The case seems to be that teacher education revisions the experiences I had as a student. Friday’s activity ‘tail chase’ was no exception it showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that. Physical education can be fun.
It was also very informative to see the manner by which each successive version of the game added to the previous. At first the game was played one on one. One person tucked the tail into the side of their belts while the other person tried to take it away. In this version, the tail was really easy to defend and thus the activity was probably a bit frustrating for the person trying to take the tail. Still, the defender got to learn tactics on how to place ones own body and how to use the other people in the class to defend the tail.
The next activity required four students to work as a team, holding hands to form a row, one side defended the tail while the other tried to take the tail from another team. The follow up activity was similar, though this time the row was formed one behind the other.
This succession slowly introduces the features of territory games. Through it, the activities moved from the act of taking possession of the tail, resembling the need to take possession of the ball – in, for instance, soccer or basketball – to assigning different tasks between the front person and the last person – resembling the nature of the playing field. Through participation, the students gain an implicit understanding of these games.