Physical Education Learning Journeys & Key Concepts

Over the past 3 or 4 years my department in Jakarta has been working on developing an inquiry/concept based physical education matrix that fits over a preexisting national curriculum (Grades EY3-Grade 5).

The elusive PE matrix, it's something lots of people talk about, but very few people document.

With the knowledge that the Australian Curriculum (Health & Physical Education) underpins our conceptual matrix, here are our Learning Journeys and our Key Concepts.

If you have followed previous post, you will have noticed we have now gone from 5 Learning Journeys to 4, combining Relationships and Ethics together. The Learning Journeys are now: Relationships & Ethics, Elements or Movement, Health & Fitness and Evaluation & Critical Thinking. In addition we have tied each Learning Journey to their own set of concepts: Relationships, Safety, Values, Critical Thinking, Evaluation, Growth, Performance, Motivation and Wellness.

Some concepts do overlap Learning Journeys. When this happens we examine that particular concept through the lens of the Learning Journey we are studying at that moment in time.

Our Enduring Understandings (conceptual and transferable rather than topic based) and our Compelling Questions (provocation that captures the essence of the inquiry) will be discussed in the next post.

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.

Enduring Understanding & Compelling Questions 2018/19

Colour Code
Yellow = Relationships
Red = Ethics
Blue = Elements of Movement
Green = Health & Fitness
Orange/Brown = Critical Thinking & Evaluation

This year I'm experimenting with focusing and aligning our 5 Learning Journeys (Relationships, Ethics, Elements of Movement, Health & Fitness and Critical Thinking & Evaluation) across Grades 1 to 5. Instead of addressing each Learning Journey depending on the games, topics or sports played, I'm focussing on letting the Enduring Understandings and Compelling Questions drive what we do in class.

Rereading our Enduring Understandings, recognising (and predicting alongside the Australian Curriculum) where the students would be with their learning and understanding, it seemed obvious that the Learning Journeys (LJ) could fall in an order that would be appropriate for a yearly overview.

Meaning, the LJs appear to fit nicely together, running from Relationships & Ethics combined, through Elements of Movement, Health & Fitness and finishing with Critical Thinking and Evaluations at the end of the year.

If you are aware of my previous physical education matrices you will notice I have combined the stands of relationships and ethics. Taking our 5 Learning Journeys down to 4 across a school year. I have done this for a number of reasons; the first of which is I believe the 2 strands run very closely together. Tackling the questions alongside one another gives us the opportunity to explorer both LJs for extended periods of time, allowing the classes the opportunities to make more meaningful connections. In addition our new 4 LJs fit neatly into our school calendar, giving each LJ focused time periods to be explored in more detail, rather than just hitting the LJs randomly over the course of the year.

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.

Orienteering Revisited '18

This is a post that is based on the reflections on last years Orienteering unit and how I organised the unit this year.

Lesson Order:
1. Introduction to basic maps and map drawing (find your partners lolly pop stick)
2. Micro Orienteering
3. Marco Orienteering (Flags of the world pt. 1)
4. Marco Orienteering (Flags of the world pt. 2)
Future Lessons:
5 & 6. Clue based Orienteering

Last year I started with Micro Orienteering follow up with Map Drawing (Hunt the lolly stick) Orienteering. As you can see this year I reversed the two lessons.

Reasons for this were I felt the students need to get to understand the basics of map reading, and the Micro Orienteering lesson didn't really answer all their questions.

Having them look at maps first and then produce a simple map on a personal white board of the gym with bits of equipment scattered round it seemed the more logical path to take. The practical part of the lesson had the students draw a plan of the gym (plus equipment) and then in pairs one would hide their partners lolly stick, mark it on the map with a circle and then have them try and find it.
A link to how to play this game can be found here.

Once the students have kinda got their heads around the idea of drawing and looking at a plan of the gym the next lesson: Micro Orienteering is much more plain sailing. In this lesson the idea of orientating yourself to the map is really important. It should be noted here, to save time and to lay the course, I had to produce the map for the class and photocopy it accordingly. Alternatively, if I have the time I would let the students copy the map onto their own white boards and to mark on the circles... I'm guessing that would produce some interesting results (and maps!).
A link to how to play this game can be found here.

Lessons 3 and 4: Macro Orienteering is conducted in an area of the schools ground, including outside basketball courts, a covered play area, the cafeteria, the gym and the football field.

I made up 40 cards with 20 flags (each flag had a double). With one set of flags I gave a number and with their double I gave a letter e.g. The Flag of France, one card is S and the other is 72.
To add a bit of technology into the mix I had the cards made up as QR codes (our G3's have individual iPads).

Before the lesson I place 20 cards (10 flags) around the area mapped, each location marked with a circle.

The objective is for the students to work in pairs to locate, find and record each card found and to match up the flag codes.

This is repeated for the 4th lesson, but with a varied map and the other 10 flags.

Below is one of the maps and keys for the flags that I used this year.

In the future I would like to try as the final lesson a clue based orienteering course. I'm not 100% sure what it will look like, but I like the idea of getting the students critically thinking their way to the next clue etc.

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.