What an Interesting Game!

During the Create a Games unit, a group of G5s accidentally explained their game incorrectly to the class, which I think took the game to another level.

They started with a capture the flag type game (Invasion) where the objective was to raid the other teams territory to steal their dodge-balls/beanbags etc. The set up had 3 safe zones (hoops) spread around that the opposition could sneak into.

For the Create a Games unit, the game was highly unoriginal, and had just been reinvented under a different name.

But as luck would have it, due to a poor presentation, the class understood that the safe zone rules worked similar to the rules in bump tag. Their understanding was that the safe zone could only house one player at a time, and that the player coming in could bump out the player that was already in the zone.

Possibly not a model game for encouraging teamwork! But the game produced some very interesting and funny moments, and it added enough of a spin on the traditional game of capture the flag that made it different enough to excite the class.

I need to play around with the game to tweak it a little, but I'm sure I could get a game that highlights the importance of communication between raiding teams.

Infinity War (an invasion game for G1s - G5s)

I put this game together to demonstrate to the G5s and G4s that when you approach the concept of creating a game, having a theme is key, as in this case it helps to spark the imagination and create excitement.

The students are very excited about this game, and the news of it has spread like wildfire, with classes who have never played the game before coming in asking in they are playing the Thanos Game!

It's taken 2 days of PE to get to the version I'm playing at the moment. There has been a fair bit of trial and error, particularly around the number of Infinity Stones compared to the number of teams playing.

The Story

For those students who are old enough and have seen the Avengers, I tell them that they are agents working for Thanos, and it is there quest to collect all 6 Infinity Stones.

Interestingly, this leads onto students asking if they can create a mini dance/action when they have collected all 6 in order to replicate Thanos snapping his fingers.

With that in mind, I will put a more positive spin on the game, saying they are the Avengers and that they need to collect the Infinity Stones to keep them safe from Thanos.

Then they could choose which Avenger they would like to play... something like that.

The Set-up

It's a basic invasion/capture the flag type game.

I split the gym into 4 equal areas, each area has an Infinity Gauntlet or The Avengers Gauntlet (a hoops with coloured cones placed in it) placed at the end of each area (corner of the gym or basketball court).

The objective is to fill all 6 stone holders (cones) with the 6 Infinity Stones (dodgeballs).

I then place the 6 Infinity Stones in the center of the gym (where each team area touches). As luck would have it, Gopher manufacture the identical colours of dodgeballs to Infinity Stones! (according to the movies and not the comics).

I then divide the class into 4 teams.

The Rules

Teams can only handle 1 Infinity Stone at a time.
Infinity Stones can not be thrown, kicked or passed.
Teams can only tag others when they are in their own quarter of the gym (eg. Blues can tag anyone who isn't a blue in their own area).
When tagged the student takes a knee (if they have an Infinity Stone they hand the Stone back).
To be released a team member must get to the tagged member without being tagged themselves and hold their hand (wrist, shoulder etc.) for a free walk back to their quarter of the gym.
No one is allowed to stand in the hoop (gauntlet) to guard the stone(s).
One guard per hoop (gauntlet).

If a blue team member steals a stone from the green team but is tagged by a yellow when traveling through the yellow teams territory, the yellows keep the stone.

The Start

Each team selects 2 members from their team. The 2 selected team members for each team stand equal distance from the pile of Infinity Stones (baseline of the basketball court) which are placed in the center of the gym.

These runners can only collect 1 Infinity Stone at a time.

I call this the Infinity Scramble.

On a given signal the 2 players from each team rush out to grab an Infinity Stone (8 runners and 6 Infinity Stones).

As soon as the Infinity Scramble is over the game has started and all rules apply.

Conclusion

This is a fun game which the students can play at their own pace.
It's always good to remind the students if they have zero Infinity Stones, not to get upset and to carry on raiding others areas.

I'm still tweaking the game, so if anyone has any other info they would like to add or new variations I would love to hear from them.

Create a Game Unit 2018 (version III)

My third year in the development of this unit.

Previous entries:
G5/4 create and develop a simple game pt. 1 (2016)
G5/4 create and develop a simple game pt. 2 (2016)
Create a games unit 2017 version II (2017)

Similar to my previous post on this unit, I'm not going to go over the fundamentals of the unit, just the changes I have made in order to make the unit run smoothly.

