This morning we had our cooperative group with Z and J. We set up some fun games for them. We had bowling with empty water bottles as our first game. It helped put J at ease when he first arrived to have some time to play before Z arrived. We were practicing using reinforcement this week and the behavior we were reinforcing for both Z and J was sharing toys and cooperative play. Both Z and J’s mothers practiced taking ABC data while the teachers each played with Z and J and gave positive praise and chocolates for each instance of sharing and each instance of cooperative play.
Next, we played duck-duck-goose. Z was very excited to play and J was hesitant. Z was “it” several times and tagged J to chase him but J didn’t want to. We cheered and cheered and finally J chased him and everyone praised both boys.
When we transitioned away from duck-duck-goose, Z began exhibiting behaviors (kicking the wall and throwing toys) so we prompted him to use his language to ask for more duck-duck-goose and when he did, we were happy to play another round with him.
After duck-duck goose, Z and J and their peer buddies all sat in the paddling pool (without water, of course) and played with blocks. There were some excellent examples of sharing and cooperation that both parents and teachers recognized and reinforced with praise and chocolates. Z started having some behaviors because he wanted all the chocolates, not just one piece. Z’s mother let us know that it was possible that Z was very hungry because he had not yet eaten that morning. We prompted both boys to ask for a break and we all had a break to eat a snack.
After snack, the mothers took over all reinforcement and sat at the table with both boys and the peer buddies and everyone colored and practiced writing. Z and J both a wonderful job sharing crayons and markers. J’s mom knows a lot of English so she was able to quiz both boys on English vocabulary of colors, shapes, and letters. Both boys did an amazing job, and demonstrated such great language. We are so excited to see what Z and J will do with us in the coming weeks.