COOPERATIVE COLLABORATION

Just as I thought I wasn't going to get a call to work this morning, my phone rang and I was happy to accept my assignment for the day. My assignment was to teach Phys. Ed. - something I haven't done since before Christmas, so I was rather excited. 

I was lucky enough to have the first session of the day to have time to plan (and have a cup or two of coffee) and figure out what I should teach for the day. There was no plan left for me and no one seemed to know what the students have been doing in Phys. Ed. Although not having a plan of any kind would normally slightly stress me out, I was excited to have control of what I got to teach. 

It was a 'wet day' today meaning it was very rainy. Generally, schools have all of their Phys. Ed. lessons outside on the ovals or on the courts, but on days like today, we are left with the hall - a small space that is only used for after school care and the odd wet day. After seeing the space, I realized that getting 30 students in grades 5 and 6 could get quite crowded and rowdy. 

The hall is quite a small space.

Instead of planning to do a bunch of games, I thought it would be exciting to focus my lessons on the idea of cooperation and collaboration. As I planned, I thought of games and activities to do (with minimal running due to space constrictions) that would promote working together as a group for the same outcome. The students enjoyed the activities we did and they liked it even more when I added in a little challenge component by recording the time it took to complete the challenge or splitting the students into teams and racing. 

After having a discussion about what cooperation and collaboration is and what it looks like, I began my activities. The first challenge I called Wall Ball. I had the students lay with their backs on the floor and putting their feet up against the wall. Their task was to pass the ball from the first person to the last using only their feet. Not only did I notice that the students were helping each other out (with their feet) while the ball was passed from person to person but also they began motivating each other and positively cheering their classmates on. 

The second challenge was my favourite - The Hula Hoop challenge. To start, the biggest challenge was getting all the students to hold hands. I've never had this problem before since I generally teach preps and the younger grades, so I didn't anticipate this situation with the 3/4 and 5/6 classes. We had a spontaneous, quick lesson on holding hands and once again - the idea of team work. Unfortunately, I had a few students choose to sit out because their fear of holding the hand of an opposite gender was just too much. Basically, the students needed to all hold hands and pass a hula hoop all the way around the circle by going through the hoop and staying connected. It was a lot of fun and the challenge heated up when I split the students into teams of boys and girls. 

I had another game planned out to play, but as it turns out, we were short on hula hoops for this activity. I was so excited to play it so I will have to save it for another day at another school. It's called Caterpillar Riot - the name itself it so exciting! 

With the remaining time, I decided to do a silent vote for which game we should play. I let the students choose the games and we went from there. I despise dogdeball entirely - as a student and as a teacher, but every single student voted for it. There was no way I could skew the results to play a different game so we ended off the day with a game of dodgeball.