This year I kept drawing the class back to the units objective:
To create an original game that the whole class (approx 20 students) can play/get involved in.

and our Enduring Understandings for the Learning Journeys of Relationships & Ethics:
Participating positively, adopting various roles and responsibilities supports the development of a good team.
and
Good sportsmanship is essential to all activities.

Lesson Sequence
Lesson 1: Tuning in - Teacher lead games - 4 types of tag games.
Lesson 2: Tuning in - Team names and design a simple tag game from the 4 types of tag game sheet.
Lesson 3: Sorting out - Choosing a game type and starting to create.
Lesson 4: Creating a game.
Lesson 5: Creating a game and trailing the game.
Lesson 6: Feedback, game completion and 1st game + peer assessment.
Lesson 7: Games 2 & 3 played + peer assessment
Lesson 8: Game 4 + peer assessment and reflection

Tuning In - Team Names and Tag Games

Different from last year, this year I modelled the 4 types of tag game on the sheet below. Letting the student know that next lesson they would be presenting one of the types of tag games.

Again, the first task of the team was to come up with a team name that everyone agreed upon.
Next I kept the lesson similar to last years but instead of assigning types of tag games I let the students choose their games through luck/fate with a 4-way game of black & white and rock paper scissors.

Once the student teams have their assigned types of tag games I give them 5-10 minutes to create a simple tag game following the parameters on the sheet using minimal equipment.

After each game was played the other teams give a little vote on what they thought, marking out of 5 for originality (creativity) and 5 for fun.

Create A Game

As a way to help focus the teams I talked about types of games that they might want to create. Last year I used this document which included Health and Fitness games. I decided to lose the Health and Fitness type game this year.

https://www.iphys-ed.com

The students discuss the possible game type they would like to work on. Once the teams are in agreement they can start discussing layout, roles and equipment.

A change from last year; rather then giving them designated equipment, I gave them free rein with the advice of not to make the game so equipment intensive that it becomes painful to set up, takes 2 minutes to play and forever to put away.

Dispositions

This year I also had teams identify areas they found themselves doing well in and areas that they found challenging. This helped the students recognise and understand the process they were going through in order to reach their goals.

I did this through using the dispositions PE has identified as being strongly link to our subject area and particularly to this unit.

Trialling the Game

Trialling the game remained the same as the last couple of years. The difference this time was how and when the students gave feedback. Last year the teams delivered feedback whilst sitting in circles, this year the teams wrote down the feedback. The documented feedback was handed out next lesson. I gave the guidelines of approx 3 positives comments and 2 possible improvements.

Next lesson the groups received their feedback, had time for clarification questions and then time to complete their rules and finish (to a degree) their games, ready for the whole class to play.

The Game & Peer Assessment

It feels like this year I devoted more time to playing the games and the peer assessment.

The format is the same for each class. The group whose game everyone is about to play, sets up and then stands in front of the class to explain the rules and to answer any questions. Their peers are encouraged to ask clarifying questions and if necessary I quickly recap. Once the game has been played, we gather together in our teams and assess the game on originality and fun.

Assessment is achieved through group debate and a hand held star system: 1 - 5

With four groups per class the maximum a team can score is 15 stars for originality and 15 for fun (max 5 stars across 3 teams) making a total of 30 stars (points).

The Grade 5 & 4 Create A Game Score Board

Reflection

This year I wrote down 4 reflective questions for the students to walk around and answer.

1. How can you apply what you learned from the create a game unit in your life?
2. What advice would you give to someone else working on the create a game unit?
3. How have you been challenged during the create a game unit?
4. What did you learn through this experience and how can you use it in the future?

My Grade 4s found question 1 and 4 too similar. My personal favourite is question 2.

Putting the Fun back into Fitness - The Nuts & Bolts of the Fitness Unit

If you've read previous posts you will already know that I don't particularly agree with fitness testing in Elementary School. (Link Here to Fitness Testing in Primary Schools - YES or NO?)

For Grade 5 we overlapped the Athletics Unit (an intro to Track & Field) with the Fitness Unit in order to introduce the students to a wide range of the components of fitness (health and skill).

For the lower Grades we focus six lessons (three cycles) on cherry picking the components of fitness that we feel appropriate for the specific age groups.

In this post I am not going to go into depth into the Athletics unit (Grade 5), but the events covered within that unit will help highlight where certain components of fitness fit across the two units.

