Big Plans: YEAR 1 - HPE - Explain2

Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.

Explain - Use strategies to work in group situations when participating in physical activities

Theme - ROLE MODELS

After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about participating in physical activities.

Explore students’ experiences of teamwork. In particular, discuss examples from sport and games when it’s important to communicate with your team mates, such as when passing a ball, or stepping together in a three-legged race. Invite students to participate in this low contact challenge focusing on control and communication.

At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.

Carrot catchers

  1. Focus on: balance, control and good communication. Discuss with students how they would make this challenge easier or harder.
  2. Tie a long string tightly around the thicker end of a carrot. Tie the other end around the waist of a student. The carrot should hang like a tail at the back reaching just below the student’s knees.
  3. Provide a jam jar or plastic pot. The aim is to squat to get the carrot resting in the jar. (It’s quite difficult because the carrot is behind the participant and it swings around.) Students should practice the skill 1–2 times before the game starts.
  4. Station three students sitting around the jar; at the back and one on each side. When the ‘carrot operative’ is trying to get the carrot in the jar, these helpers make loud beeping noises if the carrot is too far in their direction. They are not allowed to touch the carrot, the player, or the jar.
  5. Take turns being the ‘carrot operator’ and the ‘beeper helpers’. The width of the jar or plastic pot determines how hard this is – using a traditional jam jar is very challenging indeed.

Name circle

Focus on: movement sequences, respecting others’ instructions

  1. Arrange students in a circle, standing or sitting.
  2. One by one, students say their name and make up an action for each syllable of their name.
  3. Demonstrate how this works, e.g. sitting down, Evie says ‘Eve-ie’ and she pats her head for ‘Eve’ and touches her nose for ‘-ie’. Standing up, Kyla says ‘Ky-la’ and she pats her knees for ‘Ky’ and waves her hands in the air for ‘-la’.
  4. After each student has stated their name sequence, all the other students say their name back and repeat the actions.

This is a great beginning of year activity but it also acts as a positive enforcement that each student’s own choices are respected by the group.

As a class, list the team games/sports that the students play, e.g. basketball, AFL, Cricket, NRL, soccer/football, tennis, relay swimming, etc. Have the students who play the same sport make a group.

As a group, big or small, have the students select a skill drill that they can teach other students, and that requires communication between two or more people to perform it, e.g. for basketball ‘Suicide passing drill’, for soccer ‘dribbling in and around a circle of players’, swimming ‘relay touching and diving’.

Have the groups explain why they have chosen the drill and how it is important to communicate while performing it.

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