The facilitator at SM preschool noticed that the class of 12 four to five year olds were establishing comfort zones and forming smaller groups within the class. They played with the same group of children and struggled with making new friends. To address this issue, on one of the morning hours, the facilitator set up an invitation to play with lego blocks and animal toys.
 
Children were given the choice to create something together as one team and were given 15 minutes. Even though children began to create something together, towards the end of 15 minutes there were two smaller groups and few children playing individually on their own.
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At the end of 15 minutes, children were asked to stop, leave whatever they were doing as it is and move to the side. Each of them were asked what their team was doing but they could only recollect and say what they were doing individually.

The facilitator reminded them of the initial goal of the activity and posed a question at the children, "What do you all think we can do now?"
"Maybe we can join everything together", T suggested and everybody agreed.

The children were given another 15 minutes to complete their task. At the end of that 15 minutes and a lot of mini conflicts, they had together built a gigantic animal carrier.

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When asked what they liked and disliked about working together as a team, the few things that emerged were:

Sh: We made so many different things and we attached it, I didn’t like it when J destroyed it.
T: I learn’t to do a big building with so many blocks with the team, I didn’t like when Ar destroyed what I made.
Ad: I liked to put the animals together with the team, I didn’t like J destroying it.
Ar: My team helped me make the big building, I didn’t like that there are a lot of items that are not used. I felt very bad when my team was not listening, only V was listening.
An: I learn’t how to build animal home with the team. I didn’t like everybody screaming and I was not able to hear others. Everyone was very loud screaming “I want to put it”.
Av: I liked building the animal carrier truck. I didn’t like that everyone was shouting.
Ad: I like about my team when they were doing a great building work.

So it is with anytime children work together, there is bound to be conflict, lack of feeling listened to, screaming and a lot of me-me-me. Even if at the end of it what they produce looks amazing the feeling of how the experience was stays with them and they continue to avoid collaboration.

As children listened to how they all felt at the end of the activity it started to create bridges between one heart to another and slowly mend fences from one child to another. At the heart of good team work and collaboration lies trust and at the heart of that lies empathy and listening with an open, non-judgmental mind is a good start!

Collaboration and team work are two of the most essential life skills. By learning to make new friends and collaborating with them at an early age, children become more tolerant and appreciative of others' ideas and develop a sense of social adeptness which they are going to carry with them through adulthood.

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#youngachieversacademy
#everychildcan

​Contributed by Yashika CG, Asst. Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz.

Thursdays at SM are always exciting!
Every Thursday we pick a book and read it with our 4- 5 year olds. Another reason why children look forward to Thursdays is because they get to take home a new book from their library. And this Thursday we chose to read a book called “Not a Box”. To help children connect better with the book, the class was set with empty cardboard boxes of different sizes for them to imagine and play with. 
 
As children came in, some were confused, some amused and some curious. Sh came inquiring about the boxes in the class,
Sh: Ma’am, why are these boxes in our class? Did you put them here?
F: Yes, I put them here. You can do whatever you want with them.
 
After this conversation, it was amusing to see the things children could imagine with mere empty boxes!
 
In the image below, all that can be seen at the first glance is probably just a bunch of children standing inside an empty box. But if looked a little deeper, a whole new world of theirs is what we will see.

For E, they are on a bus traveling to school where V is the conductor of the bus. For Ash, it's an aeroplane ship, an aeroplane that turns into a ship when it falls into the water and for Av, it's a submarine.

J pulled out a long strip used for compartmentalizing from inside one of the boxes, wrapped it around himself and said “Ma’am, this is my seat belt”.
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Ad and An playing ‘Peek a boo’.  And on and on they went with their wonder, excitement and endless bouts of imagination!
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Often as adults, we are so clouded by our understanding of how things work, that we forget to understand what it means to play. It then gets easier to teach children what things do before letting them tinker, experience and learn by themselves first. If we step back and observe with an intention to know them rather than teach them, we will see that everything that comes across as ambiguous about our children will begin to inspire us. They are exploring the new world around them, constantly making connections, learning from everything they see or do and reproduce it in different ways.

