What great role models we have in our parent volunteers. Last week several of our kindergarten fathers volunteered their time to work on a project for Mother's Day. The first phase was completed in record time and their teamwork was second to none.
In the classroom we foster cooperative teamwork skills throughout the curriculum. Children are encouraged to participate by sharing their strategies, ideas and opinions. We follow by paraphrasing their contributions. This helps clarify ideas, express support, and energizes the direction of the task.
When the children are given opportunities to share their reasoning, they are differentiating their own ideas and showcasing their strengths. When working as a team, they often independently delegate who will be recording, drawing, and presenting their team's ideas.
Pride in their group work is priceless. We celebrate each child's contribution and cooperative effort. The completed project is a reflection of this effort. The students are not only helping each other learn academic material, but learning how to work as a team. They are learning the give and take, the compromises, that make teams operate effectively. Whether the children are constructing block designs together, researching topics on the internet and recording the new information that they have learned, or building a complicated tower, they are learning how and why to work cooperatively together. The team can share the work load, and the finished product is often better than what any one of the individuals would have produced on their own. Plus, it's more fun!
