"What's gonna work?.......Teamwork!"

At kindergarten we encourage and nurture teamwork. 'Teamwork - help each other' is the phrase we use. 

This week the trolley-car activity required teamwork from those wishing to participate. It wasn't a game you could play by yourself. You needed others to make it work. It required a cooperative effort by two or more children to move the trolley-car.

DJ called out "Who's gonna push me?"

Without teamwork it simply didn't work. 

Without teamwork you didn't go far at all. 

Without teamwork the trolley simply stayed still. 

The children figured out pretty quickly that this game wasn't much fun when there wasn't anyone to push them. It required the cooperation of a friend to push the trolley-car.

"We need teamwork to move", said DJ. "Ask Tain to push, he's really strong".

"Through interactions with others, children learn to take another's point of view, to empathise with others, to ask for help, to see themselves as a help for others, and to discuss or explain their ideas to adults or to other children" (Te Whaariki, 1996, p64). Through the trolley-car play, the children are all making a contribution, they are learning with and alongside each other. 

The best part about the trolley-car was being the driver and steering the trolley. The children enjoyed being the one in control and being able to determine where they wanted to go.

The children discovered that when they couldn't be the driver, it was actually quite fun to just be a passenger.

They also discovered that when the 'pushers' did teamwork, it was so much easier to move the trolley-car. 

When the trolley-car's wheels sank in the sand and the trolley-car stopped moving, the children used communication to problem solve. They voiced their ideas and listened to the suggestions of their friends, eventually finding a way to get out of the sand.

Life is not a game of Solitaire; people depend on one another. When one does well, others are lifted. When one stumbles, others also are impacted. There are no one-man teams—either by definition or natural law. Success is a cooperative effort; it’s dependent upon those who stand beside you.  

JON M. HUNTSMAN SR.