Sometimes morale in the workplace can take a dip, and it can be easy to fall into cliche icebreaker activities and team-building games to help boost spirits. But what better way to boost spirits than with a company Spirit Week event?
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Spirit Week is an event that typically takes place over the course of 5 days, in a school or workplace. Spirit Week is filled with a range of activities and events to help motivate, inspire, and encourage colleagues to work together. Spirit Weeks can add some relief to a tense workplace, and help to create a culture of community amongst team members.
We’ve compiled a range of Spirit Week activities to add some fun and excitement to the workplace or to school, separated into categories:
- Fun Spirit Week Ideas for Work
- Virtual Spirit Week Ideas for Work
- Theme Days for Spirit Week
- Spirit Week Ideas for School
Fun Spirit Week Ideas for Work
These unique spirit week ideas are designed to uplift team members and boost company spirit.
Each idea encourages team bonding to help colleagues work together in a fun and engaging atmosphere that celebrates the company’s core values.
- Office Olympics
This spirit week activity is bound to create some friendly competition, making it the perfect way to increase team building in the workplace.
Using office supplies that you already have, you can create different events and fun games for teams to participate in. This can include rubber band archery, a typing speed race, office soccer, and a pencil toss. You can adapt these activities to suit the supplies you have and you can encourage team members to dress up, too. - Talent Show
A talent show is the perfect way for everyone in the workplace to showcase their hidden talents or demonstrate their passions. Although it may seem daunting to some, talent shows can create a non-judgemental, expressive space that allows everyone to get to know each other better.
If possible, you can use a meeting room or large space to organize the talent show, with one team member as the ‘host.’ At the end of the talent show, each person can vote for their favorite performance. - Charity Challenge
Supporting a local charity during Spirit Week is an excellent way to promote team bonding, whilst also giving something back to the community.
Colleagues should begin the week before by deciding on a chosen charity. The Charity Challenge could include a different activity each day of the week, such as a Bake Sale, a Sponsored Walk, or a Car Wash. - Board Game Week
Create some healthy competition and encourage everyone to use their problem solving skills by hosting a Board Game Week, or a Board Game Day.
This can involve each team member participating in different board games every day. Scores can be tallied at the end of the week to decide on an overall winner. Allocating some time to play a game each day can help to break up the work day and give participants something to look forward to during their busy schedules. - Picture Perfect Day
Encourage employees to share pictures of beautiful landscapes or moments from their lives with a Picture Perfect Day.
Each team member can bring in pictures from important moments in their lives, or even baby photos of themselves. You could organize the photos randomly and have employees guess who each photo belongs to. This idea provides an opportunity to appreciate the diversity within the team and sparks interesting conversations, improving employee interaction. - Desk Decorating Contest
This is a fun and unique way for team members to personalize their workspace, and show off their aesthetic interests.
Invite employees to decorate their workspaces in the most creative way possible. This can be based on a specific, chosen theme, or you can simply ask your team members to decorate their desks however they wish.
Award prizes for the most creative, colorful, or innovative desks, promoting healthy competition and adding some fun to the office environment. - Arts and Crafts Day
Celebrate spirit week by encouraging creativity in the workplace. This can help to boost team morale and loosen any tension or stress that people may feel.
Provide art supplies and encourage employees to tap into their creativity. Offer activities like painting, sculpture, or scrapbooking, allowing employees to express themselves artistically. If you like, you can choose an afternoon for each colleague to display their artwork so that they can celebrate each other’s efforts. - Awards Day
Awards Day is a great way to celebrate and inspire colleagues in your workplace, and create a sense of team bonding.
Each colleague can vote for different categories, with awards being handed out to the winners in a special ceremony. Award team members for different achievements or qualities, such as ‘Hardest Working Team Member’ or ‘Best Dressed,’ and you can also include funny awards categories too. - Random Acts of Kindness
As part of Spirit Week, encourage team members to spread random acts of kindness by completing at least one random act of kindness a day. This helps to improve company culture and strengthen employee relationships.
These acts can include compliments, surprising another team member, volunteering efforts, or paying for someone’s coffee or lunch.
Virtual Spirit Week Ideas for Work
In the world of remote and hybrid working, there will be many times when all of your team members are not in an office together. However, do not fret! There are many online Spirit Week ideas you can use, and even many in-person Spirit Week ideas can be adapted to suit remote or hybrid teams.
- Virtual Trivia
You can’t go wrong with a trivia quiz, and with the enhancement of many online platforms over the past few years, there are many ways to spice up a usual trivia quiz.
Organize a virtual trivia session using platforms like Kahoot or Zoom’s built-in polling feature. There are also thousands of ready-made quizzes available on these platforms all ready for you to use. You can create categories to test your team’s knowledge and competitiveness or choose a quiz based on their interests.
If you want to add a personalized twist to the trivia quiz, you can make it about funny things that have happened in the workplace over the years. This is a great way to involve everyone in the game. - Book Club Day
Celebrate the love for reading by having team members recommend their favorite books or host virtual book discussions related to personal growth, business, or any genre of interest.
You could decide on a book the week beforehand, and then use the Book Club Day for everyone to discuss and share their thoughts on it. - Wellness Day and Virtual Fitness Challenge
An online spirit week doesn’t mean that remote and hybrid teams don’t need to be active. Encourage your remote team members to stay active by setting fitness challenges for the week, and sharing results on a video call.
