We’re a few months into shelter-in-place and it simultaneously feels like the shortest and fastest year ever. We’ve definitely gone past the boxes-for-a-standing-desk and forgetting-to-unmute-your-mic phase of the pandemic. This past summer was the perfect opportunity to test out new virtual engagement strategies and we’ve evolved to virtual zoom happy hours and virtual award shows. However, the pandemic is nowhere near being over and it is now time to get creative again and look into fall virtual activities.
The leaves are falling, the weather is starting to cool down, and Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back – fall is here. Visiting a pumpkin patch, running through a corn maze, and apple-picking can all be done at a safe 6 feet apart. However, some special indoor activities will require a bit of creativity. Movie nights will be done through shared screens, sharing cookie recipes will be done over video call, and giving thanks will be through ecards. Connect with your family, friends, and colleagues with these 6 virtual fall activities:
Work-from-home treasure hunt
Set each person on a fun indoor adventure by creating a WFH (work from home) treasure hunt. Create a list of common household items and give your participants five minutes to find these items around their house. These items can include noise-canceling headphones, toilet paper, or a coffee filter. After the time limit is up, have your participants gather and share what they found. Give a prize to the person who found the items the fastest or the person with the most items. Create a competition by hosting elimination rounds to find one final winner.
Build your own escape room
Escape rooms are incredibly popular team building activities for companies and organizations looking to improve collaboration and teamwork. While in-person escape rooms may be closed, why not try hosting a virtual escape room experience with breakout rooms? Group your participants into small groups and send them to their dedicated breakout room. Each room should have a host who will tell a story with a mystery that the team must solve. The team can ask the host questions and must collaborate to solve the mystery. Give each team a set time to solve the mystery. Teams who finish early can return to the main room. Once all teams have finished, rotate the teams so that they can all experience each room.
Too much to coordinate? Try asking your team a fun riddle instead.
Fall trivia Competition
This wouldn’t be a Poll Everywhere blog without a little fall trivia! We at Poll Everywhere love playing trivia games with our team and igniting a bit of friendly competition. Test out your team’s knowledge of all things fall with this exciting Competition: Sugar and spice and everything nice – fall trivia!
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Virtual Coffee & Donut
While we can’t enjoy pumpkin spice lattes in person, you can enjoy them virtually with Donut. Donut is a Slack integration that introduces team members who don’t know each other well and facilitates fun virtual hangouts. Donut offers a variety of programs, including their virtual coffee program that pairs two team members for a 30 minute chat and the virtual watercooler that introduces new topics for your team to discuss. Our PollEvians are currently enjoying Donut, so you should try it too!
Fall decor bingo
Who doesn’t love a game of bingo? The decor possibilities in the fall are endless – ask your friends and coworkers about their favorite fall decor with this bingo. Here’s how to play:
- Create a fall decor bingo using Canva and create a Clickable Image activity. To save you time, you can click here to copy this activity to your account.
- Survey your participants about their thoughts on different fall decor. Participants can respond by clicking on over the region of the item they chose. Example questions to ask include:
- The one you love
- The one you hate
- The one that confuses you
- The one you grew up with
- The one you wish you had
- Participants can track their answers on their own copy of the bingo sheet. Keep playing until someone gets a bingo.
- Once the game is done, share your answers by setting your bingo sheet as your virtual background.
Give thanks with virtual praise walls
Fall is the time for giving thanks and showing gratitude towards those closest to us. No need to wait until Thanksgiving to show how much we appreciate the hard work and support we receive. Share the positivity by using an Open-response activity to create a virtual praise wall. Participants can submit praise, happy stories, or give thanks to fellow colleagues who have helped them grow their career. Giving recognition through a public praise wall is a great way to boost morale at your organization.
Try out the virtual praise wall: Give thanks! Show appreciation for your team.
We all dream to go on outdoor adventures and hug our families in-person once again but until then, we have to make the most out of what we have. If you try out any of these virtual fall activities, share it with us on Twitter (@PollEverywhere) and we will retweet our favorites!