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!
