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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Setting Expectations for Group Work

I know...I know...you have heard me say this a million times.  It is important to have groups in science and to have individual jobs while you are working together!

So how do you introduce it the first time????

We begin by Introducing our science groups. Each group has 4 people in it (as best as possible - because I have 22 students I do have two groups with 5 in them).


Each child is assigned a color as you see.  Then I have a chart that shows the jobs. I can easily rotate the tiles daily to switch jobs.




We began working as groups by setting expectations.  If you are going to work as a group on a task, what do you need to do in order to be successful? And what do the jobs mean?





Then we worked on two simple tasks. The first was to work as a team to build a house of cards.
The next was to work as a team to solve a cup challenge. I love this second challenge! It is one I learned from FOSS several years ago and truly involves team work.  You will need 6 solo cups,1 rubber band and 4 strings (cut about 24 inches) for each team. To prep for the activity you will need to tie the string to the rubber band in four spots...like this...
Why?  It becomes your cup challenge tool.  Each person will hold on to one piece of the string and working together will manipulate the rubber band to grasp and move a solo cup.  Intrigued????

Get your students into their groups of four and send your Getter 1 to the materials spot to get 6 solo cups and one rubber band tool.

Students will need to make a structure that looks like this:
Have your Starter create this structure.


Then as a team, they will need to move the cups from this structure to a pyramid with three cups on bottom, then two cups then one on top.


These guys are showing you how to manipulate the tool and you can also see the finished product at the side.

When you are finished, have Getter 2 clean up the materials and return them to the materials spot.

And then, once everyone has returned to their seats, the Reporter from each group will share out what they did in their group that day (or in the future read their notebook entry.)

What do you think???








56 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, LOVE IT! Doing this tomorrow. :) Stumbled upon your site via Pinterest and have loved exploring the many applicable ideas. Thank you for taking the time to share them all!

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  3. This is such a great idea! I work as a customer service trainer and I am modifying this slightly to use a team building exercise. I am giving them all the materials, then they will have to figure out how to use them to move the cups from the center of one hula hoop and stack it in the center of another without touchingthe cups or leaning over the line. Thanks for sharing your idea!

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    1. Great Idea woth hula hoops... I work in teambuilding and will try this!

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    2. you mentioned not being able to lean over a line...can you explain more...

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  4. Looks like a ton of fun! Thank you so much for sharing :)

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  5. Looks like a great activity! What kind of string did you use?

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  6. Just regular string! It was what ever I had in my arts/craft drawer. The key is the rubber band!

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  7. Thanks for sharing. I love the idea! What size rubber band do you use? Also, do I need to buy any particular type?

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  8. Is it a special rubber band? A certain size?

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  9. Approximately how long did this activity take?

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  10. I used whatever rubber band I had in my classroom desk. Nothing special! With the expectation setting, grouping timing and activity = it takes a total of about 20 minutes. You may stretch it out (no pun intended!)by letting them do it over and over again. Trust me, they love it!

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  11. Love it! Teambuilding is so important for groups that will be working together.

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  12. Are the students able to place the rubber band on the cups to move them or do they have to work together to stretch out the rubber band and place it over the cup? I am loving this activity to introduce team building in my class for the first week of school next week with my 2nd graders.

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  13. The whole idea is to work as a team to stretch the rubber band out and grab the cup. I have done this with 4th graders and adults. I am not sure if 2nd graders at the beginning of the year can do it without placing the rubber band on the cup. Bottom line - you know your students best! If you think they need to put the rubber band around the cup first, then do it! :)

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  14. Hi science gal!

    What would you suggest if you have 22 students? Right now I have them I'm groups of 3 and 4. Would 3 work?

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  15. Sure! You would just need to have someone hold two strings.

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    1. Or just use the number of strings equal to the number of students. There are many ways to manipulate the tool to solve this problem. I,d love to see it done on a bigger scale to with larger groups and bigger lightweight objects or tipping water, beans, sand into a container...variations abound!

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  16. THANK YOU! I used this as a Day One problem solving activity for my 4th graders last Thursday. They LOVED it and so did I. Was great for teaching my group expectations and seeing who will need work on their cooperative skills without things getting messy. My kids left the first day saying "fouth grade is awesome!"

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  17. I have been using this idea for over 20 years. The variations are endless. My preference is to use cups of different sizes and have students dream up new structures to create. To add a little stress put water in the cups! Adding pebbles or sand can also help create different challenges. Kindergarten kids love this activity.

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  18. Love this idea. Will definitely be using it the first week! Thank you!

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  19. Found on Pinterest and completed today - the kids LOVED this!!! Thank you for sharing - we had a blast!!

