Grade 1 Games

Central Idea:

• Respect and care are important when playing with friends

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Learner Outcomes:

• Interactions:

  • Listen respectfully to others​

  • Reach out for help when it is needed for themselves or others

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Lesson 1: Pre-Assessment:

• This was the first unit of the year and with a large majority of my students not having a great deal of English and also at a large school it was important to get the kids comfortable with me and with each other. I also wanted to see if they were able to play together and follow simple rules. Therefore, I introduced a game called, “Helping Hand Tag.” This is a very simple game:

  • 2 catchers

  • When a catcher tags one of the non-catchers that person sits down with hands out on their legs.

  • The others can free these seated people by helping them to stand up and introducing themselves – “my name is Steve,” “Thank you Steve, my name is Jenny.” This is a good game to let the kids introduce themselves to each other and to help each other.

• This game seems simple enough but a lot of the students either do not understand the rules or are unable to follow them. We returned to our discussion area and reviewed the rules of the game. With non-English speakers, visuals are incredibly helpful and also acting out the rules can help.

Lesson 2:

• Reviewed previous lesson and introduced the Central Idea – with visuals. After having a couple of rounds of Stuck in the Mud with emphasis on the key parts of the Central Idea, I introduced a new game – “What is the time, Mr. Wolf?”

Lesson 3:

• I followed the same format for the remainder of the lessons until lesson 6 where I conducted the formative assessment. For lesson 3 we reviewed the previous lesson and introduced a new game: “Stuck in the Mud”. It is a very simple chasing game:

  • 2 Catchers

  • Catchers try and catch people

  • When a person is caught, they are stuck and the other non-catchers can free them by crawling under their legs.

Lesson 4:

• New game: Dead Ants:

  • 2 Catchers

  • Catchers run and try and catch as many people as possible

  • Once caught, the “Ant” lies on their back with arms and legs outstretched in front of them.

  • To help the “Dead Ant” the non-catchers have to work together by having 4 people grab one appendage each and carry the Dead Ant to one of the 5 hula-hoops spread out around the playing area.

  • They lightly place the Dead Ant in the hula-hoop and the Dead Ant is now alive.

Lesson 5:

• This lesson reviewed all of the games learned so far:

  • Helping Hand Tag

  • What’s the Time Mr. Wolf

  • Stuck in the Mud

  • Dead Ants

• We stopped periodically to emphasize the key points of the unit:

  • Respect

  • Care

Lesson 6: Formative:

• For this lesson we went through all of the games learned so far and completed a formative assessment:

  • Tell me everything you have learned so far

• The students could draw or write, up to them, but demonstrate your learning in a creative way.

Lesson 7:

• The second half of the unit was spent on integrating with the homeroom and including more complex games. The homeroom was looking at roles and responsibilities in the classroom. We could easily integrate here and discuss the roles and responsibilities in PE and the games we play.

• For this lesson, I introduced a new game to the class – Jellyfish:

  • A team-based game where I break up the class into 4-5 teams and their goal is to complete a set course.

  • However, their arms are linked together in a circle facing outwards.

  • There is 1 person in the middle of the circle that directs the group and fixes the circle if it breaks.

• After the teams complete the course, you can either repeat or make the groups larger until ultimately there is just 1 big jellyfish.

• Throughout this game/challenge, we stop periodically to discuss the roles and responsibilities.

Lesson 8:

• Same format as the previous lesson but introduced a new game: Sharks.

  • Initially start the game with 2 catchers – they are the sharks

  • The people have initially 2 islands to run back and forth.

  • Once a shark catches a person who runs out of the island that person turns into a shark.

  • As the game progresses and there are more sharks you can include additional islands.

Lesson 9:

• Reviewed Central Idea, roles and responsibilities within PE and the games they engaged in.

• Repeated Shark again since it was very popular. After a couple of rounds, include a modification:

  • Modification: Nominate yourself or a trustworthy student to be “God”.

  • This person cannot catch people but can make islands appear and disappear.

  • God works with the sharks by moving to an island, shouting, 3-2-1 NO ISLAND.

  • The Sharks can then run into the disappeared island and catch the people who did not leave the island fast enough.

  • Once the God walks away from that island, the island reappears and is safe for the people to run to again.

Lesson 10:

• Introduced a new game, the final one for the unit - Crossover:

  • Split the class into 2 teams and send them to either side of the field

  • One team are the attackers, the other are the defenders

  • The attackers are safe on their side however, once they cross over to the defenders side of the field they can get caught

  • Once the attacker is caught, they run off to the side of the field, perform 5 jumping jacks and go back to their side of the field

  • If they are able to get past the defenders and run to the end of the defenders side of the field, they raise their hand and score a point.

  • The successful attackers then runs back to their side of the field and tries scoring another point

Lesson 11:

• Reviewed all three games, Central Idea and Integration part of the unit:

  • Jellyfish

  • Shark

  • Crossover

Lesson 12: Summative:

• Review any 3 games of your choosing from the unit.

• With 15-20 minutes left of the lesson, students were given a blank piece of paper with colour pencils. Their task was to pick one game they learned in the unit and demonstrate their role and responsibility in the game.

• This can be quite difficult for some students due to English limitations but I had a TA help translate for me and the students could explain to me once they handed their work in.

• For this assessment, I just wanted the students to reflect on the games in a bit more detail and determine what they felt their role was in their games.

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