Character Counts – Cooperation
As autumn came to a close and the new winter season came upon us, Aaron School students were excited to learn about the new Character Trait of the Season: COOPERATION! In Social Skills and Peer Group classes, students began learning just what cooperation means and how they can be more cooperative with their friends, teachers, and families.
Cooperation is:
- Working together to do what is best for the whole group
- Choosing to be a “thinking of others kid” rather than an “all about me kid”
- Practicing flexibility and showing good sportsmanship
- Learning how to compromise and problem solve with others
- Listening to and supporting others to reach a common goal
Students are learning ways they can be more cooperative by taking responsibility for their actions, playing fair, following the rules, encouraging others, being good listeners, sharing and compromising! Teachers and counselors have implemented fun and engaging lessons to help students understand and develop these cooperative skills, such as playing “telephone” where the class needs to work together to get a verbal message from one end of the room to the other! Some classes also engaged in activities like Continuum and Indian Chief. Middle School classes worked as a group to create a human knot, as well as in pairs to draw while blindfolded with the help of a partner!
In one class, students were broken up into three teams and each team was given one piece of construction paper, one glue stick, and one pair of scissors. Then they were challenged to make the longest linked paper chain using only these materials in a given amount of time! Students were encouraged to be cooperative by making sure each team member was participating and listening to the group’s thoughts and ideas on how to make the longest paper chain. The students came to the conclusion that by being patient, communicating with each other, and COOPERATING together, they were able to reach their goal successfully!
In another class, students worked together to build a snowman while at the park! One student built the snowman’s body while a few other students looked for creative materials to make the snowman’s facial features and arms! Together, they were able to make an adorable snowman, which was much more fun to do as a TEAM!
