Can You Cooperate?

(Partner Body/Balance/Cooperation Challenges)

This activity uses previously learned fundamental skills in a variety of cooperative challenges. Students work together in pairs to communicate and complete a small task that uses skills they have learned and practiced earlier in the year.

Procedure:

1. Share with students that they will continue to use skills to try to challenge themselves.
2. Explain that they will use their locomotors and other previously learned skills to try to complete a challenge by cooperating with a partner.
3. Review with students that cooperation takes best effort by each partner and the use of talking/listening skills (communication).
4. Explain that you will give them a cooperation challenge to try together, and they will have 2 minutes to cooperate and practice the challenge.
5. Use a best practice method to pair students.
6. Share/show partner challenges and allow two minutes for practice/completion of each challenge.
7. Possible Challenge Ideas to Explore:
   • Hand Hold and Skip (Can you and your partner grip hands and skip all around the activity area without bumping/banging into anyone/anything and without letting go of hands?)
   • Elbow Hook and Jog (Can you and your partner intertwine your arms by the elbows and jog all around the activity area without bumping/banging into anyone/anything and without unhooking arms?)
   • Tunnel Tower (Can you and your partner make a muscle tunnel tower by having a base tunnel and another tunnel supported on that with feet or hands resting on the bottom/base tunnel?)
   • Back-to-Back Sit to Stand (Can you and your partner sit down on the ground with your backs flat against each other, and use your muscular strength to stand up, without using your hands/arms, while keeping your backs together?)
   • Back-to-Back Slide (Can you and your partner stand with your backs flat to each other, hook your arms on each side and slide all around the activity area without letting your arms come apart?)
   • Double Airplane Balance (Can you and your partner face each other, grip both hands to each other’s hands and both lift one leg off the ground and balance strong and steady for 10 counts?)
   • 3-Legged Run (Can you and your partner stand side by side and connect the legs that are touching each other in the center by stepping each one into a bag/sack or putting an exercise band/Velcro strap band around them and move as fast as you can back and forth across our activity area without failing?)
   • Big Ball Transport (Can you and your partner hold a big ball together, high over your head and move all around the activity area, keeping all 4 hands on the ball and keeping it higher than your head without dropping it?)
   • Back-to-Back Big Ball Transport (Can you and your partner stand backward to each other with both of you placing your back flat on a big ball? Can you move through the activity area, keeping the ball between your backs and not letting it fall?)
   • Wheelbarrow Walk (Can you and your partner create a wheelbarrow hold where one partner supports themselves on their palms with their feet held in their partner’s hands, then cooperatively try to walk forward with one person walking on their hands without failing!)

Transition:

Ask students to create a three-motion handshake with their partner (Ex. High five then fist bump or fingertip five then pinky shake) and thank their partner for using cooperation with them.