tell me who your friend is. 

Objective: To find out common interests. 

Time: 15 minutes

Facilitator: “Certainly, each of you in the group already has a person who is close to you in some way. For 5 minutes you have to draw a “psychological portrait” of this person. It is not permissible to point out signs, especially external ones, by which one can immediately recognize a particular person. The “portrait” should be at least 10-12 characteristics, habits, features that are specific to that person. Then the person who wrote it speaks in front of the group and the rest of the class tries to guess whose portrait it is. 

Discussion: Was it easy to guess whose portrait it is? Does everyone agree with the attributed traits? What could be added?

“The Tangle.” 

Duration: 10 minutes 

Objective: To build cohesion, to improve mutual understanding among participants. 

Course of the exercise: Everyone holds hands in a circle and starts to get tangled up. When everyone is tangled up and there is one big “tangle”, you can imagine that the whole group has turned into one big beast. Now it is urgently necessary to determine where its head and tail are. (It is necessary to ask the questions “Who will be the head? And who will be the tail?”). When the beast has oriented itself where its “right” and where its “left” is, it must learn to move in all directions, including backwards. And then, the beast has to run, and maybe even “eat” someone caught along the way 

Questions: 1) What feelings and emotions did you experience while doing the task? 

Favourite not favourite

Objective: To get to know each other better, thus contributing to the adaptation of participants to each other 

Time of realization: 30 minutes

Materials: A sheet of paper, a pen

Process: Each participant gets and divides the sheet into two columns. On the right side, write “Favorite” and on the left side, “Unfavorite”. Approximate list: 

– name

– type of sport 

– season 

– animal 

– fruit 

– music group 

– singer/songwriter

– book 

– writer, etc. 

Setup: 

On the command “Begin!” you will move around the room, walk up to the other person and read what they have written on their worksheet. When you have read on your own, don’t rush to leave, give the other person a chance to read your worksheet. Don’t aim to read quickly, but read carefully. Read silently, without asking each other questions. 

The “Begin!” command. At the command “Stop!” stop where you are standing, close your eyes and imagine the image of the person you remember the most, with whom you would like to talk and ask them your questions. 

Pause. After the pause, the trainer tells the participants to open their eyes, walk up to that person, take his or her hand and sit down with him or her and talk. Allow 5-7 minutes for communication. 

Discussion: who wants to share their feelings, impressions, experiences that they had during this game? What did the game give you? 

Psychological distance.

Objective: To help the participants of the training develop and strengthen their skills of self-reflection on the processes of communication for the purpose of self-knowledge and effective communication 

Time frame: 20 min.

The facilitator leaves the room. During his absence, the group is divided into three columns. The first column is composed of those who consider themselves to be the closest people to the facilitator psychologically. The second column is composed of those who feel they are at an average psychological distance from the master. In the third group are those who consider themselves quite distant from the presenter. Each participant remembers his or her place. The presenter returns to the room and lines up the participants as he or she feels they stood in the “proximity” columns. 

Discussion: Did the presenter make many mistakes, what is the reason for this? Why did each of you choose the proximity column that you chose? Would you like to change the column in your life?

Walk down the narrow path. 

Objective: To help participants adapt by developing a sense of togetherness and through creativity 

Time frame: 20 minutes

A two-step wide corridor is made of two ropes. The group lines up in pairs at the beginning of this pathway and is offered to walk along the corridor without touching each other, but together. Then the corridor narrows and the task is repeated. The corridor narrows again, and the task is repeated. An option is to walk towards each other. 

Discussion: What principle was used to divide you into pairs? Was everyone comfortable? Was everyone able to do the task? If not, what is the reason? Who is striving for leadership?

Conclusion .

Reflection – participants say what they liked and did not like about the training, what participants will take out of it and use in everyday life. 

Farewell “The Gift”.

Objective: To develop the ability to use body language, facial expressions, and the body for effective nonverbal communication.