​And we can contribute in their journey by learning to explore with them. 


Contributed by Yashika CG, Asst. Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz.

An interesting conversation that took place with a 4 year old today during their usual library hour where I was issuing each of them books:

Me: K, come on up with your book. 
K (screaming with excitement): Ma'am I got 'Princesses are not just pretty' book this time!!
Me (surprised): WOW! How did you know the name of this book?
K (smirking, without a pause): That's because I am a clever clock!

K and I were having a moment of the witty comeback when H came up beside him and said, "Ma'am I only told him the name of this book".

To me, the witty comeback was a sign of K's growing confidence and his ability to make a good connection with what his friend.

​ What kind of wit or humour have you heard from your child recently? Do they make you laugh or cringe in pain knowing that they are shining a mirror onto your behaviour sometimes?

Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.

​A bright sunny morning, our 5-6 year olds were at the playground. They were divided into two teams to play a game of Dodge Ball. The rules were set and the teams were rearing to go. An had the ball in her hand as it was decided that she would start the game but Av wanted to be the one to start the game. He was trying to forcefully pull the ball away from An's hands. 

Seeing that his repeated requests are not working Av starts to cry. Soon the other children gather around. Some try to coax An while others try to convince Av, as they are keen on
getting back to the fun of playing the game. 

​D (walking up to An, trying to negotiate): An, see how Av is crying. Let him have the ball.
Av, now has an even more sad expression, looking for more supporters.
Few of the children agree saying Av should have the ball.
Av: Yes, An look how I am crying. Let me have the ball.
An is still not convinced.

D: Crying children only should have the ball. An, give the ball to Av.
Then turning to me, he says,
D: Ma’am, crying children should have the ball. Please tell An to give the ball.
Me: Okay, so every time a child cries, and we give the child what he wants, what will the child
learn?
Na: He will think, if I cry, I will get it
Me: Exactly, so is that a good solution?
Most of them disagree.

Me: Then D, if we now give the ball to Av because he is crying, are we helping Av?
D: No, ma’am.

This idea is dropped and they start looking for other ways to solve the problem. Av now decides
to wipe away his tears realizing that this is not working. 
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Now the children have separated into two groups, one group working on convincing Av and the
other group on convincing An. In Av’s group, D comes up with a proposal.
D: Ok, Av, you do one thing. When we go back to the class, you hold the ball.
Av suddenly brightens up and agrees. Now this group walks up to the other, to see if An would
agree to this proposal.
D: An, you can start the game now. When we go back to class, Av will hold the ball. Okay?
An: I’m okay with that

With Av and An agreeing to D’s proposal, finally the problem was resolved and the game
resumed. In the process, all of them had flexed their conflict resolution muscle and gained confidence that they can figure out solutions to problems no matter how unsolvable and unreasonable they may sound to begin with.
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As we step back and reflect on the incident, we realize that there are several things that children did right
1. They didn't give up in the face of repeat set backs to solve the problem
2. They came up with newer solutions from different dimensions, it was never more of the same
3. They didn't write off or judge either of their friends
4. They didn't take sides
5. They resolved the issue as a class, as a team
6. Despite emotions running high, they kept an ear open for a suggestion that would work
7. They understood that, perhaps, the dispute was just about who got to hold the ball, not about who started the game, that led to their creative solution (showing sprouts of empathy here!)
8. At no point, did they ask the facilitator to solve the problem for them, they persevered, they trusted themselves enough to continue working on it
9. The facilitator stepped back and only stepped in when there was a pull from the children (only to the extent necessary)

Children who experience trust in their capabilities from adults around them and learn to take ownership of their relationships, learning and more become confident problem solvers. They are an inspiration to each one of us, as children should be!

We wonder what inspirational lessons we will learn from our 5 year olds next?

Documented by Jennifer Christy, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool
Edited by Sreeja Iyer CEO Sparkling Mindz Global