COOPERATIVE TUG OF WAR

Materials:

  Introduction:

Children below the age of three typically do not know how to cooperate or share. This lesson was developed for children at least three years of age. Have a heavy duty rope ready to show children to capture their attention and interest.

 Objective/Purpose:

 Children will cooperate using a rope to move a heavy object.

 Procedure:

1. Tell the children that they will be involved in an activity that involves working together in a special way called "cooperation." Ask children if they understand what that word means and have them practice saying the word a time or two.

2. Select a few individuals to work together to move a heavy object to demonstrate to others how it can be done.

3. Let the children determine how to attach the rope to the object and how to position themselves in order to be the most effective. This encourages problem solving. Watching children can encourage the others on.

4. After everyone has had a chance to work cooperatively to move a heavy object, bring the group back together to talk about the experience. Ask individual children or ask for a coral response as to the meaning of the word 'cooperation.' Ask children to share examples of how their classmates worked in a cooperative way and how being cooperative made them feel. Ask for examples of cooperation the children have seen in the classroom prior to this experience.

 Practice & Extended Activities:

 Have children talk about ways they can be cooperative with each other in the future, then have children draw, paint or model ways they can be cooperative, or ways they have seen other children be cooperative, in the classroom.

 Have children chart ways they were cooperative, or ways others were cooperative throughout the day, either in the classroom or at home. Have the children share these experiences orally with each other in group or in a journal.