Ideas could include tracking daily steps, hosting virtual workout sessions on a video call, or sharing healthy snack ideas. - Background Challenge
Virtual workplaces have become a great way to express creativity and incorporate small but fun ideas into the workday, and a virtual background is an excellent example of this.
During online spirit week, encourage employees to customize their virtual background based on a specific theme for each day. It could be a beach vacation, outer space, or an office makeover. - Home Office Olympics
This is a fun twist on the in-person Office Olympics, and remote employees participating from the comfort of their homes. This idea promotes team bonding and adds a little bit of healthy competition to the work environment.
Arrange a series of mini-games or challenges that employees can participate in from their home offices, working in virtual teams. It could be typing speed competitions, paper airplane contests, or even virtual scavenger hunts.
Theme Days for Spirit Week
Theme Days are an exciting way to involve everyone in the workplace during Spirit Weeks.
Spirit Week theme days boost team spirit, and they provide some great photo opportunities too. Most of these theme days can also be adapted virtually if your company has remote and hybrid workers.
We’ve listed some of the most fun and unique theme days for your colleagues to participate in.
- Pajama Day
A classic theme day idea, Pajama Days are always fun and can help everyone to feel more relaxed in the workplace.
You can encourage colleagues to wear their favorite comfy pajamas, complete with matching slippers and robes, too. Just make sure they don’t fall asleep on the job! - Decade Day
Decade Day encourages participants to dress up themed like a different decade, such as the 60s, 70s, or 80s.
This theme allows your work team members to get creative and decide what clothing and ideas best represents their chosen decade. You could even plan a ‘Decades Week,’ so each day represents a different decade. - Crazy Hat Day
This is a simple theme day idea that always results in lots of fun.
Each employee has to wear a crazy hat of their choosing, or, to make things more interesting, have them choose at random from a choice of crazy hats instead. You can take lots of funny photos on this theme day too! - Twin Day
Ask team members to partner up, and each pair has to dress identically for Twin Day. This can lead to some funny confusion in the office! You could also award a prize for the most identical-looking pair. - Famous Duo Day
Similarly to Twin Day, a Famous Duo Day encourages employees to partner up and dress as a famous duo. Employees vote for the best dressed duo at the end of the day, with prizes awarded for the best looks. - Celebrity Lookalike Day
Employees can choose a celebrity to impersonate for Celebrity Lookalike Day.
This theme day is always a fun one and helps to boost spirits and laughs in the office. The best impersonation can win an award, and don’t forget to take lots of photos! - Team Spirit Showcase
This theme day is centered all around the company, as a way to promote company culture. Encourage colleagues to wear company colors, branding, and logos. They can get creative and use items inspired by the company or its marketing to help decorate their outfits.
Employees could take team spirit a step further, and decorate their desks or work station using company-inspired colors and ideas. - Dress for Success
This spirit week idea creates a sense of professionalism and encourages company pride.
Encourage team members to dress in their finest work attire, such as a sharp business suit or a sophisticated outfit. This helps team members to feel confident, which can boost spirits in the office and inspire hard work.
Spirit Week Ideas for School
Spirit Week is not only limited to the workplace, of course.
Traditionally, Spirit Week takes place in schools, designed to boost school spirit and as a fun event for students. Each day of Spirit Week can focus on a different theme or idea. Teachers should get involved too, and the school can be decorated to fit with the chosen theme.
Let’s take a look at some of the best Spirit Week ideas for school.
- Superhero Day
Encourage students to dress up as their favorite superhero or villain.
You could design games and activities based on superheroes, such as sports activities, creative design challenges, or a even a ‘marvel versus dc comics’ event. - DIY Day
This theme day encourages creativity and thriftiness, as students are encouraged to dress up using recycled materials.
This helps to spread environmental awareness in school, and you could plan activities around this theme. - Circus Day
Bring the excitement of the circus to school, as students dress up in clown costumes or use face paint to create their look.
Teachers can design circus-themed activities for students to participate in, such as magic tricks, a talent show, or a gymnastics event. - Crazy Hair Day
Let students break the rules for this day by having their hair in all kinds of crazy hairstyles.
This could be as simple as a unique hairstyle, or students could color their hair using temporary hair sprays. You could even award the student with the craziest hairstyle! - Sports Team Day
Inspire some healthy competition by having students dress up in the jerseys and colors of their favorite sports teams. This also sets the tone for a day of sporting events that students can take part in. - Tropical Day
Transform the school into a beach paradise, with Hawaiian shirts, leis, grass skirts, and flip-flops. You can add decorations to the school such as fake palm trees or beach imagery to add to the tropical illusion. - Meme Day
In the world of TikTok and YouTube, memes are everywhere, and you’ve probably heard your students reference them in class.
Embrace popular internet culture by having students recreate viral memes through costumes and facial expressions. - Wacky Tacky Day
Say goodbye to fashion norms and invite students to wear mismatched clothes, crazy patterns, and wild colors. Students can participate in a fashion runway of their crazy clothes to celebrate their fun style. - Character Day
Students love showing off their personal taste, and Character Day lets them express their favorite interests.
Encourage students to channel their inner characters from movies, books, or video games, from superheroes to princesses.
Eleanor is a qualified English teacher and has received a Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE), specializing in Secondary English, and holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature from Liverpool John Moores University. She is certified to teach English as a foreign language (TEFL) and has worked with students in the U.K. and South East Asia. She currently works as an English teacher in Vietnam, teaching students across a range of ages.
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