Time: 5 minutes

How: One participant gives his neighbor to his right an imaginary gift.

Discussion: What are your feelings, emotions, feelings?

Day 4

Time: 115 minutes

Greeting ritual.

The purpose: removal of excessive emotional tension in the group, creation of favorable conditions for group work, development of joint norms and principles of work for the group. 

Expected result: The participants get to know each other better, and they can afford more freedom and a variety of experiments. At the same time, participants reach mutual understanding of the content of the group task. 

Running time: 5 minutes. 

It is a common practice all over the world to greet one another. Let’s greet each other in some special way. If anyone wants to suggest their own way of greeting, now is the time to do it (the participants discuss and choose a greeting form). If there is no suggestion, the leader will suggest a greeting. 

– Let’s all hold hands and each of us, in turn, wish the others something nice and pleasant.

Warm-up “Pass the object”.

Purpose: The warm-up causes a lot of positive emotions, helps to tune in to the group work, increases the concentration.

Time: 10 minutes

Materials: improvised objects.

Course of the exercise: Participants have to pass an object in a circle, for example a marker or a ball. But the way of passing each time, for each participant should be new. If the object falls, the game starts all over again.

Main part

Exercise “Counting to ten”. 

Objective: To feel each other, to understand without words and facial expressions. 

Time: 10 minutes

The course of the exercise: “Now at the signal ‘started’ you close your eyes, put your noses down and try to count from one to ten. But the trick is that you will count together. Someone will say “one”, another person will say “two”, a third person will say “three” and so on +. However, there is one rule in the game: only one person has to say the word. If two voices say “four,” the counting starts all over again. Try to understand each other without words. 

Discussion: What happened to you?  If it didn’t work, why not?  What strategy did you choose? 

 “People to People.” 

Duration: 15 minutes 

Objective: team building, overcoming tension 

Exercise: After the leader says “People to people,” the players are divided into pairs. Then they do all the master’s commands (such as “ear to shoulder”, “right foot to left hand”, etc.). After the leader says the phrase “People to people”, the players should rearrange themselves in pairs again. The goal of the leader is to find a pair. The one who is left without a pair becomes the leader. 

Questions: 1) Was it easy to do this exercise? 2) Was it more interesting to be the leader or to work in pairs? 

“Rain”. 

Duration: 10 minutes 

Objective: To improve teamwork 

The leader says, “It’s raining. (claps slowly and rarely) It’s getting harder (claps more often) and it’s starting to rain! (stomps his feet) Thunder rumbles! (imitates the sound of thunder) And now the rain stops (stops stomping, slows down clapping) and stops coming altogether (hands down). The task of the participants is to stand in a circle and repeat the movements for the leader not immediately, but only when each participant reaches the turn in a clockwise direction. If someone gets confused – everything starts all over again. 

Questions: 1) Did you lose your way? Did you enjoy the exercise? 

Kabuki theater

Objective: To tone up the group and bring participants together.

Time required: 20 minutes

Participants are divided into two teams. The teams agree on who they will play: a princess, a dragon or a samurai. The leader shows the teams typical movements for a princess, dragon or samurai. Princess: does a coquettish curtsy, dragon: steps forward with a frightening look, raising his arms up, samurai: makes a saber-waving movement. After the teams have chosen their roles, the announcer announces: “The Princess charms the Samurai. The samurai kills the dragon. The dragon eats the princess.” The teams then line up in two rows opposite each other and, at the presenter’s command, make a characteristic movement to show the role they have chosen. One point is awarded to the team whose role is the most advantageous. For example: Princess and Samurai (1 point goes to the princess because she charms him). The Samurai and the Dragon (1 point is awarded to the Samurai because he kills the Dragon). Dragon and Princess (1 point is awarded to the dragon because he eats the princess). If the teams show the same roles, no one gets a point. The team with the most points wins.

A game “Disaster in the desert”.

