Ahoy, mateys! Get ready to climb aboard the adventure of "Man Overboard," a game that's steering the waves of excitement in elementary PE classes. As your captain and host, I'll guide you through this playful journey where kindergartners and first graders dash from stern to bow, all the while fine-tuning their listening skills. Imagine a basketball court-turned-ship and a sea of eager young sailors responding to my every command. But it's not just about following orders; with strategies up my sleeve, I ensure that even those who tumble overboard stay splashing in the fun. Whether it's doling out Bear Paws or rallying the crew, this episode promises to be a treasure trove of inclusive activity, keeping every child engaged until we dock back at port.
Set sail with us on this episode and witness how PE Nation rallies our youngest buccaneers through the stormy seas of physical education. We'll share laughs, encourage active play, and may even drop a line or two about how to make "Man Overboard" a hearty challenge for the swift first graders. So, hoist your spirits, and let's navigate together through this ocean of fun and learning. Join me as we chart the course for a future where the joy of movement and the art of listening go hand in hand, and where every day is a new opportunity to inspire our young learners to set sail on their very own adventures. Dave
Ahoy, mateys! Get ready to climb aboard the adventure of "Man Overboard," a game that's steering the waves of excitement in elementary PE classes. As your captain and host, I'll guide you through this playful journey where kindergartners and first graders dash from stern to bow, all the while fine-tuning their listening skills. Imagine a basketball court-turned-ship and a sea of eager young sailors responding to my every command. But it's not just about following orders; with strategies up my sleeve, I ensure that even those who tumble overboard stay splashing in the fun. Whether it's doling out Bear Paws or rallying the crew, this episode promises to be a treasure trove of inclusive activity, keeping every child engaged until we dock back at port.
Set sail with us on this episode and witness how PE Nation rallies our youngest buccaneers through the stormy seas of physical education. We'll share laughs, encourage active play, and may even drop a line or two about how to make "Man Overboard" a hearty challenge for the swift first graders. So, hoist your spirits, and let's navigate together through this ocean of fun and learning. Join me as we chart the course for a future where the joy of movement and the art of listening go hand in hand, and where every day is a new opportunity to inspire our young learners to set sail on their very own adventures. Dave
Hello and welcome to the Supersize Phys Ed podcast. My name is Dave and I'm here to tell you about a fun and kind of older game that I play with my students called man Overboard. It's a lot of fun and it's kind of funny actually to watch the kids play this game the younger kids. So without further ado, here we go. All right, everybody. So this game again is called man Overboard. I've heard it called different names and I've seen that line with people doing different things.
Dave:
I do the basic game with Kindergarten First and they absolutely love it. I tell them it's a listening game. Yes, it is a running game and it is where they have to really listen and follow directions or they are out. Now I don't play this game. I don't play any elimination games, like ever pretty much. But this game is, or can be, an elimination game and I usually give. We have a school-wide currency called Bear Paws that I give to the winners because they're listening really well and they're following directions. Now you can give nothing to the winners, you can give praise to the winners. You don't have to have a winner, you can just play the game. But it's a lot more fun when you eliminate students and again, that's when it gets a little tricky. So I try to have the people who are eliminated do something like they can go play with the hula hoops and jump ropes for a few minutes, they can go play four square, they can do something where they're still active and they're still having fun and they're not just sitting there doing nothing. So this game I played with one or two classes. If you're going to play with two classes you have to have a lot of room, like a large, like maybe two basketball courts like the long way, so you definitely need some room. On this Again, it's better with one class. I played with one this year with like one kindergarten class. Sometimes I do have that, which is very, you know, awesome, but usually I play with two classes of either kindergarten or first grade and the kids love this game. It is so much fun.
Dave:
So to start, I have them sit on a line and we talk about it. We just talk about. There's four commands in this game. You have to picture the basketball court as a boat and that's when I really get them to visualize. Okay, this is a boat and right now you're on the back of the boat, so I'll have them stand or sit on the back of the boat and it doesn't matter how you do it, but it's on one end of the basketball court. So that's the back of the boat, that line. It's got to be the end line, the one that's on. If you have a basketball net, like I do, like it's that end line right there. That's the back of the boat. Now there's only four commands, so it was back of the boat and then there's middle of the boat, which is middle of the basketball court, and then there's front of the boat. Of course you could, could ask them that, well, if this is the back and that's the middle, what's that? And they yell out front like oh, yeah, that's it. Now the only thing or command I do is called man overboard, and that's when they have to sit down, crisscross applesauce as fast as they can on the line. So those are the four commands Front of the boat, back of the boat, middle of the boat and man overboard.
