Big Plans: YEAR 2 - HPE - Engage2

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.

Engage - Propose a range of alternatives and test their effectiveness when solving movement challenges

Theme - EMOTIONS

After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about coordinated movement, communication, and cooperation.

These activities are good for outdoors on a hot day, as they involve water. They also require students to coordinate their movements quite carefully. Take the class outdoors and explain that there are a number of ways we can play games that require coordination as well as cooperation.

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

Cooperative cups

Focus on: hand-eye coordination, group communication and cooperation.

  • Tie four strings around a plastic cup. Ensure that each string is the same length (extending about 30 cm from the cup) and securely knotted around the cup. Students will cooperate to lift the cup off the ground as you gradually place more challenging items in it.
  • Place the cup on the ground with the strings extended flat; one string in each of the four directions.
  • Nominate four students; one for each string. Together, students must lift the cup off the ground.
  • After a short practice, drop a pebble into the cup and tell them they need to lift it without dropping the pebble from the cup.
  • Increase the difficulty by filling the cup with water and having students try to lift it without spilling a drop. Start with a half cup and increase the volume of water gradually.

Variation:

If the students get really good at the game, ask them to walk a very short distance carrying the cup full of water without spilling it.

Suggested resource: Cup and String Challenge 

Water caterpillar

Focus on: cooperative solutions and accuracy.

  • Line the students up in a row, one behind the other. Start playing the game with four students in the row, but the line can gradually extend as students get better at the game.
  • Tell students their feet are stuck to the ground and must not move. Provide each student with a plastic cup.
  • Fill the front student’s cup with water and tell them that they need to get all the water into the cup of the person at the back, without moving their feet. They must pass the water from person to person so that everyone receives it.
  • Students will need to cooperate to work out how to pour water over their shoulder or under an arm without moving their feet.

Variations

To make this easier: provide larger vessels and less water.

To make this harder: place the students an arm’s length away from each other so that they cannot twist around and reach each other easily.

Be sure to tell them that they get points for making sure the water gets to the rear person. Therefore, the objective of the game is accuracy and cooperation, not speed!

Suggested resource: Communication, Coordination and Cooperation Games

Water colours

Focus on: visualising, measuring, precision, and ensuring no team member is left without water.

  • Have three large jugs or buckets of water, each one with food colouring in the water: red water, yellow water, and blue water. Make more blue water as both teams will use it.
  • Demonstrate for students how to pour equal amounts of blue and yellow water into a plastic cup so it mixes to get green water. Show students that if they pour equal amounts of blue and red water into a plastic cup they get purple water.
  • Divide students into two teams. In a large outdoor area, have each team split into two and face each other in two lines approximately 5 m apart. Each team will play the game separately and compete for the best time.
  • Give every student a see-through or white plastic cup.
  • Pour half a cup of blue water to one line of both teams.
  • Pour red water to the other line of the first team, and yellow water to the other line of the second team.
  • Say ‘go’, and students walk to their opposite team mate, share their water and ensure that both cups are half filled with the green or purple water and return to their place. Cooperation is required as the water has to be mixed before it can be shared.

The winning team is the first in which all members have a half cup of green or purple coloured water, and no team members have an empty cup.

Explore students’ observations about the games played and encourage a discussion about cooperation and the positive feelings that result when everyone is working together in a group.

Suggested resources for alternative cooperation games: