The Supersized PhysEd Podcast
The Supersized Physed Podcast is dedicated to providing new ideas, activities and inspiration to our physical education field. Each week a new episode about various physed topics comes out, sometimes with a guest, sometimes it's just me!
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The Supersized PhysEd Podcast
Blindfold Games: Building Trust and Teamwork
What's up PE Nation!
Get ready to unlock the transformative potential of blindfold games in physical education with our latest episode! Imagine a classroom buzzing with energy, where trust and teamwork become second nature among your students. Join me as I recount my journey of organizing these innovative activities, sharing firsthand how such games not only enhance communication skills but also foster critical thinking. Learn the essential practices for maintaining hygiene and safety when using blindfolds, making these games a hygienic, safe, and thrilling component of your PE curriculum. Discover strategies and practical insights that will revolutionize the way you approach group activities in your classes.
Dive into a treasure trove of exciting games like "Minefield," "Treasure Hunt," and "William Tell," each uniquely designed to challenge participants and encourage cooperative learning. Whether it's navigating obstacles with creative code words or guiding a teammate through indirect communication, these activities promise to elevate your students' problem-solving abilities and strengthen their team dynamics throughout the year.
Take care,
Dave
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Hello and welcome to the SuperSciSFizEd podcast. My name is Dave and today I want to talk to you about blindfold games, yes, using blindfolds in PE and how we can make them effective for student learning and for team collaboration. So, without further ado, here we go. All right, everybody, welcome in. I do already apologize. There's lawn mowing going around outside our house and our development, so if you got a little extra noise I do apologize, but I want to get this episode out because I haven't put one out in a little bit and it's Thanksgiving break and I just want to give you a quick podcast on how I did some blindfold games recently and how I've done in the past and how you can use them to your advantage, I guess, for team building, for trust, for just general teamwork and having fun in PE and building communication skills as well. So I'm going to talk about the games that I have five games that I've played before and how I use blindfolds in general, the rules, instructions, how to clean them. That's a whole big thing, so let me start with that. Just the basics on why I use them and what they're good for and how to clean them.
Speaker 1:All right, first, on the I guess, the sanitary home front. I bought a lot of blindfolds. I have some good ones from either gopher or one of the other catalogs, one of the other companies. But I also looked on Amazon and just bought some kind of cheaper ones and I want to make sure I have enough for like a close to a week, because cleaning them is a problem. You can't clean them with like clorox wipes because that can get in their eyes like soapy kind of stuff, and you also can't clean them just with baby wipes. Trust me, I've asked the clinic, you can't do that because it's still not uh them 100% clean. And so that's really one of the biggest problems at least I faced was just sanitary. We don't want kids sharing them, that kind of thing. So what I did was this I had enough for, I'd say, a week with third, fourth and fifth grade, and some of these I just did with fourth and fifth to save the blindfolds and also because I noticed that third grade wasn't quite getting at least the game I was doing recently.
Speaker 1:So what you do is, or what I did, is, I had the students. Let's say there's a green side and a black side to the blindfolds. They were getting partners and if they're a team of three. I just give the third, the person, one person, out their own blindfold and whatever we did, they would and I demonstrate this. Let's say the the black side of the blindfolds was facing my eyes. Well, I'd go for, you know, round one and two or whatever, and then rounds three and four, they'd flip it over and give it to the partner, so then the green side would be against the other partner's eyes.
Speaker 1:Now, you know, is that 100% effective? I think. Um, you know, I didn't have any problems. I, we didn't have any crazy outbreaks or anything like that. So it went pretty well as far as that goes. And at the end of the week I took them home and put them in the.
Speaker 1:Well, I had my wife help me put them in the washing machine on a very delicate thing or setting, and she washed them all, and then we just kind of hung them out outside to dry. So I only did it for a couple of weeks, so at the end of each week I'd bring them home and get them cleaned, and that's how it would go. So in that way they were always, I think, as sanitary as they could be. Now I don't want to spend a lot of time on that, but I'm just saying that's. One of the biggest challenges is figuring out a way to get them clean each day. And again, you have to be careful of the soap and the cleaners and also, obviously, careful of the like, the soap and the cleaners. And also, you know, obviously you have to clean them and we can't share them like some of us when we were kids. We just share, share each other's baseball caps and drink out of hoses and crazy stuff. So not wear seat belts and all that good stuff and our parents would smoke in the front, see the car and in doctor's offices and all that great stuff, all the things we can't do anymore. So we got to make sure they're clean and they're sanitary.
Speaker 1:Now, as far as the rules, I told the students a couple of things. One this is a trust exercise. You cannot lead, knowingly lead your partner into like a tree or into another person or something dangerous, or they will be out a hundred percent Like there's. No, you know, oh, I didn't mean to know you're. You're responsible for your partner and it's very important that you demonstrate that trust. So you have to make sure. Like they're about to run into somebody, just grab them and make sure, or run into something, grab them, even if it's just a talking exercise or talking game, where they cannot touch them. If they're about to fall in a ditch, you'd grab them. Okay, and that way those are some of the main rules and you know, I just want to make sure they are being safe and I tell them there's no running. There can be walking fast, but there's no running because it just could get too dangerous, obviously. All right.
Speaker 1:So now some of the fun stuff. Let's get on to some of the games. I have five games for you today that I have played. There's actually one I have not played, but I really, really want to play it and I've been drawing it up and thinking about it for a couple of years and I got to do it. So I'll leave that actually for the end. That'll be number five, five awesome blindfold games that I've either seen other places or I've tried myself. I've actually tried, I think I'm looking at this. I tried, yeah, four out of five of these and they worked really well and it's a great thing to add again to your NAPE curriculum, but especially, I think, in the beginning or sort of the beginning of the school year, again to build that trust, that cooperative learning and just get a team atmosphere, team-based games and working together and talking and communicating just different directions, things like that. So I'm going to make this a boomer. So here we go.
