Outdoor Education. Chapter 4/5.
Several things struck me from today’s class. One of which was how bringing P.E. outdoors can add a level of relevance to class activities. In alternative contexts, actions such as running, jumping, and climbing are given a whole new meaning. Climbing on a creative wooden play structure outside, for example, has a totally different significance in comparison to climbing on gym equipment inside a school. I felt a sense of freedom today, that tends to come with playing outdoors. For me this feeling connected with some of the objectives of physical education that we have been reading about, such as instilling a passion for movement into our students, and teaching P.E. through play. Running in the forest during a game of predator had so much more significance than running in a gymnasium playing the same game. We see animals around us outside. We can invest more into the game, and get more inspiration from the environment when playing this game outside.
The second thing that struck me was how valuable our classmates are as P.E. resources. Everyone has different areas of expertise that we can gain so much from. Lisa shared with us some of her exceptional knowledge and experience regarding outdoor education today, and I learned so much from her. In particular, she brought up many important points when addressing the question, “How do I plan for alternative environment activities”. I found her description of unacceptable and acceptable hazards useful, and the discussion that surrounded those. This week’s activities were very inspiring, and I look forward to implementing some of the ideas shared in the classroom!
Daniella, you forgot to describe your experience during the trust falls! You seemed so confident and easily fell off the picnic table certain we would catch you. I know that we would catch you, but i want to hear about that moment of falling and what it sounds like to have everyone cheering for you.
I was at the end of the line, pretending to catch you for a photo op – we were definitely too far away to be useful, but it was fun to pretend and i thought maybe, because you are so tall, we might have been able to touch your hair! 🙂 and save you from falling off the picnic table. But even as just a photo op participant i enjoyed this activity. Eric commented that he was impressed with everyones ability to trust each other, even though we have only known eachother for 6 weeks. I think that is one more testament to how awesome we are! Go ABC!
This is a great activity to do in our classes or with the staff. Its fun no matter what age or what level you are participating at – observer, cheering, catching, fake catching, photographer, person falling – i just love being part of a team!