Create a Game Unit 2017 (version II)

Create a Game Unit 2017 (version II)

Having first developed this unit last year, this year I was able to develop it to make it more streamlined. This is a fantastic unit and it's got even better...

Last Years Blog Entries:
G5/G4 Create and Develop a Simple Game pt. 1
G5/G4 Create and Develop a Simple Game pt. 2

Tuning in... Simple Tag Type Games

This year I'd put together a handful of visuals to help the students achieve their goals.
The tuning in part of the unit was having the peer groups work together in order to develop a tag game using simple guidelines.

Team Name

BUT first things first, once the class had chosen their peer groups their first piece of collaboration was going to be to come up with an original team name! I found this an excellent way to slowly get the groups collaborating, with each exercise being a step up in their cooperation/collaboration, from deciding a team name, through to developing a complex game. The steps this year I felt worked well: (1) Agree upon a team name, (2) simple tag games following criteria (see below) and finally (3) developing an original (relatively) complex game.

Types of Tag Games

Below is a screenshot of the document I gave the classes. I took the descriptions from Peter Hastie's (2010) book Student Designed Games. Over the next two lessons the students would come up with  tag games that would fit into the four categories below.

This is a great way to tune in, but on reflection, next year I would bullet point the descriptions rather than have them in a paragraph. Just to make it easier for the students to access the information at a glance.

Lesson Order

Having done this unit last year, the lessons follow a pattern. It keeps the unit on time, which is key as you don't want all the students enthusiasm to go stale with a unit that never ends. 

The order goes something like this:

Lesson 01: Tuning in - Choose a Team Name and Design a Simple Tag Game (Anyone Can Freeze).

Lesson 02: Tuning in - Design Simple Tag Games ( Safe Players Can Unfreeze, Multiple-Option Taggers and/or Safe Zones).

Lesson 03: Designing & Playing the Game.

Lesson 04: Designing & Playing the Game.

Lesson 05: Trialing the Game & Receiving Feedback.

Lesson 06: Recording the Rules and Documenting the Complete Game.

Lesson 07: Share the Finished Game with the Whole Class.

Lesson 08: Share the Finished Game with the Whole Class.

Reflection.

Tuning in

The Grade 5 are starting a unit called "Create your own Game". This unit fits under the "relationships" learning journey in Physical Education. In the short video the students have been given simple guidelines in order to create a simple tag game.

For the Movie Click Here

Lessons 3 & 4

Lessons 3 & 4 of the unit have seen the students coming to an agreement of the type of game they are going to create. The lessons have given the groups the opportunity to use the equipment and to trial various ideas. The development criteria they are working towards is based on whether the game is original, fun, has longevity and is appropriately challenging. Next lesson they are going to introduce their game to another group, in order to get feedback and polish their final version.

For the Movie Click Here

Lessons 5 & 6

Lessons 5 & 6 had the students trial their games with another group in order to get feedback on how their game is developing. Once the game had been trialled the group had the opportunity to document their games objectives, set up and rules.

For the Movie Click Here

Additional Documents 

I created a couple of other documents designed to help remind the students the stages they needed to go through in order to design a game. All these need tweaking for next year, after reflection they could definitely be upgraded, but they served their purpose in helping guide the students thinking in the right direction.

Equipment F1 Racing

I thought I'd share this game/lesson with you. I learnt it at university many years ago, but have used it all round the world.

It's basically an equipment race. I believe my university lecturer likened it to a formula 1 race. The idea being you start with too much equipment and over the course of a number of trials you slim your equipment down into a fast oiled machine; you're basically starting with a bus and ending with a F1 racing car. In addition whilst you are trialing your machine, your group is developing into a tight team of experts, taking on roles to make the machine move as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I would divide a class of 20 students into 4 groups of 5. The equipment could be anything, but this time I went for 3 gymnastics mats, 3 poly spots and a hula hoop.

The objective being they race down the gym without touching the floor. If they touch they all have to sit and give themselves a slow count of 10 seconds. For the trials I let the students referee themselves with the warning that if they cheat and don't sit for a count of 10, I'll put them back to the beginning again :). In addition I make it clear that they can not leave equipment behind - everything has to be carried with them.

I usually have them start on the folded gym mats pushed up against the wall, and tell them they have to finish mirror imaged on the other side, again mats pushed up against the wall.

Once they have gone once, I announce that they can now get into discussions with their team and decide if they need to get rid of any unwanted equipment.

Again we race. Again I give them the opportunity to get rid of any equipment or do they think they need any back?

We have trials a total of 3 times, where students gradually trim down their equipment and develop their roles and team work skills.

Finally we're at the championship race, where hopefully they've become experts in getting their now super slimmed down equipment across the gym.

I now take back control of the penalty 10 second count, just to make sure the final isn't filled with controversy.

I believe this is a great lesson that develops team work, critical thinking, problem solving, discussion, negotiation etc. etc. as well as giving them a great upper body workout :)

Of course the whole distance could be done with just 2 mats, but the students rarely see it like that!

PS. I love this lesson because over the course of the trials it's the team that comes last or close to last each time wins the championship! They are the team that experiments most with their equipment - it's brilliant :)

10 second penalty count

Introduction to Orienteering

Introducing simple maps and map readings to the Grade 3's.
The first to lessons of the unit have been based in or around the gym.

Lesson 1 - Micro Orienteering in the Gym

The objective of this lesson is to use a simple map in regards to orientating themselves to the room. I start the lesson with a map drawn on the wall. I ask the obvious question of what are they looking at? Once I get an answer I ask them how they knew they were looking at a map of the gym? This leads us into talking about what clues gave it away? what a 'plan' is and what the symbols on the map indicate.

