Building Our Classroom Community and Learning to Collaborate

Over the next few weeks we will continue to focus on building our classroom community, getting to know each other and establishing routines and expectations!

Since the first week of school, the students have participated in a variety of cooperative games. In the card pyramid challenge, the students had to work with group members to build the highest pyramid they could out of cards. They were asked to first attempt the task without speaking which they found extremely difficult! When they did the activity the second time, and were allowed to speak with each other, they were much more successful.

In the cup stacking activity, students were asked to build a pyramid out of solo cups using a rubber band controlled by strings. They were not allowed to touch the cups with their hands. Through communication and listening to the ideas of others, all of the groups eventually succeeded in the task.

In our consolidation of learning, we co-created a collaboration anchor chart.  Listening to the ideas of others, using kind & encouraging words and trying a variety of strategies to solve problems, were just some of the things that students observed good collaborators do.