Cooperative Learning in Kindergarten

Today I paired up my class and in honor of Groundhog's Day we drew each other's shadows.

My class has been pretty wild this week and the end of yesterday was absolute chaos so I did not have very high hopes for this activity. Surprise! It was so beautiful. They were amazed, enthused, engaged, and didn't want to stop.

I let the leader for each group (remember my five colors?) choose their own partner and then I paired up the rest randomly. Somehow, this worked: it seemed fair to everyone that the leaders got to choose, and I only had to make six more pairs to finish off.

Each person took turns tracing the other's shadow, and then they switched. Next they filled in the outlines with details. When it was over, they had a terrific time walking around trying to guess who's was whose.

Someone edit that last sentence please.

I highly recommend this game. (I introduce just about everything to my class as a "game" - it makes everything sound more appealing.) The only thing better about today was delicious muffins in the teachers' lounge.