Grade 5 Athletics (Intro. to Track & Field)

Athletics Unit 2018
Lesson 1: Into. to Sprinting
Lesson 2: Sprinting
Lesson 3: Intro. to Middle Distance 1500m
Lesson 4: Middle Distance 1500m
Lesson 5: Intro. to Long Jump
Lesson 6: Long Jump
Lesson 7: Intro. to High Jump
Lesson 8: High Jump
Lesson 9: Javelin

A constant theme throughout this unit are the components of fitness, particularly:
Health: cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, muscular endurance, strength and
Skills: agility, balance, coordination, reactions, rhythm, power and speed.

Added onto the Athletics Unit for the Grade 5s are the following lessons, which make up the Fitness Units for the younger Grade groups.

Fitness Unit 2018
Lesson 1: Intro. to three new bodyweight exercises through a tag game. Followed up by Fitness Prisoner Dodgeball.
Lesson 2: Intro. to three new bodyweight exercises through a tag game. Followed up by Fitness Prisoner Dodgeball.
Lesson 3: 'Old School' (warm up), one partner circuit. Followed by a Dodgeball game or Yoshi.
Lesson 4: 'Old School' (warm up), one partner circuit. Followed by a Dodgeball game or Yoshi.
Lesson 5: Interval training via a timed tag game. Followed by a Dodgeball game or Yoshi.
Lesson 6: Interval training via a timed tag game. Followed by a Dodgeball game or Yoshi.

The breakdown of lessons 1 and 2 introduces 6 bodyweight exercises over the course of two lessons.  This is achieved by playing 'everyone is it' tag or the fast tag in the world. Each time someone is tagged they perform 5-6 repetitions of the exercise we are learning about. The game is repeated three times introducing the three exercises. A lot of emphasis is place on form and doing the exercise right.

The first three exercise were the Star jump, Mountain Climbers and the Burpee.

Each exercise was taped to a board so they could be stood up around the gym.

The second half of those lessons is devoted to a game the students really have a lot of fun playing. With prisoner dodgeball when the students are hit or if they get caught, they go to the side and perform one of the exercises introduced that lesson. Once they have completed the exercise they make their way to prison and the game continues.  Each time they head to the side to do an exercise they are advised to rotate through the three and if they get hit a fourth time they start back with their first exercise.

By the time the students get to lessons 3 and 4 they know their six new exercises really well. After an 'old school' warm up, as a class we run some shuttles, the students break in to pairs and make their way clockwise round the gym doing their new circuit. Rep. ranges for the easier exercises are 20 and for the harder exercises 10.

For the second half of the lesson we play a fun game of the students choice, usually dodgeball or Yoshi.

In lessons 5 and 6 we play a tag game as part of the fitness element of the unit. The tag game introduces interval training. I don't know what the tag game is called, but I will attempt to describe it below.

Interval Tag Game.
The game is divided into 10 rounds.
Each round is 30 seconds long or each round gets progressively longer by 3-5 seconds.
Mr. Weston starts off as the sole tagger, carrying 4 mini noodles.
In the first 30 seconds I have to tag 4 students.

Once round 1 is over, if the students have not been a tagger or have not been tagged they receive a lollypop stick e.g. if they have successfully evaded the taggers that round they get a lollypop stick.

After the first round, if the students do get tagged they have to surrender their all their lollypop sticks to the tagger. You can not get tagged back within that round.

After 10 rounds we have a quick show of hands regarding who has how many lolly sticks.

Another possible timing opportunity would be to pyramid the times e.g. start at 30 seconds, increase by 5secs until you get halfway through the rounds and then start decreasing the time back to 30 again.

Again the second half of the lesson is devoted to a popular student game, Dodgeball or Yoshi.

That's it for a rough nuts and bolts for elementary fitness.

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.

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.

Adapting Games to Focus on Specific Skills

I experimented with adapting two games yesterday with Grades 4 & 5 to really focus on their Basketball dribbling, passing and receiving skills.

The first game was a game created by the Grade 4's in their previous unit. I've already shared their original game in an earlier post (G5 & G4 Games (For their "Create and Develop A Simple Game" unit)). 

In the gym four 'rest areas' are coned off - two at the far ends opposite each other and two at the sides in the middle, again opposite each other. In each of the 'rest areas' I put a bucket of Basketballs. 

I start with one tagger with the idea that the first person he/she tags immediately becomes another tagger.

After that, everyone else who is tagged becomes frozen from the waist down.

