Teamwork

Social Studies

What You Need

• A deck of playing cards or index cards for each group
• A bag of identical "building supplies" for each group (These may include: index cards, rubber bands, small pieces of masking tape, paper clips, toilet paper rolls, paper cups, etc.)
• Yardstick

What to Do

1. Divide the class into groups of 4 - 6 students. Distribute a deck of cards to each group. Tell students they will have 5 minutes to build a structure that has at least 4 stories. They may only use the cards.

2. During the building session, circulate to observe and answer questions, but do not provide any assistance in the building of the structures. Call time at exactly 5 minutes. (Anticipate that most groups will be unable to solve the problem.)

3. Ask if any groups successfully solved the problem or were close to solving the problem. Then write the word teamwork on the board. Ask the students what attitudes and behaviors were helpful in their attempts to solve the problem. List key words, phrases and ideas under teamwork.

4. Write the words NOT Teamwork! on the board. Ask students to list some of the attitudes and behaviors they encountered that made their group less successful in working together.

5. From these two lists and their own experiences, ask each group to create 5 guidelines for successful teamwork in a cooperative setting. Share lists with the class.

6. Tell students they will have one more opportunity to work together. Distribute bags of building supplies. Tell students they will have 10 minutes to build a structure that is at least 3 feet high, using only the materials at hand. Once again, circulate during the building, but do not interfere with the process. Call time at the end of 10 minutes. (Most groups should have completed the task successfully.) Use the yardstick to measure each structure.

7. Ask groups to share their structures and to comment on the cooperative problem-solving process they used. Ask each group to comment specifically on which guidelines helped their teamwork the most.

TEACHER OPTIONS

• Have students write a class definition for teamwork to post on a wall.

• Students may list specific situations in their lives where teamwork is helpful.

• Have students observe situations in their school where teamwork is important and report about them to the class.

• Students may observe out-of-school settings in their community where teamwork is important. They may choose one setting and report about it to the class.

• Students may create and share a 5 - 10 minute "problem" for the class to work on.