On Friday, May 1st we had our annual Lee Olympics. Students rotate through different events and earn ribbons for participation and athletic achievement. Since this is an all-day event, many students that are new to Lee or prone to anxiety might have some worries about Lee Olympics. To ease their nerves, I create social story books for them to know what they expect. I only include events that I know will happen in order to set them up for success. Here's a sample of one book I made for a new kindergartener:
In second grade we worked on teamwork and sportsmanship this week. By introducing this topic early, I hope to be preventative in the increasing number of playground conflicts that happen as they develop. I found this great video that shows 3 different examples of teamwork: We brainstormed ideas that we saw in the video. How did the animals show teamwork? How did the animals show great sportsmanship in their challenges? How can we show these skills when we're playing with each other or learning in the classroom?
After our discussion, we played one of my favorite games, Transformation Rock Paper Scissors! I recently played this with third grade, you can check it out here. I can't take all of the credit, I stumbled across this fun game here. I left a few minutes at the end of the lesson to process how we each did with teamwork and sportsmanship. What went well? What do we need to work on for next time? Are there any rules we should take out or add to make the game more successful?
Our SEL Department developed a Peace Path that students can use in the classroom to help resolve conflict with their peers. You can take a look of how it works as part of our Peace Areas at Lee Elementary here. While this is a great tool for students to use while they're in the classroom, students are left stranded out on the playground when they have conflict. After campuses inquired about how to translate these skills to the outdoor playgrounds, our SEL department created stencils to create a sidewalk Peace Path (thank you, thank you, thank you)! Here is a quick video I took walking through the Peace Path so you can see each of the steps. It took 3-4 hours over 2 days to create the finished product with two people, myself and Joelle Andrew - an amazing parent volunteer/super hero. :)
Our playground Peace Path provides students,
teachers and our entire campus a space and a method that is safe, sincere, and
easy to follow for conflict resolution. It is another effort towards
student empowerment to self-regulate and solve their problems. Ours is
strategically placed between 2 of our playgrounds and has already been a huge hit
with the Roadrunners!
Once completed I took out each class to teach them how to use it. We began by brainstorming common problems that happen with our friends out on the playground:
I had students pair up and brainstorm a "problem" to resolve with their partner, real or fake. Then we headed outside to practice!
Our Peace Path has been a huge success! Not only are teachers on board and helping students through conflict resolution steps at recess, but children are initiating its use during our aftercare program and kids have even been caught & featured on Instagram! Here are some individual shots of each step:
In kindergarten we read You Get What You Get written by Julie Gassman. I could hardly get past reading the title without students shouting out, "And you don't throw a fit!" This short and sweet story shows how one little squirrel follows this rule at school but has a difficult time following the rule at home. He accidentally lets "the cat out of the bag" with this school rule, and his family jumps on the opportunity to implement it at home as well.
We brainstormed what fairness is and many students felt that it is everyone getting the same thing. (The blue pen represents changes we made after the different activities) I asked them if they've ever said, "That's unfair!" before and how they knew that something was unfair. We talked about our feelings that bubble up when we think something that happens isn't fair.
I then introduced a few activities to challenge their idea of fairness. I had everyone sit around in a big circle around the carpet. Then I chose 4 volunteers to create a "fishbowl" for modeling. I had them sit inside the larger circle in a smaller circle that everyone could observe. I passed out 12 different erasers unevenly (on purpose) to each of the students. Some of the students ended up with only a little and others with a lot. I asked them if the way I passed them out was fair. They had lots of qualms about how I divided it up. I asked them to redistribute the erasers in a way that they felt was fair. After many attempts, they eventually came up with a solution and we debriefed how it went.
I asked them questions such as,
What did you think of the activity?
Did you have more or less erasers then you had at the beginning?
By the end did you think it was fair?
Is it always possible to share things fairly?
