My how time flies! It is hard to believe that the end of the
year is quickly approaching. We have had a blast this week with our counselor
lessons in first grade. In first grade, we discussed the importance of working
together in a group. To begin the lesson, I read the book, Teamwork Isn’t My
Thing and I Don’t Like to Share! By Julia Cook. Julia Cook is a former
school counselor and give great insight to kids struggling with various topics.
In this book, RJ, the main character, does not want to work as a team…he would
rather work alone! Toward the end of the book, however, RJ realizes that
sharing some of the work with his teammates makes his part easier!
In order to see how well each class worked together in
groups, I assigned each student a number, which represented a color. For
instance, #1s were red and could only use a red crayon to color their picture.
Each picture, however, had several different numbers on it. In order for the
students to get their pictures fully colored, they had to politely ask another number to color that part of their picture for
them. After the activity, we got together and discussed how working together
and sharing work can sometimes be hard and sometimes it can be easy.
Questions
the students answered after the activity were:
1.
What was the hardest thing about sharing your
work and getting your picture colored?
2.
Did some people work harder than others? (Don’t
mention names)
3.
Did others ask you politely for your help?
4.
Did you try to do neater or messier work for
someone else than you would have done for yourself?
5.
Why do you think it is important to share work?
This activity was SO fun and sparked really great
conversation! The first graders really got the hang of asking a teammate to
politely help color their picture. I am so proud of them! J
Have a great weekend and rest of the school year!
-Mrs. Bagby
