Who We Are – Grade 4, 2018
The unit for Grade 4 is in many ways similar to the Grade 2 unit, with a focus on risk-taking activity and how the students respond, plan, interact and overcome the challenge in front of them. The first session saw the students undertake a couple of old classic trust type of exercises with the first being a simple trust fall/catch. The second exercise is called “Willow in the wind” where one student (the Willow tree) stands in the centre of a circle, surrounded by peers who must gently direct them into a different direction giving the appearance of a Willow tree swaying in the wind.
The second session again focused on trust building exercises that added elements of risk and another classic exercise known as ‘Minefield Walk.” This exercise requires a bit of set up and a lot of cone, hot-spots, rope… anything that could become a safe obstacle. I used a small road area within our school to define the boundary for the course and laid out a number of obstacles which students must avoid as they walk through blind-folded. A partner must direct their blindfolded friend through the course without stepping or coming in to contact with any obstacle or they must begin again. Trust and communication become important factors in this exercise.
The final session saw the students work in small groups to try and recreate trust exercises. I began the session by giving each group of students and iPad and had some pages loaded up with suggestions for trust building exercises. The groups watched a number of videos to discover one they would like to try before they actually attempted it. One class spent more time working in small groups whereas the other class ended up trying a few challenges as a whole class.
Following this activity, we held a reflection session, considering all of the activities and challenges undertaken in the whole unit and the types of attitudes and learner profiles that were required throughout. We used a number of these key terms to help create our beginning of the year essential agreements which we print in to a poster and refer to throughout the year.
