Team work using three C's!

Communication, Collaboration, Cooperation.

 

As we were closing up the holiday of Purim, we repeatedly noticed the children gravitating to the puppet theater! 

Each day we were amazed all over again,  at the team work the children displayed, taking turns 'putting on the show'!

:) It was also a wonderful opportunity for us to see the children's interpretation on the story...which "Big Ideas" stuck out in their minds etc...

It takes quite a bit of coordination to decide who will be performing, 

and who will be part of the audience....

The finale! Rochel took out all the puppets for the end of the show to take a bow!

This sight got us thinking.... this is just the beginning!

What beautiful team work! 

The children inspired us to spend a WEEK focusing on

TEAM WORK (Before we dive into Pesach Curriculum)

using the three C's :

Communication, Collaboration, and Cooperation.

In the preschool classroom,  life is all about learning how to work with others and this is an especially challenging proposition for young children. 

 (It doesn't change too much beyond school and in the real world! Successful people are those who can succeed in working with others!)

To promote teamwork or the three C’s in a fun and inviting way, we came up with creative games or art activities that our students can do together… where the TEAMWORK is a key to the success of the project!

Circle Songs and Games

Part of our daily morning circle includes a segment where the children get into a circle and sing our Torah song. In the beginning of year it was very political as to who's hand they were holding etc...

Doing this dance every single day as a routine helped the children learn to  take turns holding each others hand.

One day this week they were very proud to do it on their own with out any assistance from Morah!

We created a zigzag of colored tape on the floor going in different directions, alongside a bucket of blocks.

The children figured out to line it up on the line as a team! It was long and hard work but slowly most of the class got to work on it!

Celebrating their efforts by balancing on the long line they made!

This also facilitated communication and cooperation, as some of the children were fast at it --which required them to wait for their friend in front to continue, before they could proceed.

Spontaneous team work, following the children's interest:

Morah Leah noticed a spider next to the blocks. What if we use the blocks to build a home for the spider to protect it? 

Will it climb over the blocks (walls? )

The LOVE that friends have is heart melting!

Ice painting

Using one big paper and a water table, each child found space and worked together to create a beautiful painting.

Parachute Play

Parachute play is all about teamwork. Lifting the parachute up and down all together so that we can make the balls fly high off the chute requires us to count together, lift together, and not let go of our part of the parachute in the process…

Obstacle course:

We created an obstical course game that needed each child in our class.

With a full bucket of bean bags at the beginning of the obstacle course the challenge was each child had to hold a bean bag and do the whole course with out dropping it to fill the empty bucket at the end of it!

Shua weaving in and out of the cones.

(while his friends were cheering for him ;)

Levi very proud of himself!

 

Large Group Murals:

Working together to color, paint, or in some way create something together also gives us the opportunity to promote the three C’s. While the children were coloring in a picture of a tree, they had to communicate with each other about any spaces that still needed colored in, work together to color side by side, and make decisions on the direction or style of coloring they chose to do along the way. 

 

 I noticed that by coloring together, the children also modeled for each other different coloring techniques or preferences… 

We pass the ball around....

One of the activities we did as a GROUP to build team work was playing "we pass the ball around." 

After playing the game (being directed by us Morah's), we noticed the children on their own, partnering up to "play together."

It was absolutely adorable how they connected feet and played a very close range passing game ;)

Building as a team...

Clean up time is always team work! (Definitely one area where the children FEEL the success and value of WORKING TOGETHER!)