I introduced the concept of compromising. What our 4 volunteers just did is called a compromise. Compromising is something we do when different people want different things. Compromise is finding a win-win solution. I asked them about a couple of scenarios to test their compromising skills:
You want to watch a cartoon, but your brother wants to watch a movie
You want to carve a scary Jack O'Lantern, but your sister wants to give it a silly face
You want to go swimming, but your friend wants to ride bikes
I then started a second activity to further expand their knowledge of fairness. This time I asked 3 volunteers to come up to the front of the room to be my actors. I told each of them that they were going to act out a different injury. The first student had a broken arm (so they held their arm with a pained look), the second student had a scratch on their arm (so they looked at that part of their arm) and the third student had a sore throat (so they coughed and asked for water). I then pulled out 3 band-aids.
I told them that I wanted things to be fair, so they were each going to get the same medical treatment. I put a band-aid on the broken arm, the scratched arm and the sore throat. Then I asked the class, was this fair? They were rolling around in laughter about how ridiculous I was. I reinforced that they said fairness means everyone getting the same thing, so I gave them each the same thing - what was wrong? After a little more discussion we came up with a compromise that fairness isn't about everyone getting the same thing, but rather everyone getting what they need. Sometimes this might mean different people will receive different things. We also learned that Ms. Sepp would not be a very good nurse. :)
In third grade we've spent a lot of time on building positive relationships with each other. We've noticed that the majority of conflict with these kiddos continues to happen outside at recess in less structured activities. After our last lesson on being good sports, I decided we needed to strengthen our teamwork skills. And what better way to do this than with the Cup Stack Challenge!
We began by clearly defining what we thought TEAMWORK is. Then I broke the news that I was going to give them a very frustrating challenge today. But, if they utilized the teamwork skills we just discussed - then they would find it less frustrating and be very successful. They had 2 separate sculptures to build with 6 cups, 1 rubber band and 4 strings. The only thing they could touch was their string. If the cups rolled off the table, they went down to the ground as a group and used teamwork to get it back on the table. If their elbow accidentally bumped cups already in formation, they had to pick that cup back up using only the manipulation of their groups strings.
After about 15 minutes most groups had created the first sculpture, and a couple groups were finishing their second design.
I left time for us to debrief on the experience since it is always an activity that brings up a wide range of emotions. I ask them to rate their group on how well they worked together using
the ideas we wrote at the beginning of the lesson. I ask them what went
well for their group. I also ask them what didn't go well for their
group. We talk about different strategies and ways we an handle
ourselves when things don't go the way we want them to. Throughout the
activity I walk around and facilitate positive communication, so I
usually have a few examples to help springboard the discussion.
I have been waiting to teach Habit 6 to our fifth graders because team building activities are my favorite activities to do with groups of kids! Habit 6 is all about the we, not the I.
Together Is Better:
I value other people’s strengths and learn from them. I get along
well with others, even people who are different than me. I work well in
groups. I seek out other people’s ideas to solve problems because I know
that by teaming with others we can create better solutions than anyone
of us can alone. I am humble.
To begin, we each did a personality assessment that I found available to download here. Students rank themselves on the qualities they feel are most important to them across each row. It is important to learn about your own strengths and weaknesses so you can function best in a group. It is also important to learn about your group member's strengths and weaknesses so you can function best in a group.
After we all figured out which "fruit" best described our personality, I told them which fruit they would be paired up with for a group challenge. They read through their partner's descriptions to think about ways that would improve their teamwork and communication skills. Then I introduced the challenge...the LEANING TOWER OF FEETZA!
I found this free activity on a great website filled with team building activities, Playmeo. I typed up a quick synopsis to explain the goal of the activity, and with such a simple task (or so we all had thought), I set them off to start right away!
Hilarity ensued, conflict ensued, problem solving ensued, chaos ensued! We all had a really great time and an even better debrief session on the challenge, on synergizing and on how knowing more about ourselves can make such a different in our everyday interactions with others.
