Materials
- Variety of vegetables
- Chopping knife (adult only)
- Plastic knives
- Large cooking pot
- Stove
Instructions
- This is a good soup to make around Thanksgiving and share it with friends and other teachers.
- Talk about the first Thanksgiving with the children and discuss how the Native Americans and Pilgrims shared food with each other.
- Explain that they will be making soup to share with their friends.
- Ask each child to bring in a vegetable. It is a good idea to hang up a list of suggestions outside your room (such as onion, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, frozen corn, frozen peas, celery, large can of stewed tomatoes, and so on).
- Use a chopping knife to cut all the vegetables into chunks. Ask the children to use plastic knives to cut the vegetable chunks into smaller chunks. Talk about the smell, color, and texture of each vegetable.
- Put all of the vegetables into a large pot on a stove. Add a little water, salt, and pepper and cook it for about 45 minutes, or until all the vegetables are soft.
- As the children are eating it, talk about friendship and sharing.
Instructions
1. The first few times you do this activity, adults will have to assist. Ask the
children to group into pairs ("teams"). Each pair of children chooses a puzzle
and takes it to their work spot.
2. Ask the children to take turns removing a piece of the puzzle, until the puzzle
frame is empty. (If they do each puzzle twice, the person that went second
the first time goes first the next time they choose pieces.)
3. Then encourage the children to take turns putting in one of their pieces until
the puzzle is complete.
4. Ask the teams to return their puzzle and choose another one. Repeat the
turn-taking activity.
5. Two puzzles are good to begin with. The children can increase the amount
they do as they get better at working together. Soon the children can be more
independent forming their teams, choosing the puzzles, and taking turns.
More to do
Form teams randomly so the children can work with a variety of people. For
example, draw names from a hat, pick teams by clothing items, and so on.
More Social Development: Practice doing other things in "teams." For example,
ask the children to walk in pairs when going places. Encourage the children to
practice teamwork by helping each other and working together.
Books: Read stories about sharing, such as Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.
Language: Take photos of teams working together and make a "Cooperation
Poster" of the class. Talk about the photos and teamwork.
