Physical Education for the 21st Century
Grade 4 Adventure Challenge
Continued, lessons 9-11
Central Idea:
Capable team members collaborate effectively
Learner Outcomes:
Interactions:
Develop a shared plan of action for group work that incorporates each individual's experiences and strengths
Discuss ideas and ask questions to clarify meaning
Identity:
Use understanding of their own emotions to interact positively with others
Lesson 9:
We did a quick review of the unit to start the lesson off and then got into our first challenge - Team Shark:
The original Shark game is as follows:
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.
Team Shark is as follows:
Divide the class up into 4 teams.
One team starts off as the sharks, everyone else goes to any island of their choosing.
One person in the Shark team is “God” (sorry, slightly blasphemous but I did not know what to call a being that can make islands go away and come back repeatedly.)
The God is not allowed to catch the people but when they walk into an island, they call out, “3-2-1, no island!” and then the islands disappears and the sharks can come into the now non-existent island, catching anybody who were not fast enough.
Once the God walks out of the island, the island comes back up.
The last person to be alive is the winner along with that respective person’s team.
Rather than recruiting more sharks as the people are captured, these individuals sit out until the game is over.
After one round, we went through different aspects of the unit and how it relates to this challenge.
We continued on with this until all the teams had a chance to be the sharks.
At the end of the lesson, I told the students that their final challenge is next week and that they better be on their A-game to ensure they successfully complete it.
Lesson 10:
Final challenge has arrived. As you might have noticed, I do like big finishes for my units if possible: For Kindergarten, we had their mini Olympic games, for grade 3-5 Athletics, we had an Athletics Carnival, and for Adventure Challenge, we have our final challenge. It really does give the students something to shoot for and also, they are fantastic experiences.
The final challenge went like so:
Divide class into 4 teams, nominate 1 person in the team to have an iPad that has a map of the final challenge. They are the navigators.
Challenge 1: Tie the Rope
This challenge requires each team to tie 4 pieces of rope into one long piece using only 1 hand.
Once the rope is tied up, they need to make 3 different shapes, again only using 1 hand.
I chose a square, a car and an airplane.
Once I was satisfied, they could go to the next challenge.
Challenge 2: Cross the River
This was described previously.
Challenge 3: Word Jumble
I chose 4 words from our unit that the kids needed to unscramble.
Challenge 4: Foot Passing
The kids had to pass a bean bag.
Challenge 5: Dead Ant
The students chose one person to be a Dead Ant on their team and they needed to carry that person 20 meters.
If any part of the person touches the ground, start from the beginning of this challenge.
Challenge 6: Blind Walk
I laid out ping pong paddles in a zig zag formation.
The blind person cannot be touched and can only be directed verbally.
This person needs to touch each ping pong paddle with their foot in order.
Challenge 7: Blind Beanbag Toss
Each team has 2 bean bags and a hula hoop that is 5 meters away
One person on the team is blindfolded
Everyone else directs that person verbally to how far they need to throw it and how hard.
Challenge 8: Team Sprint
Sprint to the finish!
A team is only finished when all members cross the finish line.
By the time all the teams finished, it was close to the end of class. Therefore, I quickly told them their summative assessment and also put a reminder onto Seesaw.
Describe what you did for your final challenge.
Who was in your group?
What was each person’s responsibility in your group?
How did you apply the central idea to your final challenge?
How can the skills you have learned in this unit be used outside of school?
Lesson 11:
For this class, we started the lesson by watching a short movie I made of their final challenge. We then went over the unit a final time and found ways we could apply these skills into their lives. Some students needed to do extra work on their final reflections, so while they did that the rest of the class went out to play 5-Pass:
2 teams
1 ball
Object of the game is to successfully pass the ball to their teammates 5 times
The pass is not successful if the ball touches the ground, a defender touches the ball and drops to the ground or is intercepted. If any of these happen, a turnover occurs.
With 5 minutes left of the class, I asked the students for feedback of the unit. Generally, the students all like Adventure Challenge. Despite the many arguments that happen due to the nature of the unit, they do find it a lot of fun. I also do enjoy teaching it, you can see the improvement as the unit progresses in regard to their social and communication skills. It is quite easy to bring the big ideas to this unit and make it applicable to outside of PE.
I hope this unit plan can help you kick-start your own Adventure Challenge unit. Please if you need any clarification or just want to share a comment or two, please do so here! Happy teaching.
Find below final reflections my students made for when I did this unit last year. Their Central Idea was: Solving team problems requires trust, communication and an open-mind.
Grade 4 - Adventure Challenge - Assessment 1
Grade 4 - Adventure Challenge - Assessment 2
Grade 4 - Adventure Challenge - Assessment 3