To be released the frozen student needs to receive a bounce pass or chest pass from a fellow student in a 'rest area'.  Once they have caught the Basketball they dribble the ball back to the 'rest area' it was passed from. They then have to perform their 'run for freedom' across the gym to the opposite 'rest area' without stopping in order to continue the game. If they get tagged during their 'run for freedom' they immediately join the tagging team. 

The game continues until there are no runners left or the game slows because the taggers outnumber the runners.

I adapt the second round of the game... During their 'run for freedom' they have to dribble a Basketball - once they have completed their run successfully they put their Basketball in the bucket and join back in with the game.

The second game is an adaptation of Yoshi - a very popular game this year in PE. 

Same objective, the whole team needs to get 'home' without being tagged. This time though each player has to dribble a Basketball when moving (I don't worry, double dribbles etc.) 

Two players, one for each team are off the court on the side lines on the oppositions side. 

Their job is to help free the raiders if they get tagged whilst trying to get 'home'.

If a raider get tagged he/she is frozen from the waist down and has to pivot round to pass their ball to the team member off the court, on the side line. They then pass the ball back in to so the once frozen play can dribble the Basketball to halfway to have another go at entering enemy territory in order to get home.

When the teacher calls 'Yoshi' everyone rushes to get home. The two players who were on the sidelines grab a Basketball each and race across the gym to touch the opposite sideline then rush for home. First team 'home' wins.

G5 & G4 Games (For their "Create and Develop A Simple Game" unit)

I'm documenting a couple of my favorite games from the G5 & 4's "Create and Develop A Simple Game" unit.

Sharks, Rabys and Ravive (I ended up calling it Sharks, Rays & Rabies - LOL!)

Setup: 4 coned 'rest' areas - The original game had them across the playing area - one either end of the halfway line on a basketball court and one under each of the posts. In each of the 'rest' areas is a pile of beanbags. 

You need two taggers. 

The object of the game is for the taggers to eventually assimilate everyone.

The winner or winners are the last couple of non-taggers left standing. 

Rules:

'Rest' areas can only be occupied for no longer than 5 seconds.

Once you leave a 'rest' area you can not return to it straight away, you must at least visit a different one between.

There is no limit to the number of people in/using the 'rest' areas.

When the game starts the first two people tagged (the first person for tagger A and the first for tagger B) immediately become taggers. 

If you get tagged after this initial period your legs become 'stuck in the mud'.

In order to free yourself someone needs to throw you a beanbag from one of the 4 'rest' areas - you have to catch it to free yourself! Any missed beanbags are also collected at this point and all are returned to the 'rest' area where they were thrown from. 

BUT you're not free yet! Once in the 'rest' area where the beanbags were thrown from, you have to now sprint to the 'rest' area opposite. Once you have made it across the gym you are free to continue the game. BUT if you now get tagged on your run - you are assimilated into the tagging team. NOTE: during this run, you can not hide in any of the other 'rest' areas along the way!

Eventually almost everyone is a tagger, or 'stuck in the mud' and the few that are free are congratulated!

The Golden Dot Race

This game is a race. You have two teams, each team has a 'golden child'. The teams objective is to build a (poly-spot) dot bridge across the gym - the winning team is the team that steals enough dots to transport the 'golden child' past the finish line.

Setup: You divide the playing area length ways, with one team on one side and the other team on the other (opposite ends of the gym). Each team has a pile of dots. To make the game fair, the dots are spread over a largish area at their teams far end (if you're starting at opposite ends of the gym). NOTE: because the gym is divided longways, the dot pile that needs to be raided has to be on the opposite side to the 'golden child'. 

Each teams 'golden child' starts on one dot. 

The rest of the team is divided into defenders and raiders. Defenders defend the dots (they cannot stand on the dots). The raiders travel the length of the gym to steal dots from the opposition. If a raider is tagged by a defender the raider has to return to their end of the gym and touch the 'golden child' in order to get back into the game. 

Eventually enough dots are stolen and laid down to get the 'golden child' across the gym and over the designated finish line.

The 'Golden Child'

Defenders & Raiders

Defenders & Raiders

Beanbag Circle Tag

This is a nice and simple tag game. 

Setup: Hoop and beanbags.

Everyone apart from the taggers carries a beanbag. When a non-tagger is tagged they immediately drop their beanbag just in front of them and they are frozen or 'stuck in the mud' from the waist downwards. The taggers pick up the dropped beanbag and puts it in the hoop (in the center of the gym). 

The taggers objective is to collect as many beanbags as they can. The more people they tag, the more beanbags they collect!

