3TR
In PE this afternoon, 3TR were set some problem solving challenges. The first task was quite easy: pass a bean bag around your group using your hands. If the bean bag was dropped at any point, they had to go back to the beginning. All teams achieved this quickly and successfully! The next task was to pass the bean bag around using their elbows. Some groups worked really well together, listening and helping each other and so finished quickly. Other groups took a bit longer, as everyone wanted to be the leader and they didn’t listen to each other! The final bean bag challenge was to pass the bean bag round using only their feet. Most groups had learnt from the previous activity, co-operating well. If the bean bag was dropped they talked about why and what might be a better way to pass the bean bag. One group however, straight away said it couldn’t be done after dropping the bean bag, but after looking around at other groups working well together. They soon got back to it and again everyone achieved success.
The final activity was the frogs and toads challenge. The aim was for the frogs and toads to get to the opposite side of the river bank by leaping onto the lily pads (hoops). Only one frog or toad (child) could be on a lily pad at one time. Most groups started the challenge straight away, jumping into the hoops but then faced problems when the frogs and toads met in the middle. One group however, sat and discussed the challenge first and thought about how they would get around each other. They then set to work and got to the opposite sides successfully. All groups eventually realised that they would need to leave one lily pad free to be able to leap frog over each other. They were then set the challenge of counting how many moves it took them and which team could complete the challenge in the fewest moves. Counting the moves proved quite difficult as they kept losing count or forgetting to count somebodies jump! Eventually they discovered that the fewest number of moves it took to get to the opposite side of the river was 15.
The children were asked about the strategies they used to complete the challenges successfully: “Team work!” “We had one leader but she listened to us if we had any ideas to help.” “We learnt from our mistakes and if one way didn’t work we tried it a different way.” “We didn’t give up.” “Doing it more slowly, rather than racing to be the winner.” These are all qualities of growth mind set: with resilience, perseverance and determination they all achieved success.
