Cooperative Construction – Working Together To Create

One of my preschoolers favourite circle time activities as of late is ‘cooperative construction’.

We sit in our circle and put a large pile of blocks off to one side. One by one, the children add a block to the centre of our circle until voila! Our building is born!

As their construction is coming along I encourage the children to talk about why they are putting their block where they are and what they think their building is looking like – the ideas always vary wildly, from rocket ships, to princess castles, to waterslides and big cities!

Despite the fact that only one child is acting at a time and it can be a lengthy (for 4 year olds!) process, I never have a problem keeping the childrens focus – they are enthralled every time.

This activity builds on cooperation; trial and error; cause and effect; patience; turn taking; respect; communication and fine motor skills.

I LOVE BLOCKS!

Compliment Circles in Preschool

At preschool, we have been taking part in what I call a ‘compliment circle’ (thanks to Teacher Tom for the idea!).

We sit in a circle and one by one we go around and tell the person to our left something we like about them.

When we first did this, the compliments were fairly superficial – “I like your jacket” for example. This was fine as it still brought a smile to the face.

Very quickly though, my wonderful 4 year olds have progressed to comments such as “I like playing with you because…” and “I love you for being my friend” – enough to bring a proud tear to this teacher’s eye! The children are also big fans of the ‘group hug’ at the end – a creation all their own!

We love our compliment circles and I have noticed a significant drop in ‘nasty behaviour’ – because (as we say in my room) it ‘feels better to say something nice than to do something nasty‘ – right? 🙂