Synergize Structures

Our school uses the book The 7 Habits of Happy Kids as part of our Character Ed program. I love this book because it not only instills great character traits that the kids really understand and use, but it also has on level stories to complement each habit.  This past week our focus habit was synergize: together is better. This is one of my favorite habits to teach and reteach!! We are always having to work together to complete tasks and solve problems and this one always seems to be a tricky one for the kids to be successful at.  

After really introducing and using role pay to teach these habits I always try to do a fun “wrap up” activity.  This last week I decided to give them a challenge.  This challenge required them to work together as team, come up with a plan, and successfully create a free standing tower.  The catch was they only had spaghetti noodles, 1 paper plate, marshmallows, and straws (mean…right?).  Here are some pictures of the synergizing going on!   

During this process I loved hearing the conversations that were had by all the members of the group.  Some of the ideas were pretty amazing and others just off the wall.  I am happy to say that ALL of my kids completed this task with success! I will say that the group that was the most successful were calm, listened to each other, and were always very helpful to one another.  The group that had the most trouble didn’t have a plan and all of them were trying to do it on their own. This made for a great discussion afterwards.  All-in-all this lesson was great! What do you do to help build character in your class?  Please share.