What helps you work together as a team? (talking/communicating, taking turns, not rushing something, listening to each others ideas etc).
What is something that might make team work tricky? (everyone talking at once, no body listening to new ideas, not listening to instructions etc).
Have the children evenly space out around the parachute.
All at once, they must lift the parachute up, and bring it down - working together and at the same time.
Once this is achieved, the coach calls 'mushroom', and everyone lifts it up as high as they can, go under it (still holding the handles), and bring the parachute down and sit down on it.
This results in everyone inside the parachute, sitting down on its edge to keep it filled with air.
Students are evenly placed around the parachute and held at chest height (roughly or close to the tummy). Select 3-5 students (depending on class size) to be the "hitters" that will stand underneath the parachute. Place 4 foam balls (dodgeballs) on top of the parachute. The aim of this game is for the hitters to try and get the foam balls off the parachute by using any method they like. Students holding the parachute must protect the foam balls by maneuvering the parachute in a way so the foam balls move away from the hitters.
RULES:
- hitters are not allowed to hit the tarp so hard they disrupt the holders and pull it from their hands
- students on the outside must not let go of the parachute and have it collapse on the hitters underneath
PROGRESSIONS:
- add/subtract foam balls to increase the difficulty
- add/subtract hitters to increase difficulty
- time the rounds to have hitters vs holders, hitters will only have a certain amount of time to get all the foam balls off the parachute - if they do not hit them off in time then the holders win
The class will be divided into mini groups (depending on class numbers - roughly 3 groups with 8 students in each) and form giant cirlces by linking hands and placing a hula hoop around the arms of linked students. Students will then have to work together to get the hula hoop around the circle back to the starting player in order to complete the task. Allow students to have have a few practise rounds before having a group discussion regarding strategies, communication etc before having another go.
PROGRESSIONS:
- If groups are finding it too easy, introduce more than one hula hoop to increase difficulty
- combine the whole class and create one giant circle, start with one hula hoop. Time the first round, then see if the class can beat this time on the second round. If there is enough time, add in more hula hoops and time the rounds again.
- Groups must go in a clockwise, then anti-clockwise direction before finishing the task
- Can time groups individually to see how long they take - this will be the groups time they have to try and beat the following round.
- Introduce an elimination round, out of the three groups eliminate the slowest so there are two groups facing off in a final.