In order to be freed a non-tagger needs to steal a beanbag from the hoop, find a frozen student and throw the beanbag to them. Once the frozen student makes the catch they can run off and continue the game again.

If a runner is tagged whilst carrying two beanbags (their own and another to free a friend) both have to be dropped.  

I very much emphasize that in order to free a friend the beanbag has to be thrown and caught - not handed over or dropped and picked up!

With the lower Grades they get confused and throw their own beanbag to a friend to free them. In this case I explain that having their own beanbag gives them the power to move, if they throw their own beanbag to a friend, they have now become frozen and are in need of rescue!

Mission Yoshi (The students gave this game a rating of 14/15)

This game is also a race. Poly-spots are laid on the floor in a path. The idea is the team has to travel together along the path, completing a set task and then racing to the finish.

The path stretches approximately two sides of a basketball court. The two teams have a starting base/zone at the opposite ends of the gym.

On 'GO' they have to race down the poly-spots to the first 'collection point'. Each team member must be in the 'collection point' before they can continue off again. This happens at least 3-4 more times along the length of the gym. When they get to the opposite end they each are required to shoot a beanbag into a bucket. If a person misses 2 beanbags they have to take another team member with them and return to the beginning to start again. Once a beanbag has been shot and makes the bucket the team must collect one last time before rushing to the end - which happens to be the oppositions starting base/zone. First team in - wins.

Collection Point

Traveling the Path between Collection Points

Having missed 2 beanbag shots, they rush back to the beginning

G5/G4 Create and Develop A Simple Game (My Learning Journey) Pt.2

After "Going Further: Testing and Feedback" it was to time to document their own unique games. 

Documenting Rules & Game Play.

Each group (4-5 students) got a big piece of blank paper so they could document the rules of their game and how it should be played. They did this through written rules and diagrams. 

The students also made a 30-60 second movie explaining how the game is played. This was generally achieved with one person narrating whilst on camera with the rest of the group playing. This part was particularly important for their online blogs and digital portfolios.

Group Assessment.

After each game as a class we assessed the game on FUN, ORIGINALITY and LONGEVITY. 

The students did this on their fingers on a scale of 1-5, 1 would be a low score and 5 would be the max, giving a total score of 15 over the three categories. All games scored between 9 - 14. 

Note: It was important to keep reminding the students that they were assessing the game, not how certain students played or interpreted the rules... For the most part, if a student gave a particularly hard score it was always interesting to hear why they gave that score, and most of the time is was due to what happened to them in the game and not actually the game itself. This would lead to brilliant class discussions on possible rules changes etc. 

Reflection.

As I often do I went with the visible thinking reflection of "I Used To Think/Now I Think". 

I particularly like this reflection as I want the students to focus in on a part of their learning journey and to tell me about it.

 

 

G5/G4 Create and Develop A Simple Game (My Learning Journey) Pt.1

This is my learning journey about how we created and developed a "Create and Develop A Simple Game" unit for Grades 4 & 5.

For Grade 3's I've been working on a similar "Create and Develop A Simple Game" unit, they didn't document their rules on paper, but they did make a 30-90 second movie explaining/playing  their game for their blog/digital portfolio.

Please note: I am a firm believer of keeping the students physically active during PE lessons. All descriptions and photos of the students sat planning or documenting is kept to an absolute minimum. Most of the planning time was spent by the students trialing their games. During this unit I would usually start with a whole class game like Yoshi and finish with either Yoshi or a game the students had created themselves and wanted to play again.

As a department we had decided in order to hit the Grade 4 Enduring Understanding (EU)*: Behaving appropriately ensures fair play and the Grade 5 EU*: Good sportsmanship is essential to all activities we would create and develop a "Create and Develop A Simple Game" unit.

*These EU's are under the Learning Journey of Ethics in our Physical Education Matrix.

Tuning In: Rules! 

Tag Games. Both Grade 4 & 5 have played a abundance of tag games throughout their school lives. Though they don't realize it, they have a huge collective knowledge of tag games and how they are played.

I started the first lesson with a game of tag (obviously), but that's all the information I communicated. With a huge amount of excitement the students immediately jumped up and rush out into the center of the gym. Some even start playing! Very soon it dawned on them that they need to clarify "who was the tagger?"

Great! So I quickly call them back in and we identified who was and how many taggers there should/could be. Again with great excitement the majority rushed back out and start running from the taggers. 

