Mrs. Hall and I have spent the first month of school working on cooperative activities and team building skills in physical education class.  We started with fun, ice-breaker type activities such as Pass the Chicken (using our two “friends” Boneless and Skinless, the rubber chickens), Pac-Man Pick Up, Hula Hut Challenges, Ant Tag, Moon Ball, Scavengers, Giants, Wizards, and Elves, and an exciting team Rock, Paper, Scissors Activity.

Standard 4 of the five PE National Standards describes that the physically literate individual exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others.  Most of the time spent over the last few weeks involved learning objectives from Standard 4.  Cooperative skills and team building activities allow students the opportunity to gain skills that are important components of personal and group development.  Team building forces students to exchange ideas and work together to solve a problem.  Students can learn to listen to one another, to deal with failures, and to persevere.  They can also learn to cooperate and offer one another both physical and emotional support.

Furthermore, through team building and cooperative activities, students have the opportunity to acquire leadership skills, develop self-confidence, and gain self-esteem.  The students also learn to take challenges and even some risks.

We will be starting our orienteering unit this week as the weather allows (hopefully we can work around the rain).