One thing most of us miss about going into an office is the basic social outlet of being in rooms with other people. Saying hi in the morning, have lunch together, or go for drinks or a meal after work. For remote teams, even if you are oceans apart, day after day, you can still garner some of these social benefits.

Have team members prepare any meal, and then connect for a virtual call while you eat and chat. You can suggest ice breakers or games to keep the conversation going. Having low-key connection time like this is a good way to relax and bond without focusing too much on work or team building.

Invite your remote team to participate in a recipe roundup, which could have themes like “that one thing your grandma makes better than everyone else” and “rad cookie recipes.” Assemble the recipes in your virtual team platform or shared drive and challenge team members to prepare new recipes and post photos.

While these team activities are mostly meant to be fun, there is also a strong element of communication. When you prepare a recipe, you need the foresight and clarity to know what the reader might have trouble following. Overcoming this challenge is a useful skill to build.

For this game, everyone on your virtual conference call holds up one hand with five fingers extended. Then the host or team members take turns listing specific and unusual life experiences. For example, you could say, “has visited a beach this year” or “speaks more than one language.” If a team member has the mentioned life experience then they can put one finger down. Either the player that puts all fingers down first wins, or if you want a twist then the last player with fingers remaining up wins instead.

Here are some more fun prompts: ate ice cream in the last 24 hours; knows all the words to O Canada; lived in three countries; made pizza from scratch; can say thank you in at least five language.

The Finding Your Team’s DIYer is a 20 minute surprise activity you can play with your team. To play, each person has 20 minutes to build something from materials available at home. You could make pasta art, an epic pillow fort or doodle a poetic harmony.

The goal isn’t to build something museum-worthy; it is to spark creativity and give your team a fun way to interact together.

One place to find inspiration for virtual team building ideas is grade school. Teachers are experts at engagement.

An example of a fun, school-inspired activity is Virtual Show & Tell. To facilitate this show and tell, you can set a 30 second timer for participants to find “something within arm’s reach that is meaningful to you.” Each of your team members then has one minute to share about their object, including information like where they got it, and why they keep it.