Shortly, more questions inevitably followed: "what happens when we're tagged?" and "how do we get free?"

Each time I brought the class back in and we discussed the adding of new rules.

Takeaways: We need rules and an objective to be decided upon and communicated to everyone before the game starts!

Over the next couple of lessons I experimented with dividing the class into two (approx 9-10 students per group) in order for them to come up with their own tag games with the guidelines that it had to be simple, fun and have a hint of originality. 

Some classes found this relatively easy, while others struggled. For myself, I wasn't necessary looking for an end product (though it would have been nice). I was more interested in observing the students going through the processes. I wanted the students to try ideas, reflect and if necessary change them to something that fitted.

Planning & Explaining the rules to the rest of the class

What we did notice was the students got bogged down during the initial planning stages, particularly when we organized them into large groups. Looking at this experience positively it did create an excellent opportunity to bring Guy Claxtons Essential Competences into play. Reminding the students to be open minded, that it is important to respect others, resolve conflicts and come to a consensus. 

Suddenly rather than the unit revolving around Ethics, it seemed more and more to have a foothold in the Learning Journey of Relationships.

Would it be possible to teach through two Learning Journeys simultaneously? Letting the students identify under which Journey their learning/understanding is falling under?

Finding Out: Creating a Tag Game.

Through the questions the students had asked in the previous lessons they had already identified the components of a simple tag type game: the need for a tagger(s), what happens when you get tagged and how do you get released.

By identifying these components of a tag games we divided the students into three areas/groups:
Movement: How do the tagger(s) move? How do the runners move?
Consequences: When you get tagged, what happens?
Rescue: Who and how do you get released?

With classes of approximately 18-22 students I divided my class into groups of 3-4 students, making a total of 6 groups (two groups dealt with Movement, two with Consequences and two Releases).

Once they'd had a minute of ideas sharing I then randomly teamed up a Movement, Consequence and Rescue group. Again they had a couple of minutes to share ideas, listen to each other and resolve conflicts if necessary.

The 3 Groups (Movement, Consequences & Rescue) coming together - Then explaining (& demonstrating) to the rest of the class their final game.

I was really excited about the process they were going through. The smaller groups sharing their ideas with the bigger group in order to develop a final product etc.

I should note here, it was important for me to remind a couple of the groups on occasion that they could not just poo poo the 'consequences' group idea (for example) just because it didn't fit their idea. That the 'consequences' group had the final decision regarding that area. I do remember using the word 'compromise' a lot during those lessons! Yet saying that, if an obvious or popular theme was suggested (by a group) the others would usually work well developing their area from that idea. One such example was the idea of the runners being bananas (running with both arms straight up above their heads - palms touching) and the taggers being monkeys (moving with monkey type movements) and if the bananas got tagged (they had to dance on the spot (dancing bananas?!)) until another free banana comes up and peals them (bringing both their arms down until they are at their sides).

All groups again experimented with their games in order to identify strengths and weaknesses before sharing it with the class.

Again some classes had more success than others. Though this time around all classes were able to produce a simple tag game that everyone got to play.

Sorting Out: Adding Equipment.
I decided that I needed to pick equipment that wouldn't distract too much from the task. After some talk and a little experimentation I eventually decided that bean bags, polyspots and bibs were a sensible choice.

It was at this point I decided that even smaller groups were necessary and that giving them roles wasn't required. I split the class into four friendship groups (approx 4-6 students per group). I showed them the equipment and gave them two minutes discussion time (brain storming). When they had come to a loose agreement they could start experimenting with the equipment and the layout of the game etc. I emphasized that trialling a mini version of the game was important so if they encountered any questions or problems they could quickly reflect, re-plan and try again.

I did start off with safety cones and bean bags, but changed it to polyspots and bean bags.

Going Further: Testing and Feedback.
Once they were pretty confident they had a presentable game I arranged for one of the other groups to visit to test the game. After about 5-10 minutes explaining and play time the students got into circles as the visiting group talked about what they really liked about the game and suggested possible tweaks were/if necessary. I explained to the class that the suggestions for possible improvements were just 'suggestions' and it was up to the designing group what they chose to do with the presented feedback.

The last job of the group after making any suggested tweaks was to record the final version of their game onto blank butcher paper so that any other classes could come and play their game.

Groups receiving feedback and then recording the final version of their game on butcher paper.

Finally as a class we got to play each others games and we rated them for Fun, Fitness and Originality.