Games and Rules

I put out the hopscotch mat and the foam dice to see what would happen.  At first, everyone was discussing how to play hopscotch.  They all got along, but there were some interesting ways of playing.  Once I gave then some guidance, one student started to roll the dice, and students started to hop that many spots.  Some of the children were getting tired of waiting, so they tried to create another game with the extra dice.  They wanted to play Hot Potato, but did not know how to play.  They went “one potato, two potato, three potato, stop.”  This game did not last long.  I tried to create a game for a large group of students to play, but it was interesting because they got bored of my game and wanted to move on.  During the games, one student had a hard time staying focused on the games and one student had a hard time with winning and losing.

The next day, we went outside to the side of the school where there are hopscotch squares set up.  They used rocks to play the game.  I showed them how to throw a rock, and they started to create their own rules.  The students had a girls and boys hopscotch. At the end of our outside time, only the girls were playing hopscotch.

During our outside time, the kids got along very well, they were transforming into various characters.  One boy was a robber who stole jewels.  One boy was a knight who protected the castle and the princess.  There were two boys who were arguing over who was going to play at a bush.  One boy claimed it as his bush and no one was allowed in it and his karate teacher told him it was his park/bush.  The other student was very upset and another student came to intervene.  I ended up telling the one boy not to play with the other boy and to walk away.  They seem to get along well when they are free to choose what they want to do outside.  There are less behaviors and the students solve their own problems.

I put out street signs, and a few of the students played a game with them.  One student led the students who were in a circle.  If she said stop, the students had to stop moving.  If their sign moved, they got to be the king or queen.  She called the game “Signs” and the game did not have typical rules, but all the students who were partaking in the game were enjoying it.