Teamwork

In first grade this week we are continuing to talk about working together--especially listening to each other. We have moved from our peer interviews to working in small groups to create a mural. Students were asked to work together to create a large square of a wall mural that will represent the idea of teamwork. We will then be able to combine all the great pieces to have a teamwork mural!

During this exercise, students have to work together to decide how they will represent the concept--- will they use pictures or words?? How will they show the idea? Who will draw or write and where on the paper? During this creation process I moved around the room helping students to work through these questions. I made a few interesting observations:
*some students chose to divide the paper into parts so that everyone could do exactly what they wanted without compromising their ideas
*some students talked for a very long time before using any materials--the idea of the mural was very important
* some students picked a simple plan such as writing teamwork, while others had complex pictures with various ideas embedded

Students observed:
"Teamwork is hard because you do not get what you want"
"When I work with other people I have to be OK if they mess up because sometimes I mess up too"
"Sometimes I feel like no one listens to my ideas"
"I think it is easier to work by myself"
"We would have never been able to finish this if we did not all work together"
"I really like what we made together"

These comments made me feel that students are really starting to understand teams and how they work, and sometimes how they do not work.