Objective: To organize a discussion, to plan their activities, to compromise, to listen to each other, to argue their point of view, to control themselves

Performance Time: 30 minutes

Materials: Each participant gets a special form. 

The facilitator/trainer gives the following instruction: 

“From now on, all of you are passengers on an airliner flying from Europe to Central Africa. While flying over the Sahara Desert, a fire suddenly broke out on board the plane, the engines failed and the airliner crashed to the ground. You were miraculously rescued, but your location is unclear. All we know is that the nearest settlement is about 300 km away. Under the wreckage of the plane you managed to find 15 items that remained intact after the crash. Your task is to rank these items according to their importance to your rescue. To do this, place a number 1 on the most important item, number 2 on the second most important item, and so on to the fifteenth least important item. Fill in the first column of the form with numbers. Each person works independently for 15 minutes. 

List of items

Hunting knife

Pocket lamp

Flying map of the area

Plastic raincoat 

Magnetic compass

Portable gas stove with gas bottle 

Hunting gun with ammunition

Red and white parachute

Pack of salt 

One and a half liters of water per person 

Edible animals and plants identifier 

Sunglasses for each 

One liter of vodka for each 

Light overcoat for each 

Pocket mirror 

After the individual ranking, the leader invites the group to split into pairs and rank these objects for 10 minutes together with a partner.

The next stage of the game is general group discussion concerning the order of objects, for which at least 30 minutes are given. 

At the end of the discussion, the leader announces that the game is over, congratulates all participants on their safe rescue and offers to discuss the results of the game. 

Completion

The participants talk about what they liked and did not like in the training and what they will take out of it and use in everyday life. 

The ritual of farewell “Transfer 

Necessary materials: Not required. 

Time: 15 minutes. 

Description: The participants form a tight circle. Then the leader suggests that everyone put their hands on each other’s shoulders and close their eyes. They have to send each other all the possible positive emotions, feelings and wishes. 

Discussion: Exchange of opinions. What did you like about this exercise? What was difficult? What did it help? 

Day 5

Time: 95 minutes

Greeting ritual.

Objective: To release excessive emotional tension in the group, to create favorable conditions for group work, to develop joint norms and principles of work for the group. 

Expected result: The participants get to know each other better, and they can afford more freedom and a variety of experiments. At the same time, participants reach mutual understanding of the content of the group task. 

Running time: 5 minutes. 

It is a common practice all over the world to greet one another. Let’s greet each other in some special way. If anyone wants to suggest their own way of greeting, now is the time to do it (the participants discuss and choose a greeting form). If there is no suggestion, the leader will suggest a greeting. 

– Let’s all hold hands and each of us, in turn, wish the others something nice and pleasant.

Warm-up. Exercise “Crocodile”. 

Materials needed: Not required. 

Time: 10 minutes. 

Description: All participants are divided into two teams and each team thinks of a word or phrase. After that, each team chooses a person who will show the puzzled phrase, someone else’s team, their own. During the explanation it is forbidden to say anything and point to any objects, allowed only to show images and parts of speech (drawing a wavy line – the definition). The essence of the game is to solve the phrase faster than the opponents. 

Discussion: exchange of opinions. 

“JOINT WRITING ABOUT THE FUTURE OR THE PAST”.

Objective: team building, development of group cooperation

Time: 10 minutes

Materials: pens and paper.

How to do it: The group takes turns putting one phrase at a time and the person on the right has to develop the idea and the subject of the next sentence. In order to connect this exercise with the theme of the training, the facilitator needs to think of a task. It can be a story about the previous day: “Yesterday we did this… And then this… And achieved these results…”. Or formulation of the purposes for the coming day: “Today we will become more successful… informed… active…”. Or a more story related to the problematic of the training (“The Swan, the Crawfish and the Pike after the Teamwork Training”; “Tops and Spines from the Best Negotiators”; “About Assertive Tiny Coon”, etc.).

