Little J dreams of being an acrobat in a circus when he grows up. With the help of Jacko and B-Boy, he practises circus tricks in the backyard after school. Uncle Mick, a search and rescue officer, comes to school to talk about his work. Little J uses his circus skills to demonstrate a search and rescue procedure.

Elaborate - Participate in play that promotes engagement with outdoor settings and the natural environment

Theme - CIRCUS

After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 3 ‘New Tricks’, engage students with the following circus style activities to support their understanding about personal and social strengths, resilience, and safety.

Divide the class into smaller groups, having each group select a circus skill, such as Juggling, Hula Hooping, Tumble Rolling, etc. Explain that once each group masters the skills of their group, they are to teach their circus tricks to the other groups.

1. Each group must make sure they have demonstrated the importance of all necessary safety equipment before teaching commences.
2. Students can video (or photograph) other students performing the skills to create a circus skills album.

Join each group with another group. Ask students to use the two circus skills that each group mastered to invent a new circus act based on merging the two skills together. Students can reference the following tutorial clips when learning the skills:

• Tightrope Walking – Vincent Lecavalier 
• Teaching Kids The Forward Roll
• How to Juggle Three Balls 
• Hula Hooping Basics | Hula Hooping
• Mental Floss – How to walk a tightrope 
• Teaching Beginning Tumbling

In the Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 3 ‘New Tricks’, Little J invents an obstacle course in the backyard using props found in the yard. Discuss with students how the obstacle course required each participant to display different movement skills to reach the end of the course. Some skills were easy and some were more difficult.

Circus game (circus costumes are optional):

Divide the class into three groups. Each group is responsible for inventing two obstacles: one easy, one more difficult. Therefore, the obstacle course is made up of six obstacles: 2 x juggling, 2 x hula hooping, 2 x tumbling.

The class decides on the order of the obstacles so that all six obstacles are doable in the prescribed order and safe to be performed. Each group must then collect all necessary safety equipment to perform the obstacle and set up their activities as part of the course.

The course can be conducted as an individually timed exercise or as a group/paired activity.

Record or photograph the Circus game skills test. If appropriate, post the video or photos on the school website to share with parents and carers. Use the following programs to edit or collate the video or images:

• iMovie, for iOS and macOS (also on the App Store):
• Movie Maker – Free video editor for PC or mobile device

As a class, play back the filmed completion of the obstacle course. Have students self-evaluate which of the skills they performed the best or to their strengths, and which of the skills they need more practice before mastering. Poll the class as to the easiest and the hardest skills. Discuss what personal skills students need to demonstrate to master any new skills, e.g. perseverance, practice, commitment, etc.

Quiz the students about why and how the safety equipment was necessary for the safe performance of all skills.