i really liked the chuck the chicken game. I loved the use of unusual paraphernalia. The elements of baseball are also incorporated such that they are no longer recognizable as such. As a result, the activity came off as over the top.
I’m curious to know whether this particular effect can easily be produced in other activities.
The value of such activities cannot be understated. they give the teacher the opportunity to introduce the rules of a game without having to set up or get into the more complicated details.
An activity such as chuck the chicken can be used as a warm up as well. Even if what follows is not baseball practice, so long as you intend to teach baseball at a later date, using chuck the chicken as a warm up can help begin to prepare the students early on.
Rob,
I also really enjoyed the “Chuck the Chicken” game. It got the whole class up and active right away and it served as a good introduction to how we might choose to start our class. It is definitely one to use on our practicums. It seemed slightly wacky, but served the purpose of giving us the opportunity to practice specific skills. This combination is something I would love to bring to my teaching. As a parallel to what the game accomplished, Steve explained why he started with the game after we had already completed it. This is something that I have found overall in this program, but especially in this class. It’s a structure that helps us learn inductively and I appreciate that. I am looking forward to building a base of games and activities to bring to our schools.