Austin Road fifth graders participated in a dynamic team-building BOCES program and engaged in fun activities that fostered cooperation, planning, teamwork, communication and out-of-the-box thinking. In one exciting game, students worked together to solve the challenge of getting their whole team across a finish line and back without being seen moving. A student guide would face away from the group and the team would move forward with one student hiding a stuffed animal. The guide would turn to face the group again and if they could determine who was holding the stuffed animal, the whole team had to return to the starting line. Students had to strategize together to revise their plan to be successful in the task.
“The lessons learned through these games carried over to our classroom for group station work and also when students are solving problems during STEAM,” Mahopac fifth grade teacher Lisa Coen said. “The idea of planning and revising a plan is vital to solving STEAM challenges. We can refer back to the BOCES activities to remind students to plan, cooperate and communicate kindly in order to be most productive.”
In another team-building activity, students stood in a circle and selected a classmate to say hello and then throw a stuffed animal to them which was not allowed to hit the ground. That student then chose a different team member to greet and throw the animal to, and this went on until each student finished one pass. Another stuffed animal was introduced to the circle so that two were going at once. Students had to learn to communicate more effectively and discovered that speed is not always the solution. The fifth graders had fun failing and trying again and again before ultimately reaching success in finishing the task together.
Teams also used letter cubes and had to spell out a word together using only one clue. Some students emerged as leaders and some shared very creative ideas. The fifth graders learned to listen to each other and value the ideas of all members.
