Problem solving success

On Tuesday we talked about the problems kids were having building with the colored blocks. I was not limiting the number--and it generally started out alright--but then degenerated into arguements about people not having enough blocks, who was building with whom. I felt that I was just putting band-aids on the situation when I went over to problem solve with them. We needed to step back to think about the problem, so I made it a topic for discussion during morning meeting. I described the problem and asked the kids to think about how they could solve it. One girl said it was "a boys problem" and when they fought, they should be sent to the principals office.



One of the issues that is a frequent focus of disagreement is how many blocks each building has--and if two children are working together--then they need more than a child working alone.
So the solution that we agree upon, is that there are four colors of block, so four children can use the blocks at a time, each one getting all the blocks of one color. If two children want to combine their blocks they can work together. The first day that we used this method, one child picked a color of blocks, but his best friend was on the waitlist to use the blocks. So he invited his friend to work with him with those blocks.

The same day, three boys wanted to play a lotto game with pictures of animals, but there are four game cards and three boys. The matching cards are all together in a bag to be drawn. At first one child (he is the type of child who wants to be first, have the most, and win all the time) took two cards and the other two boys each had one card. The two boys, pushed their cards together, and then the first child objected--I think he figured out that if the two boys were each getting a turn to draw cards they would fill up their cards faster than him. So he proposed that they push all four cards together, and as they drew out the matching cards, they would find the match and place the card on the game board. After several rounds, the first child, drew two cards at one time and placed them on the board. "Hey, you drew two cards." objected one of the other players. As I was sitting near by, I just looked at him and said, "You draw two cards too. I guess he is changing the rules." The rest of the game proceeded with them passing the bag around, drawing two cards, and then finding the match. They all cheered for themselves when all the matches were made.