Working Together Works

Bees understand what it means to be part of a team. With 20,000 to 60,000 bees in one colony, teamwork is essential for their survival. The workers, the drones, and the Queen bee all have specific jobs to do in order to produce up to 60 kilograms of honey per hive. Some birds are also known to work as a team.  Chickadees tend to look for food on the outer, thinner branches of trees while Nuthatches forage for insects hidden in bark crevices. By foraging together, they cover more areas of a tree, increasing the overall success rate of finding food. Our guiding question for today was “How can humans build healthy relationships with one another in order to work better as a team?”

Think of some of the challenges you experienced today. Did anyone help you overcome them?

Who do you call when you're stuck up to your waist in deep, wet snow?

The Toe-Truck crew from Coyote Nature school, of course!

A friend in need is a friend indeed!

Have you been watching any of the Olympics in the last week? What events require athletes to work together as part of a team? We looked at events like the luge, the bobsleigh, and the skeleton and decided to take on a project of our own called the Sled and Slope Challenge. Our job was to work with a partner to design and build a mini sled that would slide the farthest down a slope.

First we tested out different materials by trying to slide down the hill beside the hall. How did your slider work?

A cafeteria lunch tray The clear lid from a bin A piece of insulating foam

Definitely NOT an old cookie sheet!

Find your mini sled in the photos below and explain how you and your partner worked together to build it. How did your sled perform? What problems did you and your partner have with this challenge? How did you solve them?

You are all making great progress with your poetry projects and some of you are even working on your good copies. Take a peak at what your friends have written. Did you help anyone by giving them some suggestions or ideas? If you did, then that’s another fine example of Herons working as a team.

As we continue to focus on working as a team this year, please don't forget about the message in the story we read today. Instead of being a 'Won't' person, see if you can be a 'Possibly' person or a 'Maybe' person or even 'I'll give it a try' person. Great things can happen in life when you have a positive attitude.