Team Building

Hello 5-2 Families :)

We have been having a great time in 5-2 so far this week learning routines and doing several team building activities.  Hopefully, your child has come home and shared some of these fun activities with you!  Not only have they enjoyed the activities, but they have spurred some excellent reflection on how to work in cooperative groups throughout the year.  Our discussions have included insights on the importance of asking clarifying questions and including everyone's ideas in the process.

I've included lots of pictures below...here's a recap of a couple of the activities:

Mega Blocks Team Building - In this activity, one team was given an object built out of Mega Blocks while the second team was just given a bag of Mega Blocks.  The first team had to communicate how to build the object to the second team.  The challenge came when I only allowed one person from each team to communicate at a time.  You will see pictures below of their communication and their building...and the group picture of their failed attempt.  But! We learned in 5-2 that failures are an excellent opportunity for learning and I allowed them time to reflect on how to improve communication.  I was so impressed with their mature level of reflection!  They were able to share some excellent way to work better as a team.  So, I gave them a second chance at this activity, and....success!  They were encouraged with the chance to win a homework pass if they were successful.  They were so proud of themselves it was difficult to calm them down!  You will find a celebratory picture of their successful build below as well.

Grebigol - In this activity, students were read a story about a monster called The Grebigol.  After the short read, they were given a bag full of supplies and asked to work as a group to design a Grebigol in 20 minutes.  The challenge in this activity was that they were NOT allowed to talk while building at all.  Again, I was so impressed with how well they worked together in their teams...we could hardly contain our giggles, though!!  You will find pictures below of the teams creating the Grebigols, as well as final pictures of each Grebigol with their teams.  They continued this project by round table writing adding to the story I read to them.  Again, they were not able to communicate verbally as the iPads went around the tables, but each student in the group added several sentences to the story before it was completed.  I will have them upload those stories to Edmodo tomorrow so you will be able to read them.

The greatest gift you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.  ~ Denis Waitley

Cheers ~
Theresa Fowler