Contributed by Shirley G., Owner/Director, Tampa, FL
Dramatic play that requires children to work together is a proven method of teaching teamwork and honing social skills. Games on the basketball court may involve making a low basket without anyone moving her feet. To begin this type of game, have children run around the court, then shout “freeze” and tell them their feet have frozen to the ground, but they still have to play basketball. Those closest to the basket, which must be lowered prior to the game, will be shooters, and other players must pass the ball to each other, while avoiding the opposing team’s arms. Allow children to tinker with the imaginative aspects of this game. They may imagine they are in a frozen river, or that they are on their own ice patches, unable to move closer to one another. Imagine, perhaps, that the basket is a fire and the balls are the wood, then keep the fire going by tossing in as much wood as possible by using teamwork.
