Last semester the K2 students of Pah Tsung School were trying to work in a team. The theme that was being carried out was “Taking Care of Nature” (Week 15, 20th November 2018).

In this art and craft activity children were asked to create a jungle using used cardboard, crumpled paper, and pictures of trees and animals. It would be impossible to finish this activity in 30 minutes if they did it individually. So the teacher divided them into six groups consist of three students. Each member of the group carried out different task such as cutting, crumpling papers and pasting the crumpled paper to make the trees.

While the children were creating the jungle they had to communicate with each other about the colour of the leaves they had to paste, work together side by side crumpling the papers, and also make decision on where to put the animal pictures they had cut. I noticed that when doing the crumpling together, the children also modelled for each other different crumpling techniques or preferences.

It was amazing to see how they responded to this  task. They had tried their best to follow the teacher’s instruction, reminded others who seems to be misbehaved, controlled their emotions not to offend their partners and learnt to be polite when borrowing things such as glue and scissors.  It was so touching to see even the most difficult kids in the class got so absorbed in their work. And to see how these kids smiled to his friends and built a communication was overwhelming. The children looked at ease with each other and had fun when they accomplished their task.

Teamwork or community building activities are not only fun and engaging, but they support children in forming friendships, they promote kindness and empathy and they set the foundation for the skills needed for their future.