Dave:
And I tell them that I'm the captain and I kind of give them a little salute and they say yes, sir, or sir, yes, sir, or whatever I have them do. It's kind of funny and I have them go to one side of the boat, usually on the back of the boat, and I will call them, especially if they're in two classes. I'll call one class at a time to go, or I'll say all the girls or all the boys go, something. If you want to say red shirts or whatever green shirts, that's not the best way to do it, I found, because some kids are like, well, I kind of have a green shirt, it's kind of green, kind of white, what should I do? It's probably easier to say girls and boys, or this class or this class go, and the rest can wait. So there's no running into each other or anybody getting hurt.
Dave:
Now I'll always tell them that hey, the captain's going to try to trick you, so you've got to be a good listener and I'll do that first time always. And I'll tell them the first few are just practices, but I'll say, okay, all the boys run to the back of the boat and I'll start running, or most of them, and I said nope, no, no, no, go back because you. And then I'll do it again, or I'll try to trick them. If they're on the middle, I'll say run in the middle of the boat, but I'll try to do it with such enthusiasm that they want to run. Or I'll say run to the man overboard and they have to sit crisscross applesauce. But some of them will run across the line. And I do tell them, especially first grade, if they go over the line when they're running, or they even step when I say, say, go to the back of the boat, and they're down in the back of the boat, if they make a little step, I'll call them out. Now kindergarten, I give them a little more leeway.
Dave:
But I want to make sure again, there's not that many ways to get kids out and kids get pretty good at this. So my goal is just to have them active, have fun and to be a good listener, good listeners. So again, in the beginning I don't have anybody get eliminated, I just have a little practice round and then I do it for real and I get kind of picky and I try to trick them. I point to the back of the boat but I'll say front of the boat, or I'll point to again the opposite, front of the boat, back of boat, middle of the boat. And again, if they get out, I don't make a big deal of it. I just say okay, you, you, you're in the, the ship's holding area or something where they can go play a game or they can go do something, and then I'll keep going with the kids that are still going. So, um, and I always tell them they can't if, if they laugh at somebody or they anything not nice, that they can join them in the, in the, the, the ship's holding area or something like that. I just make some things up where they they, they know they're not um, you know, I I try to downplay the elimination part of it as much as I can.
Dave:
So because, again, I, there's very rarely that I ever play an elimination game in PE where you're absolutely out. I mean, this is one of them and you're not out, out Cause I play in the span of 25, whatever minutes, um, after warmups and talking and stuff. You know, I'll play a good three or four games of this um, first grade maybe a little less, cause they're hard to get out. So what I do, by the way, is, um, not only if I trick them, are they out. If they're the last couple of people, let's say the last two, to get to the line, they're out. Sometimes I just say, okay, it's a tie and I'm going to keep going, but I try to keep the boys and girls separated, or class versus class separated, so they're not running into each other. I do tell them they have to run in a straight line so they're not trying to. They don't cut anybody off, even by accident, and I give a lot of chances, especially with kindergarten, but they really do enjoy this game. It's kind of funny.
Dave:
I remember this a long time ago when I first learned this game. I don't even know who taught it to me, I just remember this. This is like a good 10 or actually more than that. Years ago there was a parent volunteer out there. He's like man, all you're doing is having them run suicides. I'm like, yeah, I guess you're right. They're just running back and forth like line to line, but they're having fun doing it.
Dave:
So this is a great active game for, again, two classes at the most, kindergarten and first grade. They love it and it's a lot of fun. And again, it's a good listening game and a good following direction kind of game and you could add to it too. I've seen other people do things like side of the boat or they have to raise the flag, they have to do some different things with their hands or arms or whatever. You have to march in place, things like that, so you can always add to that for variations of the game.
Dave:
So that is man Overboard. I hope you enjoy it. Try it out with your kindergarten and first graders. You could do a second grade, but they're pretty good. They're pretty quick at this, so it's hard to get them out unless it's just a straight running game. So, anyways, kindergarten first. It is called man Overboard. Enjoy it and that is it for the day. Have a great day, week, weekend, whenever you listen to this. You guys and girls from PE Nation are incredible. You're awesome. I see you out there. You're doing awesome and you're inspiring others to do the same. So keep at it, PE Nation. Let's keep pushing our profession forward. Thank you.