Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Watch the episode

10 minutes

Find Out: Exploring teamwork

35 minutes

Take Action: Build a house

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning Intentions

Students will:

understand what teamwork is and what the benefits of teamwork can be
recognise the role of creativity in solving problems.

Success Criteria

Students can:

use paper shapes to create common household objects and environments
demonstrate creative problem-solving skills
work together to achieve a joint goal
manage limited resources.

Tune In: Watch the episode

Step 1

Begin by posing the following to students:

I wonder what teamwork is.

Invite students to share what they think teamwork is as well as any examples of where they have used or seen teamwork in action. How did it go? What were the challenges? What was good about it?

Suggest to students that teamwork is when 2 or more people work together on a task. Sometimes it can be really great because you can have fun and get a lot done! But other times, it can be really hard because you might disagree with other people in the team about how taking turns or what the is the best way to do something.

Explain to students that they will now watch an episode of Bluey. As they watch, they should keep an eye out for anything that relates to teamwork.

Step 2

Share the Bluey episode Hammerbarn with your students.

Bluey 'Hammerbarn ' - (clickv.ie/w/4dJ0)

Hammerbarn synopsis: On a trip to Hammerbarn, Bluey and Bingo create their own mini-homes side-by-side in the trolley. But Bluey quickly gets jealous of her neighbour Bingo.

Find Out: Exploring teamwork

Step 1

As a class, discuss the episode you just watched. Consider the following questions in your discussion:

I wonder how Bingo felt when she shared the pizza flipper with Bluey. Why do you think that?
I wonder how Bluey felt when Bingo got to the dining table. Why do you think that?
I wonder if it can still be fair even when two people get slightly different things. Do friends always have to be exactly the same?

You might also display this prompt wall to inspire some observations.

Step 2

Continue the discussion by posing the following:

Remember how we discussed that teamwork is when 2 or more people come together to complete a task, and how it can sometimes be great and sometimes be hard? What did you see in this episode that you think relates to teamwork?

Invite students to share their thoughts with the class.

For example:

When Bluey and Bingo were in the trolley, they were both trying to keep the items in the trolley for themselves and weren't taking turns to use them. This led to disagreements and ended up with neither one enjoying themselves. When they started working together they both managed to build bigger and better houses, they shared items and they were both happier. This is an example of what you can achieve when you work together.

Step 3

You could now use a 'Change in Thinking' routine to support students in identifying new approaches to teamwork problems based on previous experiences of working together, either at home or at school.

Visually present the thinking routine on the whiteboard.

The problem was...

The solution was...

Now I start by thinking...

Begin by modelling the thinking routine. You could use a personal example or this script:

The problem was there wasn't enough blue Lego for me to make my house, because my sister and I were both trying to use it.
The solution was we agreed to make our houses multi-coloured.
Now I start by thinking things don't have to perfectly fit how I imagine, especially if it means hurting other people to get my way. It's still a good building even though it's a bit different to how it looked in my head, and my sister and I got to play together happily.

Invite students to take turns in using the routine. Encourage them to think about their behaviour, and how they can make positive changes. Celebrate moments when things have gone well because they have demonstrated pro-social behaviours.

Displaying the Zones of Emotional Regulation chart is helpful for students to visualise their feelings and lead them to build their emotional vocabulary, shifting them away from rote responses like “good” to more nuanced responses like “curious”, “excited”, or “worried”.
Find out more about teaching emotional intelligence here.

Take Action: Get building

Step 1

Explain to students that they are going to work together to build their dream house using coloured paper, just like Bluey and Bingo did. Explain that they will have to work together, which means some compromises may have to be made and they may need to take turns.

To prepare students for this task, spend some time brainstorming ways to resolve conflict when students are struggling to compromise. Suggestions might include taking a vote, everyone working on their own for a bit or making it fair so that everyone gets to put at least one of their ideas into the house.

You might also discuss having different roles: one student might cut the paper, one might select the right colours, and a third might be responsible for sticking with the glue; so long as students remember to take turns and share nicely.

Remind students to be respectful of one another and to work well together.

Step 2

As a class, brainstorm what you might put in your dream house. Ideas might include a swimming pool, a video games room, or a pony stable. Nothing is off-limits!

Step 3

Divide students into groups of about 4. Assign each group a large piece of white paper, and the smaller squares of coloured paper.

Tip: We suggest you pre-cut small square tiles of coloured paper for students, removing the hurdle of having to cut nicely and placing the emphasis on the creativity and layout of the house. However, older students might be entrusted to cut their own shapes.

Direct students to first create the walls of the house to define the rooms. We suggest a front-on view of the house (see example below), as this allows more variety in the shapes of the furniture. However, you might prefer to have a bird's eye view of the house.

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Invite students to fill the rooms with furniture and lots of cool stuff. With a little creativity, squares of paper can be arranged to form regular polygons, such as a rectangle for a refrigerator, or more irregular polygons, such as a couch with cushions, or a kitchen table and chairs.

Students can use coloured pencils or markers to add small details to the coloured paper.

Step 4

Invite students to share their dream house with another group or the whole class, discussing their favourite aspects and their inspiration.

Reflection

Engage students in a discussion around the following:

What was the best part of working together to create a house?
What was the hardest part?
How did you go with taking turns and compromising? What did you do to get through the hard parts?
What do you think it means to work as a team?

Teamwork - The Great House Build

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