Treasure Rocks
The Blue Otters love gems. Sometimes, there are gems sprinkled around the playground, and when that happens, it is very exciting.
But, it can also be tricky. What happens when someone collects all of the gems and doesn’t want to share them? What happens when children have different plans for the gems? What happens when it’s time to leave the playground and children want to bring all the gems with them? While the gems were affording the Blue Otters a lot of enjoyment, they were also eliciting a lot of conflict.
So, the Blue Otter class unpacked this topic one morning in a conversation at a whole group gathering. Together, they made some lists.
What do you like about the gems?
“Digging to find them”
“Playing with them”
“Holding them in my skirt”
“Counting them”
“Putting them in dump trucks”
“Collecting them”
What is hard about the gems?
“Some kids want to hold them and some kids don’t.”
“Some kids couldn’t find them and others could find them really easily.”
“They get lost because they are small.”
“Some kids shout ‘These are ours!’ ”
What are some solutions?
“Buy some more gems.”
“If we don’t have a store near us, we could build some more.”
“We can plant rocks to make more treasures.”
“We can bury the treasure.”
“The treasure is for everyone. It should be.”
“The Orange Sea Stars can find it!”
Their discussion led to a beautiful, creative, and empowering solution - to make treasure rocks! For days, the Blue Otters worked hard, collaborating to add layers of paint and glitter to create these extraordinary treasures that they agreed could be shared by all on the playground.
Using group times to discuss conflict is a core prevention strategy for helping to minimize challenging behavior. By revisiting moments of conflict outside of a heated moment, children are capable of more objectively reasoning about a difficult issue. Research has shown that the use of this approach enables children to act prosocially. Children tend to adhere to community agreements they helped to create more than to rules set for them by others.