Day 1 Team-Building

We spent a portion of instructional time this morning on team-building activities designed to promote a cohesive and collaborative learning environment.

In one activity, students were asked to arrange themselves in a line according to the month of their birth without any verbal communication. In a second activity, one student directed two other blindfolded peers through a virtual "minefield" to an designated location in our classroom with only several verbal cues (front, back, left, right).

Students were given an opportunity to reflect on both activities and learned that communication and trust are essential ingredients in building a respectful and safe classroom culture.

Today's activities also aligned with the school theme for 2008-9: "Wise words are spoken gently," which, among other things, can best describe the manner in which students need to communicate with one another.