They’re In The Zone
Updated: Mar 18
Guest Author - Shane Hill
The children of today have so many exciting opportunities. I know kids who hoon on motorbikes and dune buggies through sand dunes, ride skateboards on snowy mountain terrain and race go karts through the streets of busy mega-cities. And that’s just while they wait for their dinner to be cooked! But can a digital image on a screen ever fully substitute the experience of actually doing something in the physical world?
When I was a kid growing up in a little country town, we would sometimes block up a water drainage ditch at the side of a paddock then stomp up and down in the ditch and pretend we were making a river of chocolate just like Mr. Wonka’s chocolate river in his chocolate factory. It was muddy and splashy and tactile and kinaesthetic and creative, all in the one experience, and thus so memorable I can recall that day and write about it now.
In the classroom we can encounter similar situations whereby the task at hand is to analyse information but without the stimulation of exciting animations, amazing characters and adventurous storylines. This situation is favourable to the introduction of simple games because the physical and anticipatory stimulation of the game amplifies student engagement and, really, that’s what Learn From Play is all about; inventing new and active ways to teach those bits of the curriculum in which a pragmatic approach appears to be the most sensible option.
For example, the Geography (Stage 2) of the NSW curriculum contains a unit of study titled Places Are Similar And Different. I think the title here says it all. Look at this, look at that, determine their similarities and differences, that’s the task. So here is a very physically active way to conduct one of these ‘compare and contrast’ enquiries.
This game has students working independently yet as a group they interact with the information at the same rate. I mention this because it’s one of the secret super-powers of games. We all know that with any activity the fast kids get it done quickly and the slow kids don’t get through it all, yet the job of the teacher is to have all students learn everything. Games can help regulate the rate of learning for the group. Also, the game playing time is easily expanded or reduced as required by the teacher.
Ahead of playing the game prepare A5-sized squares of paper (zone squares) on which is printed a ‘climate zone’ and a list of six associated characteristics. For example, one climate zone is the Antarctica and some of the more obvious associated characteristics of the zone are persistent very cold temperatures, large expanses of ice on the land and water, extremely low humidity and low levels of flora. The climate zone of the tropical equator must surely represent the very opposite of the Antarctica with characteristics including hot temperatures, very high humidity, high levels of rainfall, dense concentrations of fauna and flora and high frequency of storms including cyclones. A simpler version of these characteristics could be given as, for the example of Antarctica, very cold, icy, icebergs, low rainfall and few plants, while the tropics could be hot, humid, rainy, forests, many animals and cyclones.
Prepare several copies of each zone with a total of six zones. Then put one of each of the zone squares into a set and compile several sets of zone squares.
Ask the students to form teams of six (the number of students in each team should equal the number of zones you have prepared) and then let students choose a name for their team. Make a list of the team names on a board for all to see.
All of the teams should collectively sit in the largest circle possible within the room or in a large circle if outside. The bigger the circle the more active the students will be and the more bonus exercise they receive.
