Pathway Racers (K)

I chose this activity because it is a good way to incorporate math into P.E. and allows for students to get their wiggles out in an educational setting. Students will begin to see how things learned in class, can be applied outside of the classroom in a fun and exciting way!

From: Hannah Blevins

Grade: Kindergarten
Standard: 1.10 Travel in straight, curved, and zigzag pathways.
Objective: Students will be able to understand what straight, curved, and zigzag lines look like and how to travel using them as pathways.
Materials:

• Tape
  
• Cones
  
• Rope
  
• Jump rope
  
• Visual cue cards with different lines
  
• Music
  
• Hula hoops
  

Activity: Pathway Racers

      To pre-assess the students understanding of lines, the teacher will have students spread out in the room. The teacher will ask students to travel in a straight line. He/She will begin playing music and allow students to travel across the room demonstrating their understanding of straight pathways for 30 seconds to 1 minute. The teacher will repeat this process for curved lines and zigzag lines. The teacher should remind the students not to bump into their peers and to be mindful of their surroundings.
      The class will come together as a group to review what each line is and how we can travel in these different pathways. The teacher will model how to travel in each of these paths. Teacher modeling will be a good visual for students who might be EL’s. The teacher can also provide pictures of the different types of pathways and demonstrate a person walking along these. The teacher will explain that the class is going to do a relay activity practicing these pathways. On the ground, the teacher will have placed tape in alternating pathways for the students to follow. The class is split into three to four groups. The students will line up behind a cone at the starting point. When the teacher plays music, the first student in line follows the pathway. As they are traveling along the line, they must say/call out what type of path they are traveling on. When they get to the end, they must tag the next person in line. The group sits down when the entire team finishes. By using tape, this activity becomes accessible to students with wheelchairs. If you have students who have visual impairments, you can have a rope along the path that indicates the various pathways that they can hold onto to follow along. The tape is also good for ELs because it is visual and they can follow along.
      After this, the teacher will place “obstacles” in a way that will guide children to walk in a certain pathway. For example, cones in a straight line on both sides of you forces you to go straight, hula hoops staggered has you travel in a curved/wavy line, and jump ropes lined in a zigzag pattern on each side of you has you travel in a zigzag pattern. The entire class will line up at the start and one will go at a time. The following student will begin when the first student reaches a certain point that the teacher has designated. This will be used as a formative assessment to understand if the students know the various pathways. The teacher should make the obstacles wide enough that wheelchairs can navigate through the path. Students who are visually impaired can use these tactile obstacles to navigate the path as well.
      To assess the students at the end of the lesson, the teacher will have the students line up against one side of the wall. The teacher will say that the students are cars and they are trying to get to their destination (the wall across from them). However, the route is very crazy. The teacher will call out a pathway and the children will have to move towards their destination in this way. The teacher should remind students not to bump into their peers and to be mindful of those around them. The teacher will say “When I say go, move to your destination on a (curvy, straight, zigzag) road.” The teacher can hold up pictures of different lines or roads that are curvy, straight, and zigzag for English Learners. Continue to do this, varying the types of pathways, until then students make it to their destination.

This lesson can be used in a math unit to explore how different lines create different shapes. This can also be tied to a unit on locomotor activities and how we can use movement to travel distances. This lesson focuses on answering the questions, “How can we get to places using different pathways? Which ways are the most efficient?” This second question can be used in a follow up activity where students have to time their peers when traveling a distance using the different pathways. The enduring understanding question is, “What is the importance of locomotor skills? Why is it important to develop these for use in other physical activities?”

Resources:
https://allysonpageportfolio.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/8/2/10828259/pathways_of_travel_lesson.pdf https://www.ssww.com/blog/pathways-directions-stations-pe-activity-grades-k-2/