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  20. I love, love, love this activity and I am going to try it out next week when we start! Thanks for sharing :)
    Cheers,
    Terri
    Terri's Teaching Treasures

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  21. Just completed the activity with 3rd graders. Had 3 strings on a rubber band with 3 students in a group. Worked wonderfully!!! Thank you for such a cool idea!

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  22. What an excellent activity! It sure would show you how each student works in a group. Thanks!
    -Lisa
    Grade 4 Buzz

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  23. Is there a data sheet you used?
    Thanks great idea!

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  24. so they can place cups on ground and change hands or strings with the other person? or do they have to flip them over holding the same string they started with?

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  25. Yes, they figure out how to flip it by switching the strings usually. Sometimes they are even more creative!

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  26. This idea will be used in my lesson tomorrow!!! AWESOME!

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  27. I did this with kids between 8 and 11 they LOVED it! Thanks for the great idea!

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  28. Thank you for sharing. Love it, can't wait to try it my 6th graders!

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  29. Thanks Leslie! I'm working at an international school in China and this will be perfect when we return from break in August.

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  30. Using this tomorrow for my cub scout group, definitely think they'll love it!

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  31. I used this idea last year with my class and they loved it. Do you have any other similar ideas that I could try this fall?

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  32. Whatever would the fifth person be doing during this activity?

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  33. Can't wait to try this with my 7th graders! I'm starting at a new (to me) school, and I'm a little (ok, a lot!) anxious. I have taught ELA in 20 years! Wish me luck.

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  34. Love this idea! I will be using it next week with my fourth graders. I can't wait to see how it goes!

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  35. Love this! Now do you give them direction on how to get it done or do you have them figreat it out on their own?

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  36. Did this today & it was fantastic. My 6th graders really understood the message that they needed to work together. I watched one of my more difficult students display unexpected leadership skills. It helped me see some of my students in a different light.

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  37. Hi Science Gal,

    I was wondering if you could provide some insight into what the reporters role is. Do they report back to the whole class or just keep notes on a graphic organizer for the group?

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    1. Yes, the reporter shares what results their group got in any experiment/investigation. In this way, you are only responsible for calling on 6 people rather than 24 kids. Sometimes they read their notebook entry, other times they report out data.

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  38. I love this!! I am so doing this next week!!!!!

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  39. I really impressed after read this because of some quality work and informative thoughts . I just wanna say thanks for the writer and wish you all the best for coming!.
    dmit test

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  40. Thanks Anonymous! you are very nice post. You have made clear that what is quick team building activities and why should we need it.Your explanation about employees importance really inspired me Nice blog. Keep cheering up Team building games.

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  41. This is great on a larger scale too... I've seen Low Ropes Initiative Courses at camps to a similar activity, though it was ropes attached to a large tire, fitting it over wooden beams without touching the post...

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  42. If you are going to work as a group on a task, what do you need to do in order to be successful? www.accoladecorporateevents.co.uk

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  43. I am loving this and trying it with my new class this week. We actually had a staff in-service yesterday at an outdoor camp and we had to do a similar activity with a large bungee attached to ropes around the outside. Some were not blind folded and others were....the non blind folded people gave directions and the blind folded people were supposed to pick up a bucket of balls with the bungee (Same technique as above) and then we had to walk the bucket to another circle to deposit it. It was hard but showed the importance of working together, giving specific directions, etc. When I saw the course yesterday and immediately thought of this activity that I had seen. Thanks for sharing!

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  44. Love your activity. I was visiting The Science Penguin and she wrote about your Cup Challenge. I will be doing this activity with my 4th graders and using it as a guide to teach them about our science rubric and what will be expected from them. I have never done a science interactive notebook and this year I am following The Science Penguin and beginning my journey. I am thankful that she shared your idea. The kids are going to love this. I will be sharing how my students do at the end of this week on my blog and I will definitely mention your blog. Thanks again.
    Tammy
    Mrs. Flickinger's Butterfly Oasis

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    1. The Science Penguin does have some really good ideas. I hope you will continue to follow my blog as well as we dive into science notebooks in a different way.

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  45. This was a great team building activity for the kids!! Great way to kick off the science curriculum and group work!

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  46. Thanks for any other informative about tro choi team building. Where else could I get that type of info written in such a perfect means? I have a project that I am just now running on, and I have been on the glance out for such info.

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  47. Hi, I am from Turkey. This is perfect. Thanks for idea.

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  48. Thank you for sharing. Love it, can't wait to try it...i have also tried many activities like escape room.Escape room is the team building activity that everyone loves to play.

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