Teaching 45:00 [1]
This was a good session. The 4th with these kids. Keegan and Christian were my helpers. There were 14 kids. I had prepared ahead of time. I picked Keegan up when he got out of school at 3:55. We drove to Dana Park. I deposited him there with 13 old CSU park-O controls and a map. He set them up while I went to get the kids from the nearby Amigos School.
Today my crowd control was better.
New teaching nugget: the Victory Lap as reward. Totally worked, worked beautifully. As Keegan pointed out, it is probably very age-dependent- older than 5th grade unlikely to work. OK, here's what I mean by "totally worked": the kids left behind to clap were begging me to be allowed to run a lap too. Also, the kids running had fine graceful upright proud form.
A friend of one of the girls (another girl) who happened to be in the park joined us. I like it when that happens. The class looks so fun and inviting that other people ask to play.
Three exercises on Isak's new map. (Thanks again to Ed for getting Isak the base map and explaining a bunch of things!)
1. Three teams of 5-7 people take a map and punch card and punch all 13 controls.
2. Three teams, same ones. They decide on a Controller (by consensus). (Do you know what consensus is? I asked. Yes they do. Welcome to Cambridge) The others are Runners. Runners take map and punch card and get 3 punches at a time. Controller hands out additional maps and punch cards to those who finish early. Next time I want the kids' names on the cards so I know who gets it. Going out in pairs is fine. (Kids who are uncertain can learn that way.)
3. Two teams. A new kind of capture the flag. I'm proud of these rules; came up with them today. We haven't tried it yet so I might not be as proud next week. Keegan and I have been evolving Orienteering Capture the Flag for several months now.
a. Safe zones: the center circle, or touching a control stand. You may not move or push over the control stands.
b. Each team has 3 cards. Three different team members must hold the three cards. They are trying to get all the punches. The other team members are the taggers, and try to tag the members of the other team who are carrying cards.
c. Showing the card. If you are holding the control card, you must show it clearly in your hand, so people know that you have it.
d. Sharing the cards. Team members can give the card to another team member, unless they have just been tagged and are on the way to jail.
e. There are no territories. Team members holding a card can be tagged; team members without a card can tag members of the other team.
f. Tagging and jail. If you are tagged, you must go to the center of the center circle and wait for 30 seconds. After that, a teammate may release you by touching you (this is neutral territory, so being released is easy).
g. Winning. Your team wins if you can get all the punches in any of your 3 cards.