{"id":4961,"date":"2016-03-21T17:49:45","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T21:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=4961"},"modified":"2016-03-23T19:03:16","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T23:03:16","slug":"cooperative-coloring-teaches-students-about-compromise-and-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/cooperative-coloring-teaches-students-about-compromise-and-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooperative coloring teaches students about compromise and collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can ants and aliens really get along?<\/p>\n

What about camels, cats and dogs?<\/p>\n

Do mermaids work together under the sea?<\/p>\n

Will wolves play nicely in a pickup game of football?<\/p>\n

Trantwood Elementary School counselor Lisa Lee got answers to these questions and more when she asked second-graders to participate in a cooperative coloring activity.<\/p>\n

Cooperation is the character trait featured in March as part of the PTA\u2019s Principles of American Citizenship program, and school counselors align their classroom lessons to each monthly trait.<\/p>\n

\"group<\/p>\n

Lee asked second-graders to illustrate as well as demonstrate cooperation working together in groups of three and four students.<\/p>\n

The catch?<\/p>\n

Each student could only use one colored marker throughout the entire process. They had to ask one another to draw with their respective colors as needed after coming to consensus on an idea.<\/p>\n

\"one<\/p>\n

There was potential for frustration and conflict; however, according to Lee, students in Ms. Delashmutt\u2019s class passed with cooperative flying colors.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me tell you what I saw. I saw lots of cooperation,\u201d praised Lee. \u201cI didn\u2019t hear any arguing, which is really great. I saw people compromising on their ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee asked pointed questions in a classroom discussion to encourage students to talk through their process.<\/p>\n

\"activity<\/p>\n

\u201cWas this activity difficult?\u201d Lee asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, because we talked to each other and knew what we were going to do,\u201d said Jasmine.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cooperated by talking about a plan that everyone agreed on,\u201d affirmed Lee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little bit hard because sometimes people tried to snatch markers out of people\u2019s hands even though you couldn\u2019t,\u201d admitted Anna.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s frustrating when you want to be able to draw something but you have to ask others to help,\u201d acknowledged Lee.<\/p>\n

The school counselor extended the discussion about challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did you handle conflict? Did anybody have a disagreement, and how did you compromise?\u201d Lee asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cElena and Brooklyn wanted to do a wolf pack and I wanted to do football,\u201d said Elias. \u201cSo we ended up with wolves playing football.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"wolves<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you compromised. That\u2019s wonderful, and I didn\u2019t hear a single argument,\u201d praised Lee.<\/p>\n

One group used the hand-game rock, paper, scissors to select the group\u2019s idea, while other groups decided to incorporate the ideas of every group member.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said that I wanted to put camels in it. And they wanted to put cats and dogs. So we put camels, cats and dogs,\u201d said a second-grader.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you were open to other people\u2019s ideas and you didn\u2019t say, \u2018No I don\u2019t want any camels! No I don\u2019t want any cats and dogs!\u2019\u201d reinforced Lee.<\/p>\n

It was time for each group to present its cooperative artwork with Lee holding the artwork for all to see.<\/p>\n

The first group\u2019s illustration featured aliens, fish and ants.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody wanted a different thing,\u201d explained the group, adding that the aliens had just crash landed on earth.<\/p>\n

\"aliens<\/p>\n

\u201cHow are they helping each other?\u201d asked Lee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aliens wanted food, and the ants brought it to them,\u201d said a group member pointing to ants carrying food on their backs.<\/p>\n

Another group incorporated their second-grade social studies lessons.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we\u2019re learning about Ancient Egypt, we drew Ancient Egypt people,\u201d explained one student. \u201cThese are the pyramids, this is the Nile River, these are the camels and this is the papyrus to make paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Egyptians\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are cooperating by building the pyramid,\u201d added a second group member.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould they have done that by themselves?\u201d Lee asked the class.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo!\u201d was the group\u2019s collective answer.<\/p>\n

Lee agreed, \u201cDefinitely not. They couldn\u2019t lift one brick by themselves. We even have a Pharaoh in here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The purple and yellow headdress on the Pharaoh was drawn by two students taking alternating turns to add their respective colors to the striped headdress.<\/p>\n

A third group drew a scene that was closer to home \u2013 their own classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our classroom during choice board,\u201d explained one student noting the Promethean board in the illustration. \u201cYou\u2019re there too, Mrs. Lee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"evans<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Evan\u2019s birthday is today, so we added Evan\u2019s birthday,\u201d said another group member.<\/p>\n

\u201cHappy Birthday, Evan!\u201d exclaimed a classmate watching the presentation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s showing how the class cooperates,\u201d Lee summarized. \u201cIt shows that this class is one big team, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

The last group\u2019s illustration featured colorful mermaids. Lee noted the uniqueness of each drawing as group members walked to the front of the room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love how every idea is different,\u201d recognized Lee. \u201cDo you think you would have been able to be as creative by yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"mermaids\"<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d responded the class in unison.<\/p>\n

Lee prompted the group, \u201cYour mermaids are working together to collect what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUm, they\u2019re actually baking,\u201d corrected a group member.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I\u2019m sorry. I didn\u2019t realize they are baking,\u201d confessed Lee.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, absolutely, mermaids baking,\u201d said Lee smiling and encouraged the group to continue.<\/p>\n

The school counselor concluded the lesson by commending all of their efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Delashmutt, I want to compliment your class. This cooperation coloring can be challenging for some. It\u2019s hard not to always get your way. And I didn\u2019t hear any unkind words. I heard respectful compromise. They used their skills to figure out who was going to do different tasks. I was really impressed. So give yourselves a round of applause. Excellent job,\u201d said Lee as students clapped and smiled.<\/p>\n

After her second-grade lesson, Lee described the cooperative activities she is conducting with other grade levels at Trantwood this month.<\/p>\n

\"cooperation<\/p>\n

First-graders are creating and presenting their own new species of animal in pairs of two. They might combine a snake and a horse. Maybe a new cat-dog breed is in the works.<\/p>\n

Third-graders will be working together to set up what Lee called a \u201cLeaning Tower of Feetza.\u201d They will use their own shoes to create the tallest possible freestanding structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t tried that yet, but it should be a lot of fun,\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n

Fourth-graders already created their own countries \u2014 complete with student-selected names, flags and national anthems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey loved it,\u201d said Lee. \u201cThere was one country dedicated to the pickle and so their national anthem was all about pickles; their country was shaped like a pickle. It was just great, and they have so much fun together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did it all in 20 minutes, no less\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some kids who struggle with it,\u201d said Lee, noting that cooperation is an important skill for both children and adults to develop and demonstrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really get the point of it,\u201d Lee said of the activities. \u201cIt takes communication. It takes not always getting your way and solving and compromising.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just ask Trantwood second-graders and their cooperative wolves, ants, aliens, Egyptians and mermaids.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can ants and aliens really get along? What about camels, cats and dogs? Do mermaids work together under the sea? Will wolves play nicely in a pickup game of football? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-4961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-trantwood-elementary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4971,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4961\/revisions\/4971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}