Yo! Yes? It's all about communication!

Our Teamwork focus came to a close at the end of January, and we ended off the theme discussing the importance of communicating with a team in order to accomplish a goal. We read Yo! Yes? by Chris Raschka, and looked at Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport.

We focused on Martin Luther King Jr. as a prelude to Black History Month, and also because the timing coincided with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We looked at how he was able to get such a large group of strangers to come together despite their differences to achieve a common goal. We concluded that he was an excellent communicator and listened to others, and was able to speak well.

In Yo! Yes? We meet two young men, who say very little to each other, but they use other means of communication to come together. They focus on each other's needs, and are able to come together.

After reading this story, we tried as a group (each class) to create a shape using our hands. In order to be successful we needed to make sure that in our team, we made everyone feel important and communicated our ideas. The end results varied from each class. Some classes were successful, others were not. Each class however did realize the importance of communication by the end of the activity!