In today’s workshop we were put into groups of 5 and set the task of building a den using some materials provided such as poles and cardboard and other materials that we found i.e. leaves and sticks.
Within my group there was a leader, however, this leader was informally chosen and naturally stepped up to this role and she had experience in building dens. The leader had a vision for out den and explained to us how she thought would be the best to build the den based on the materials that our group had. I was happy for someone who had more experience than me to step up and share her ideas with the group. In my personal opinion the most challenging part of working in my group was having to work and communicate with people that I normally wouldn’t and discussing different ideas until we found one that suited our group and materials.
When talking to other groups about how they built their den, they used the ‘5 P’s of explaining’ as a way of communicating with us about how they built it. The group discussed how they planned and prepared their den and then listed some key points and features of their den and why they built it the way that they did.
As we were outside our communication was not only verbal, when explaining to others within my group, I used hand gestures to communicate instructions and sometimes had to raise my voice to communicate with other group members if they were far away. Throughout the task we were constantly listening to other people’s ideas and giving feedback based on our own opinions. In my personal opinion I didn’t find that I was having to speak above the sounds in the environment as all my group members were actively engaged and listening. I understand that when completing this task with children that they may become distracted by the environment, I feel that one way of overcoming this is to not talk at the children for a long period of time and get them actively engaged in the task such as finding materials and building the den quickly.
