Cooperation!

Some people claim that competition is an innate human trait. Even if that is true, my experiences everyday in our early childhood classroom prove that cooperation is just as basic to our human nature, yielding great joy in working together, accomplishing goals, and feeling like an important part of the group.

Over the past several days we have been playing cooperative board games, and the Owls are delighted with the games. (They all come from the company The Peaceable Kingdom.) In one game, we work together to "rescue" the chicks who have escaped from their chicken coops. We have to round them all up before the momma chicken gets back to the coop. When someone hits a high number, everyone cheers! When someone gets a fox, releasing on chick from the coop, everyone laughs and pretends to be scared of the fox. When we work together and win the game, there are high fives all around, and even some "chicken dance."

 Three year-olds are interested in the story of the game, but sometimes need help with the counting or the rules. Four and five year olds love learning (and enforcing) the rules, working together, escalating the excitement of the game as the goal approaches! In competitive games, this can lead to heartbreak when there is one winner and many losers, and even anxiety over the risk of playing and losing. Young children already have plenty of experience not getting what they want, and they have plenty of time to learn the lessons of competition once they have developed an understanding of skills-based successes. And the lessons and joys of cooperative games are so wonderful!

Cooperation was blossoming in other areas of the classroom as well! Many Owls joined Kevin in constructing a rocket ship! They have often built rocket ships out of the big blocks, and today they took a major design step as they added the smaller unit blocks to their work!

At Morning Meeting, we made an amazing list, continuing to document our knowledge about babies!

And in the Art Center, we embarked on a new adventure in color mixing! Using squeeze bottles, we mixed primary colored tempera paint. The Owls were delighted to be color scientists, discovering what different combination made. They were even more excited when they got to take their custom colors to the easel and paint on giant paper!

Portraits, Swimming Pools and Mail Delivery

Today a few friends sat in front of the mirror and drew something very familiar to them...themselves! We began the process of creating self portraits. The Owls honed their creative feathers by trying out a new medium-oil pastels. They were introduced to the concept of blending colors through rubbing the pastels on the page together, and some of them greatly enjoyed the blending process. We will be continuing this activity over the course of the rest of the week.

The Owls are also (re)discovering the wonderful capabilities of blocks. They became interested in the block area as soon as they walked into the room this morning, which is a section that is very "hot or cold" in our classroom. They began experimenting by sequencing the blocks in different ways, which culminated in the creation of a giant swimming pool in the block area! The level of creativity, cooperation, and excitement was a joy to see.

 

We also began trying out our mailboxes with their intended purpose--depositing mail for each other! Friends were very excited to continue with their letter writing process, and directed the letters towards other Owls in the class. Excitement lit up their faces when some realized that they had a letter in their mailbox. We are only just beginning this process, so although not everyone has received mail yet, the wealth and love with definitely be shared.

 Other things to make a happy day:

Quite a delightful tea party...pinky out!

Underneath poses!