I will never, I mean NEVER set up my class tree again! From now on my students will set up the tree!
At one of my Guided Math stations, students had to set up our Christmas tree. I scattered the branches around the pole and went to work with my groups at the guided math table. As I worked with my groups, I kept an eye on the tree building station. It was hard not to give suggestions. It was SO cool to see students successes and failures. It was AWESOME to see the students that emerged as leaders. (Not the students I would have thought!)
For the entire math block, groups rotated in and out of this station, but the tree was never put together correctly.
When math time was over, we gathered around the tree to discuss what kept us for correctly assembling the tree. Here is what my students came up with...
1. We were not communicating
2. Everyone was doing their own thing
3. We didn't have a plan
I was impressed.
So, we took apart what we had done and started over using the strategies that we just brainstormed. We talked. We developed a plan. We worked together and not on our own. In 30 minutes, we did what we couldn't accomplish during our hour math block.
This lesson was SO worth it! Not just for math and problem solving, but for building team work! When we were done building the tree, we sat around our accomplishment and shared what we learned and how we can apply it to ANY group work situation.
Click on the link below to see my class blog post with pictures!
Mrs. Wanke's Wonderful Whales: Building the Tree: On Wednesday, Mrs. Wanke put all the parts of the tree on the floor and we had to work together as a team to correctly build the tree. ...
