Cooperative learning is when students work together in small groups to complete a task or activity.
This is a great way for students to learn how to work together as a team and to follow directions.
It is also a great way to incorporate work training into the classroom.
Here are six games that you could use for partner or whole class instruction:
Fast Food- Have your students challenge each other to see who can make an ice cream cone the fastest! Give each student a stack of (3-5 cards) and see who can complete the order the fastest! My students love to turn this into a whole class challenge with the winners facing off.
Great way to incorporate work training into the classroom!
The Regular- Give your students one card at a time to memorize. They have to turn it over and build it without looking at the card.
Picky Eater- Partner up. One student is given the card, and the other student stands a few feet away throwing the ingredients at their partner. The person making the ice-cream cone is to only catch the necessary ingredients to make the burger and assemble it. Once each ice-cream cone has been completed students trade off who's throwing and who’s assembling.
I generally make this into a competition and give each team 3-5 ice-cream cones to complete.
Where is it?- Teams or individual players race to make their ice-cream cones, but they have the extra challenge of having to find the ingredients that have been hidden around the room.
I love having my other students hide the ingredients and tell their classmates if they’re getting hot or cold.
It’s All in the Team- Break your class into teams of 2-3 kids and have them complete to see who can properly assessable their ice-cream cones first. (5-7 cards per team)
Cooperative learning is a great way for students to learn how to work together as well as following directions.
These six games are great way to incorporate cooperative learning into your classroom while still working on important skills such as gross motor skills, following rules/directions, and attention.
Do you have any favorite games that you use in your classroom? Share them in the comments below!