💛 SELGrade 3Lesson 12
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Building Teamwork and Trust

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Learning Objectives

  • 1Identify behaviors that build teamwork and trust
  • 2Identify behaviors that break teamwork and trust
  • 3Explain why trust matters for a group to succeed
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Mini Lesson

Teamwork means working together toward a shared goal, with each person contributing their strengths. Trust is the belief that the people you work with are reliable, honest, and have your best interest at heart. Without trust, teamwork falls apart — people hold back, protect themselves, and stop cooperating.

What builds teamwork

  • Sharing ideas and listening — every voice gets heard before a decision is made.
  • Taking turns and dividing work fairly — no one person carries the whole load.
  • Encouraging teammates — celebrating effort and progress, not just winning.
  • Owning mistakes — saying "I got that wrong, let me fix it" keeps trust strong.

What breaks teamwork

  • Leaving someone out — ignoring ideas or excluding a team member signals they are not valued.
  • Blaming others — when something goes wrong, pointing fingers instead of solving destroys trust.
  • Dominating decisions — always insisting on your own way prevents others from contributing.
  • Breaking promises — not following through on what you agreed to do lets your team down.

Why trust matters for teams

  • Teams with high trust communicate more openly, take risks together, and recover from mistakes faster.
  • Trust is built through small, consistent actions — every time you keep a promise or include someone, you add to the trust bank.
Trust as the foundation of teamworkA bridge diagram. The base block is labeled Trust. On top of it are four pillars: Share ideas, Take turns, Encourage, Own mistakes. The bridge deck above is labeled Teamwork Success.Trust Is the FoundationTeamwork SuccessShareideasTaketurnsEncourageteammatesOwnmistakesTRUSTreliable · honest · keeps promisesWithout trust, the whole bridge falls.
A bridge with Trust as the foundation and four teamwork pillars — Share ideas, Take turns, Encourage, Own mistakes.
Trust bank deposits and withdrawalsA bank icon in the center labeled Trust Bank. On the left, arrows pointing in labeled Deposits list: keep a promise, include someone, own a mistake. On the right, arrows pointing out labeled Withdrawals list: break a promise, exclude someone, blame others.The Trust BankTrust BankDepositsKeep a promiseInclude someoneOwn a mistakeBuilds trust upWithdrawalsBreak a promiseExclude someoneBlame othersDrains trust down
A trust bank showing deposits that build trust and withdrawals that drain it.
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Self-check: Name one thing you do that builds trust in a group, and one thing you could improve.

Vocabulary
Teamwork
Working well together to reach a shared goale.g. Teamwork helped us finish the project on time.
Trust
The belief that team members will do what they saye.g. Keeping promises builds trust.
Reliable
A person you can count on to follow throughe.g. Mia is a reliable teammate.
Contribute
To add your share of help, ideas, or work to a teame.g. Everyone contributed to our poster.
Include
To make sure no one on the team is left oute.g. We included Sam by asking for his ideas.
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