Fair Ways to Play

We're beginning a project in both first-grade classrooms about how to solve common recess conflicts that occur. 

We've been learning ideas from some great Second Steps (social skills curriculum) lessons. We've learned the steps to problem solving. Each step starts with a letter in this acronym: STEP. Ask your child if they can tell you the "S step," the "T step," and so on. It's amazing how helpful a catchy song on the CD player can be to help things like this stick in our brains!

S: State the problem (without blame)

T: Think of solutions (lots of possible ideas of what to do)

E: Explore consequences (what might happen if we did each of these solutions, how might we each feel)

P: Pick the best solution

We also learned some fair ways to play for times when two children want to use the same set of blocks, for example. Here are some ways to play fairly:

• sharing,
• taking turns, and
• trading

We look at situations in a photograph or in a two-minute video, brainstorm solutions, then find out what the characters pick. Then we try to relate it back to our own lives during the week. We often do some role playing, which students love. Here we are practicing some friendly language for turn-taking with a book.