We talked about a ton of "C's" today (Constitution, cooperation, citizenship, and compromise.) We have to do a lesson on the Constitution today and so we had some fun exploring history as best we could. After watching a video, we went outside and I split the kids up into different sized groups and named them by states. We voted on which kids got to go play in the grass and I let every kid vote. The largest state won and got to play in the grass (although I had a bunch of students who voted for others and almost broke the simulation.) Nice Kids. It elicited the intended "Not Fair" cries. We then gave each group a vote and the smallest state had two much power.
I really hope that they internalized the debate at some level. We spoke of compromise and cooperation as the leaders of the states built the law of our land. It is a really tough subject for second graders, but I hope they had fun and at least understood some of the challenges of the Constitutional Convention. I am still working on the best way to make this day fun for my students.
We have some work to do on cooperation as our team hit some snags today, but we will be meeting tomorrow morning to solve our differences and positively set goals as a class. I love the support students are showing for their classmates and this extra work will lead to a better year for all of us. Above all, we will learn to be a team and to care about each other.
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