Teaching kids about cooperation and working together is so important while they are young. Being able to be a team player and work with others is something that will help kids in all aspects of life. This selection of books and videos will work as building blocks to help your kids to better understand the value and importance of cooperation!

Books That Teach Cooperation

The following books are some of our favorites for teaching kids how to cooperate. If it interests you, check out our Social Emotional Curriculum!

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1. Teamwork Isn’t My Thing and I Don’t Like to Share by: Julia Cook

With the help of his coach, RJ learns that working as a team and sharing are skills needed not just on the soccer field, but in school and at home too

2. What if Everybody Did That? by: Ellen Javernick

An unnamed boy is forced to consider the consequences of his actions in this cautionary tale about making responsible choices. 

3. Officer Buckle And Gloria by:  Peggy Rathmann

A fresh, funny story about the wonders of teamwork.

4. Stone Soup by:  Jon J. Muth

In this inspiring story about the strength people possess when they work together, Muth takes a simple, beloved tale and adds his own fresh twist.

Videos That Teach Cooperation

This assortment of videos do an awesome job of showing students that it’s ok to fail before you succeed. They show that if you cooperate with each other, you can achieve anything! If you’d like, you can find follow-up questions to each video within our Social Emotional Curriculum to have deeper discussions on how important it is to be cooperative with your students.

1. Leadership and Effective Collaboration

This video shows the power of working together to accomplish a goal.

2. Work Together as a Team

Be a team and work together!

3. The Olive Branch: COLD

“The Olive Branch” is produced by Little Light Foundation, a non-profit wing of Little Airplane Productions, whose goal is to create original media that teaches children about conflict resolution and mutual respect.

4. Build Character Build Success: COOPERATION

This videos helps to teach students the value of cooperation.

Cooperation Activities for the Classroom

The following activities are some of our favorites for teaching cooperation to little ones in ways that will make them think and understand this skill quickly and easily. All of these resources can be found inside of The Social Emotional Curriculum. There are 12 different character traits in total as well as, daily lessons, videos, songs, read alouds with questions, home connections, art projects and more! You can also find video trainings about Breathing Techniques, Calm Down Corners, Self Regulation, Morning Meetings, Developing Student Relationships, and more included in the curriculum!

1. Cooperation Poster

Print and hang this poster on your character wall or on your whiteboard.  It’s a great tool to use to introduce the focus of the month.

2. Cooperation Sort

Students cut behavior actions off the bottom of the page.  Then they read and sort the actions into two categories:  cooperating & NOT cooperating

3. Read and Respond Passages

These read and respond passages include a 1st grade and 2nd grade set with correlating text level complexity.  Students can do this independently, in a small group, or whole group with the teacher walking them through the activity.  Students read the passage.  The passage has a difficult situation with no ending.  The students need to decide how to respond to the situation.  These are similar to the scenario cards except with a longer passage and guided opportunities to respond with writing.

4. Cooperation Tessellation Creation

USING THE TESSELLATION•Students present their piece of the tessellation and share how they show cooperation.•Students can each pledge to do their part.•Have a class discussion about how each piece of the tessellation is important. If someone doesn’t do their part, it impacts the final tessellation just like when someone doesn’t cooperate the whole group suffers.