Guidance Lesson: Team Work, Collaboration, Communication & Concentration

Grade Level:  Elementary School – 6th Grade

Teamwork constitutes as an ability to attend to both their personal needs and those of the    group/person that they are working to accomplish a task with.
Collaboration is, an ability to build and maintain trust, embrace change, improve your self-awareness, make decisions, foster communication, and create learning experiences.
Communication is the ability to effectively interact within a group or with another person.
Concentration is the ability to focus one’s attention or mental effort on a particular object or task.


Objectives
The learning objectives that we are trying to achieve are, to give the students the skills to interact with others in classroom group activities.  To guide them in the importance of using the concepts of team work, collaboration, communication and concentration in accomplishing a group task. The students will understand the use of these qualities will be beneficial to them now and in the future, both inside school and outside of school.

The activities meet the objectives of the lesson by brainstorming, doing a hands on lego tasks in which the concepts mentioned above are needed to successfully complete the task and a reflection hand out as well as a poster activity to reflect and review the main activity. The activities keep the students engaged by requiring creativity, concentration and working together with others. Competition is also involved

Materials:

• Legos (14-40 pieces per pair, depending on grade level)
• Plastic bags
• Dividers (paper boards)
• Hand outs
• Poster board
• Markers

Activities for the Students
Lego activity:

1. Students are divided into pairs. Each pair receives 40 Legos with a matching pair of each piece. Legos are divided up between the partners so that each partner has the same exact pieces. One partner will build a Lego figure while a divider is placed between the pair. Once one partner is finished building, he/she explains to his/her partner how to build the Lego figure using only verbal cues. Partners are not allowed to look at each other’s figures. When finished, figures are compared and the roles of the partners switch.
2. Students receive a hand out to reflect in the Lego activity as a pair
3. Whole class discussion about the activity using the questions on the reflection hand out
4. Every group will pick out one to two important skills they used during the activity and write it on a poster

Overview

Topics covered are decision- making, problem- solving, responsible behavior, and communication skills, concepts the lesson focuses on are teamwork, collaboration, communication, and concentration.  Activate previous knowledge by brainstorming about teamwork and reviewing concepts. Create anticipation by announcing to “test their skills”

Resources:
Activity retrieved from Pinterest: http://counseloretc.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/working-together-with-legos/
Teamwork: http://mystic-place.tumblr.com/post/371994355...
Communication: http://missventrella.blogspot.com/2012/08/mon...
Collaboration: autismclassroomnews.com
Concentration: http://www.sheetmusicfox.com/Song/58552/Sy...