Discussion: Was it easy to work together? Was everyone in agreement with the thought development? Did everyone express an opinion?

Main part

Exercise “Writings on the back”.

Objective: formation of trust in the group, gaining experience in positive feedback. The exercise is possible if there is a sufficiently high level of safety in the group.

Time: 10 minutes

Equipment, materials: Paper, scotch tape (or stickers), pens.

The course of the exercise: A piece of paper is attached to the participants’ backs, and everyone walks around the room chaotically and writes on their backs what they like about this person. A variation on this is to make it more difficult, for example, to write what they would like to change about this person.

Point with your finger. 

Objective: To unite the participants of the training group

Time: 15 minutes

How to do it: The participants sit in a circle. The trainer asks each person to place an outstretched finger in the air. He then asks them to point to someone who they think has a certain quality that they have named earlier. For example, the trainer might say: 

“Show me the shaggiest one of us. The funniest. The skinniest. The sleepiest. The most active today. “The best-dressed. Most undressed. The one who surprised you today in some exercise. The one who, from your point of view, worked the least today. The one who joked and amused the audience the most today. And who was the star of the group today, who brightened up and helped others?” 

Psychogymnastics

Objective: Benevolent, caring attitude towards each other, making each one feel comfortable, constant orientation in the situation, taking into account the opinion of everyone, the appearance of original new ideas, bringing the group together

Duration: 30 minutes

The participants get into a circle.

Instructions: “Let’s stand close to each other, form a tighter circle and stretch out all hands towards the middle of the circle. On my command, let’s all hold hands at the same time and do it in such a way that there is one hand in each of us. Try not to hold hands with those standing next to you. So, let’s begin. One, two, three.

When the trainer is satisfied that the hands are joined together in pairs, the trainer suggests that the group members “untangle themselves” without letting go of the hands. The trainer also takes part in the exercise, but does not actively participate in the search for variations during the “unraveling”. During the exercise in the group, quite often the idea of the impossibility of solving the set task arises. In this case the trainer should calmly say that the task is solvable, it is always possible to untangle. The exercise can end in one of three variants:

1. All participants of the group will find themselves in one circle (in this case, someone can stand facing into the circle, or someone can stand with their back to it – it does not matter, the main thing is that everyone should consistently form a circle).

2. The participants form two or more independent circles.

3. Group members form circles that are connected to each other like links in a chain. 

Discussion: What helped us do the task at hand? What could we have done differently to accomplish the task more quickly?

Wrap-up .

Reflection: Did the training help you adjust to your new study group? What new experiences have you gained from the training? What did you like about the training and what did you not like? Compare your feelings and feelings before and after the training. What changed and what stayed the same?

Questioning

Did you have any difficulties in adapting to student life?

a. Had some difficulties at the beginning

b. have had some problems adapting to the university until now  

c. have not experienced any difficulties. 

9. Who (what) helped you adapt to studying?

a. desire to learn; 

b. the school habit to study; 

c. the advice and help of the curator of the study group and/or the staff of the dean’s office; 

d. targeted help and support from representatives of the faculty administration; 

e. training.

2. What kinds of help are necessary for successful adaptation of freshmen? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. characterize the atmosphere in the student group.

a. benevolence; 

b. indifference; 

c. mutual understanding; 

d. inconsistency; 

e. cooperation; 

f. conflictedness; 

g. friendliness. 

5. Have you made friends in your group?

a. yes

b. no

6. Do you have a good relationship with the group?

a. yes

b. no

7. Do you divide the group into “good” and “bad”?

a. yes

b. no

8. How do you feel about conducting psychological training with a group? a. positive; b. negative; c. neutral. 

Farewell ritual “I love you for…”.

Objective: Increase in-group trust, cohesion of group members

Time: 15 minutes

Participants break into two groups and form two circles: external and internal. As they move along the outer and inner circle, participants finish with the phrase, “I love you because…”, referring to some personal qualities of the person standing in front of them.