Grade 1: Adventure Challenge!

A Brief Overview

This unit started out as a series of obstacle courses that the students had to work together to over come to move forward. As a whole class exercise the unit proves to be great for developing teamwork, communication and developing natural leadership skills.

At the start of the unit there were times when it could be a little frustrating watching a team get stuck on a problem that might of seemed obvious. Yet as they developed, and solved more problems and got over, under or around more obstacles, they were able to draw on these past experiences.

After a couple of lessons working as a whole class, developing their problem solving skills and finding their roles within the team, I step up the challenge by splitting them into two teams in order for them to be put under a new type of pressure: time!

Adding the concepts of competition and time to their problem solving skills really forced them into stepping up their teamwork, communication and problem solving skills. It also highlighted ethical concepts such as sportsmanship. 
 The next step in the unit was for them to demonstrate mastery. Could they as a team, design, build and test an obstacle course of their own. At times the designing and build proved to be a lot harder on their understanding of teamwork then ever before!!! For this I would split the class into two teams.

After testing their own designs, the students could then swap obstacle courses, race and give feedback to what they thought worked and maybe what they found difficult or easy.

KG also get involved with developing their problem solving skills

G1: Designing, Building, Testing and Racing on their obstacle courses

KG: Fun with Storage Crates

As the title suggests, the students loved playing with the storage crates - from experience let me tell you, pushing them around the gym floor with students tucked safety inside is a real cardio and whole body workout.

Scooters & Balls - Team Games (Grades KG - 1)

Click to enlarge!

KG Relationships: Problem Solving/Scooter Madness

This unit has seen us focus on developing our relationships and our problem solving skills.

Inquiring into how to get the maximum out of your scooter!

After practicing our scooter skills we moved onto the roller racers (which I've called roller rockers... not sure why? lol) The roller races give the students a good upper-body workout whilst having fun. The riders move the handlebars side to side to propel themselves forward. I combined the racers with a bean bag toss into a net, just to add a competitive edge to the lesson and a bit of throwing and aiming practice.

Balance... bring out the stand up scooters!

Scooter Ball Scramble

The class is divided into four equal teams. Red, Yellow, Green and Blue. Each team has a corresponding net that they have to throw a ball into (the colour of the balls doesn't matter). The only way to travel is via scooter, be it a rocker racer or a connect-a-scooter. The balls are piled in the middle of the room with the teams corresponding net positioned far away from them.

The rules are simple. On the word GO, the teams have to rush forward, collect one ball (at a time) and race to the far end of the room, towards their designated goals. A mark on the floor indicates where they have to throw from. The more balls they get in the basket the more points their team gets.

Once all the balls have been taken from the center bucket the teams are allowed to steal from each other (again, one ball at a time). The game continues until the teacher shouts STOP!

Each teams ball totals are counted up.

KG Obstacle Course, Teamwork & Problem Solving

This proved to be a lot of fun...

At this moment in time my two KG classes are both having issues with pushing, shoving, who goes first etc. without them really knowing why they want to go first...

After a little time working on an obstacle course, with the concept that the floor is quicksand (their decision) they had to travel as a class safely from point A to point B. I was interested in noting that the majority of the class would think nothing of pushing their fellow peers into the quicksand just to be the first to get up a ladder or be the first to jump a ravine etc...

In order to address this issue I placed an expanse of quicksand between the starting point and the rest of the obstacle course. I designed it in such a way that it would force the class to come up with a plan and work as a team. It also gave a couple of them the opportunity to demonstrate their leadership skills.

Their first attempt witnessed the class abandoning 5 class members to the quicksand as they rushed to safety! The second attempt proved a bit more successful with all students making it to the end of the obstacle course.