A Creative New Way of Teaching Teamwork Skills!
Working effectively as part of a team is an essential skill that children need to learn early and will need throughout the rest of their lives.
Operating in a team is a great way of getting children to understand and respect the opinions and needs of others, and to accommodate them in working towards a shared goal. When children learn to be effective team members they learn:
- Better communication skills
- How to co operate in order to achieve a shared goal
- How to appreciate the skills of others
- How to help others who may be struggling
- What friendly competition is all about when competing against other teams
- Better management of emotions
The benefits of teamwork for children are well documented, and include improved self esteem, confidence and social skills. As a teacher, provider of S.E.N. or someone involved in shaping children’s education, you may be looking for fresh new ideas to help foster teamwork activity. After all, it’s not only sports in which teamwork comes into play.
Green Fingered Teams…
You may already have considered gardening as a great way of getting children outdoors into the fresh air in order to undertake some gentle but fun physical activity. But did you know that gardening can also be a superb tool for teaching good teamwork?
It’s a simple case of dividing the class into teams and giving them the goal of growing the most impressive plants according to pre-determined criteria such as ‘tallest sunflowers’, ‘most colourful range of flowers’, ‘biggest tomatoes’ or whatever you decide to be the most appropriate aim.
With many schools lacking space for a garden, one solution is to consider raised planters. Giant planters are ideal if they are safe, strong and robust in use. Choose one with a self-regulating reservoir so that plants can remain healthy during weekends or school holidays without parents or other teachers having to water them. Something frost-proof and crack-proof with a lifetime guarantee against rotting would be best.