We have a number of basketball hoops in the gym and so I point to one on the map and ask them to point to the one I am indicating in the gym. We discuss North, South, East and West (they have covered this in class) and why it's important to have a North arrow on the map. We also talk about how to hold the map and to always keep it orientated to themselves and the room.

My simple map!

Before the lesson I hid 33 sticker in the gym and marked their location on two maps, one master map with location and codes and one map with just the locations. I photocopied the map with just the locations, which were handed out pairs of students.

One of the 33 stickers hidden in the gym, coded D1

We discuss what the students are looking for and that once a sticker is spotted they should not draw attention to it.

Then once they have the code in the case above 'D1' they should check back with me as a control to make sure the right circle on the map ties up with the correct code. It's at this point I discover if they are reading their map correctly. If they get the first couple correct I tell them to check in with me every 4-5 stickers that they find. They write the code on their map.

This lesson is very active and keeps the students engrossed and on task. I also did this lesson with the Grade 2's and they loved it! I called it 'Treasure Hunting'

Lesson 2 - Lollypop Stick Orienteering

With this lesson the students have a slate a whiteboard marker and a lollypop stick each. Again they partner up. The idea is they draw their own personal design on the lollypop stick, hand it to their partner (swap sticks) and they take it in turns to go hide their partners stick. I put a max time of 1 minute for them to hide their partners stick and state the boundaries for the hiding locations (I don't want them disappearing across the school). Once they have returned they start to draw a map on their slate that will lead their partner to their missing stick.

I have the partners share a yoga mat to ensure they meet up in the same location each time.

Once the sticks have been located they clean their slates and go again.

You'll be amazed at some of the maps your students will draw!!! Lol - just that alone will lead you/them into a wealth of inquiry.

Personalizing their stick!

Sprint Technique

Partner feedback card for developing body position, arm and leg action for the sprint.

Athletics pt.1: Running - exploring sprinting and middle distance running techniques

Athletics part 1 - exploring the track

How do we run for speed? and how do we run for distance?

Tuning in (speed)

Students will sprint the 100 meters and the 400 meters.
As a whole class we explorer the concept of running and speed, the discussion ranges from football to playing tag. Two areas of focus are identified, running and fitness and running technique.

The lesson starts with tag

Finding & Sorting out 

Focusing on technique the students agree that we can divide our bodies movement into three areas: body (including head), arms and legs.

On poster paper I quickly draw up a table consisting of three columns: Body Position, Arm Action and Leg Action. I put on a YouTube video showing highlights of the 100 meters sprint through the ages of the modern Olympics. The class focus on the three previous identified areas of body, arms and legs. Post it notes are available for the students to record any prior knowledge or observations and to post them on the poster paper in the specific column.

The great thing about YouTube is you can loop the video, so if the students move away

Once we have our observations we read through them taking 2-3 points per body part area; high knees, hands going from hip to lip etc.

After all that observation and note taking we all need to get moving. In order to practice our technique a partner gives feedback as the runner sprints on the spot - it a good way to start and it lets partners give feedback straight away, whilst the runner focuses on form.

At some point the issue of arm movement arises (even though students have observed big arm moments from the athletes, they don't immediately apply the lip to hip movement to their own running technique)  and so we experiment with different techniques, not all of them correct! For example we experiment with running without the use of our arms, or with low knees or small steps.

Eventually after some partner/group trial and error work we have a technique that doesn't look too dissimilar from our earlier observations.

The students now have a bit of a technique to work on.

The next step is to explorer the uniqueness of the sprint start and why we think sprinters start low to the ground etc. and what observations did the class make regarding the sprint finish...

As a class we practice our sprint starts together, and then we combine our starts and our newly developed running technique across 10-15 meters, remembering always to finish strong (we don't slow and then stamp our foot on the finish line!)

Going Further

2nd lesson and the class heads for the track with stopwatches in hand and a partner to give feedback in order to help develop overall technique (start, sprint technique & a strong finish).

In the 400m lesson we discuss the staggered start and the advantages or disadvantages of running in particular lanes.

Tuning in (distance)

Provocation: What is pace? As a class we used Think, Pair and Share - or in this case the students noted their discussions on a sheet of poster paper.

The majority of the students suggested that they already had an understanding of the concept... but could they put that understanding into practical use?

Playing with the concept of time and distance I set up a couple of small tasks to get everyone thinking about what is pace.

Finding Out
The first drill was the Centipede, where a small group of 4 run in a line passing a baton backwards. Once the baton reaches the back, the last run speeds up and goes to the front for the process to start all over again. The drill forces the students to run together and to pace themselves to the slowest runner. I originally used rubber chickens for this drill, but they proved too distracting for the students.

The second drill went from asking students to jog anywhere in the gym at a certain pace, but to return to me when they thought 30 seconds was over.  The drill was run a number of time using a variety of time differences e.g. 30, 45, 60, and 90 seconds.

I changed this second drill by having a set distance, which the students had to complete in given time eg. they have to run round a cone and be back at the start at 20, 30, 45 and 60 seconds.

I noted that during the centipede drill the students were so distracted with passing the baton back that they easily ran continuous for 7 minutes without complaining or groups stopping or slowing down. I chose 7 minutes as the goal as it is the average time last years Grade 5 ran the 1,500 meters in.

Sorting Out
The class returned to their partners from the beginning of the lesson and adjusted their understanding of pace on the poster paper and as a class we discussed any additional thoughts and discovery's about pacing ourselves and the idea of running for an extended period of time. 

Going Further

2nd lesson up to the track to experience the 1,500m and a waterfall start. The goal is to find a comfortable pace and to stick at it, leaving enough in the tank for a sprint finish.