Cooperation

What is cooperation?

• Cooperation is the common effort of a group for their mutual benefit.
• Cooperation is teamwork.
• Cooperation is working together peacefully.

Team players are students who:

• Listen
• Encourage their peers
• Allow and invite others to contribute their talents and skills
• Follow as well as lead
• Recognize their strengths and use them for the common good
• Treat others equitably
• Recognize the needs of the group
• Think before acting
• Communicate calmly
• Put competition aside

You show cooperation when you ...

• Work in a small group to accomplish a task
• Allow each person in a group to have a say
• Try to use everyone's ideas
• Do your fair share of the work on a project
• Pitch in at home doing chores
• Play a team sport and work toward a goal
• Work with your friends to help clean up
• Participate on a student council committee

Proverbs and maxims

• The more cooperative the group, the greater is the fitness for survival which extends to all of its members. (Ashley Montague)
• There is no more sure tie between friends than when they are united in their objects and wishes. (Cicero)
• We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

More quotes on cooperation

• Better bend than break. (Scottish proverb)
• We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
• On this shrunken globe, men can no longer live as strangers. (Adlai Stevenson)
• When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion. (Ethiopian proverb)
• A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle. (Japanese proverb)

Heroes and heroines

• Dag Hammarskjold was Secretary General of the United Nations and practiced "quiet diplomacy" to reduce conflict between countries.
• Margaret Mead was a well-known anthropologist who introduced the concept of culture into education and promoted racial equality and environmental concerns.
• The Wright Brothers took years to perfect their flying machine with patient, cooperative experimenting.
• Ralph Bunche was a black diplomat whose efforts led to armistice in the first Arab-Israeli War.

Guidelines for cooperative learning

• Be a good listener.
• Distribute the work evenly among team members.
• Encourage each member to contribute ideas.
• Try to incorporate each person's ideas.
• Treat each person of the group with respect.
• Be open and receptive to new ideas.
• Try to compromise to resolve differences.

Put cooperation into action

• Happily do what your parents ask you to do.
• Play the game your friends want to play even when you rather do something else.
• Help someone by opening a door or helping to carry something.
• Help find a compromise when a group is in disagreement.
• Always play fair when playing games. Be a good loser.
• Invite someone who is alone or "left out" to join your group.
• Help family members realize the importance of family cooperation by demonstrating a spirit of cooperation in your daily activities.
• Become involved in a community service project.
• Ask your friends to help you do something to preserve the environment.
• Practice good sportsmanship.

Community service ideas

• Contribute clothing to a community service organization serving families in unfortunate circumstances.
• Adopt a beach or park and keep it clean.
• Volunteer to help with a project to promote community safety.
• Learn about how you can become prepared to help with disaster relief.
• Make and display posters to help the Heart Association with their campaign for healthy hearts.
• Plan a "share a book day" to contribute books to a children's hospital or after-school program.

BOOKLIST for COOPERATION

For Grades K-3

Koala Lou - Fox

Muffin and the Lesson of Kokua - Geshell

The Enormous Turnip

Frederick - Lionni

A Light in the Attic - Silverstein

The Little Red Hen - Galdone

Miss Nelson Is Missing - Allard

The Seven Chinese Brothers - Mahy

Swimmy - Lionni

Arthur Makes the Team - Brown

Anansi the Spider - McDermott

Stone Soup - Brown

Zinnia and Dot - Ernst

Wilfed Gordon McDonald Partridge - Fox

Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt - Ernst

Who Made This Big Mess: a Book About Tidying Up - Gutelle

The Best Baby-Sitter Ever - Scarry

Dragon Soup - Williams

Let's Make a Garden - Lobe

Old Mahoney and the Bear Family - Hand

Stone Soup - Brown

The Troubled Village - Henwood

Cookies : Bite-Size Lessons - Rosenthal

Duck & Goose - Hills

For Grades 3-6 

Across Five Aprils - Hunt

Charlotte's Web - White

The Diary of a Young Girl - Frank

Iggie's House - Blume

The Incredible Journey - Burnford

Journey to the Center of the Earth - Verne

Little House in the Big Woods - Wilder

Little Women - Alcott

Number the Stars - Lowry

The Sign of the Beaver - George

Soup on Ice - Peck

The Trumpet of the Swan - White

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