Encouraging Growth Mindset and Teamwork

This past week and a half has been busy with students getting readjusted to school. I had the opportunity to meet with 3rd - 5th grades to talk about growth mindset and teamwork.

Third graders were challenged to work with their groups to recreate a paper structure like the one below (which is almost impossible without instructions - trust me).

While I didn't know if any of the groups would be successful, I knew they would struggle. During their attempts, I heard students saying, This is so hard, I give up, Never give up, We don't get it but we keep trying. I was so proud of these third graders for persevering through this difficult task. No group was able to make the structure but after we had a conversation about struggle and growth mindset. It is so promising to see such young students committed to putting forth their best effort and tackling new challenges.

In fourth grade, their challenge was a little different. They had to work as a team to write the word "Learning" by holding onto strings attached to a marker. You can see their attempts below. What amazed me was after they tried for about 5 minutes, they were still going! When we talked about the activity, they highlighted the importance of cooperation and collaboration - their words, not mine!

Fifth graders had yet another challenge - to build a Lego structure. The tricky part is there is only one architect in the group and they aren't allowed to see what they're supposed to build. The other group members had to explain to the architect how to build the structure but they couldn't use any verbal communication - no words, no noises, no grunts! They had to be very creative with how they approached the building process. Some groups came very close while others had a more difficult time. You can see their final structures below. After time was up, students discussed the importance of teamwork and thinking hard!