Speaker 1:Number one All right. Number one is Minefield. Now I did put out a short video on my Instagram and linked my TikTok and things to that, so I'll link some of these in the show notes so you could see an example. So minefield is simply scattering beanbags and deck rings or tennis balls all over the place of the place and the uh, partner one has to guide partner two, let's say, with the blindfold, through the minefield without touching anything. And if they do, they have to be sent back. And you could actually add a a couple different levels to this and I did add these to a few games where, round one, they can physically touch them, like on the shoulder, and that's kind of easy. But just to get them started, they can actually guide them by the elbow or by the shoulder, by the hand or wrist, and they can kind of guide them, so that, again, that's kind of easy. Round two they cannot. So they have to either say, okay, go left, go right, step over. You know, okay, freeze things like that back up.
Speaker 1:You can even add another layer to that where you can't use the words. You know, left, right, things like that. They have to come with code words, like orange might mean right or I don't know, I'm just making this up. You know, apple, I don't know, ninja might be go to the left, I have no idea. But things like that where you can use code words, because there's going to be a lot of people talking at the same time, different partners going at the same time, so they got to be able to really listen for their partner. And if they use code words, it's even better.
Speaker 1:Now, if they figure that out on their own, that's bonus points, right there. Just figure out that they have to use different code words so they don't get messed up with the other partners doing it. Now to add another level, you could have them have to pick up a certain color of beanbags or deck rings or whatever you got. So they have to go around and you know if you're this group, you have to pick up yellow, and the other group has to pick up purple or things like that, or a certain number on a ball, just things like that to give them an extra level of finding things and going through the minefield and working together. So that's a pretty simple one and that is called minefield. That's number one. All right, numbers two and three kind of go together. Two is treasure hunt.
Speaker 1:So this is something I just did, where the students have to go down to a certain area and it's kind of like a I call it like a haunted house. At the time it was kind of a Halloween theme because the younger kids did not get blindfolds, they just had like noodles and they would tag and they try to stop the other groups from grabbing the treasure. In this case they can go down into a certain area, grab treasure, bring it back, and again you can use different colors, different numbers. I had Tim Taggart's tag-add balls that have colors and numbers and different math symbols and things like that, and they'd have to go down, grab one ball at a time, bring it back, and then they would sit down in a group and spell words Like the longest word they'd come up with. I actually posted this online. It was dragonfruits. It is one word that's the longest word that anybody came up with in the school. We had other long words. Somebody put buffalo bills for me, but that's two words, things like that. Like happy birthday, they spelled, but again more than one word. So dragonfruits was the winner. However, they also had to come up with as many words as they could, and so some groups came up with like 50 or 60 words. It was crazy. They would just write them down and then re, you know, unscramble the letters again and make new words, and it was just amazing.
Speaker 1:So that is called treasure hunt and it goes along kind of with the next one. So that is number two, treasure Hunt. All right, I'm going to actually make this what 2A, which is called Spelling Bee, instead of? It's basically the same as Treasure Hunt, except the balls are spread out all around the field. They're not in like a punt house, like a you know a coned in area, they're just spread out everywhere and they have to go get a ball, bring it back and spell with it. So it's really very similar to treasure hunt. Just as I'm looking at my notes, I'm like, well, it's basically the same thing. So I just want to add that for 2A. So treasure hunt and spelling bee are pretty similar and again, with treasure hunt it doesn't have to be like a ball with a letter on it or a number on it. It could just be certain colors you have to go get. So that was.
Speaker 1:Number two is Treasure Hunt. Spelling Bee would really be more of the if you have a ball with like I do, with letters on it or numbers on it, like Brain Ball or the Tag Eye Balls, and you can spread those out either in a box or spread them out all around the field. So, again, 2a and 2B are pretty close together, so I'll give you an extra one as a bonus. So let's move on to number three. All right, so let's try a different one. So, number three we're going to call this I can't remember the name of this. It might be called William Tell, although I might be thinking of a different game. So I learned this at a conference. Uh, it was a while ago, it was like 2018 or 19. Uh, it shaped florida, I believe. So let me this one's a tough one to describe.
Speaker 1:So, uh, one person has a blindfold and they're walking through a kind of like a minefield again, and you have it's like a group of three. So you have one person standing looking at the person that's walking, like that's, uh, walking around. So they're watching the person with the blindfold on walking and then you have a person turn the other way and so what's in um, the other person is turned the other way and they were. They're like facing, let's say, out, and they're not looking at. They're looking at the person standing but they're not looking at the person that's walking through the minefield. So the person that's standing has to point left, right, back, forth, back and forth, whatever, uh, backwards, forward, that kind of thing they're pointing. But the person turned away has to give the directions. So again, the person standing would be like you know, point to their left and they'll say left. The other person has to say left, that's sitting, and turn the other way. So again it's a three-person, you know group, and the one person's not looking. Well, actually there's two people not looking. There's a person turned the other way and then the person is miming. The person's looking at the minefield and at the um person with the blindfold is actually miming or what do you call it? Petamiming, the uh, the directions.
Speaker 1:Again, I learned that at a convention, uh, conference, so I'll try to find out the name for that. If I mess it up, I'll look it back up and put it in the show notes if I have the wrong name for it, but we'll leave it like that. That is number three. Right, that's number three. Yeah, that's called William Tell. All right, I can hear the lawnmowers getting closer. My kids are sleeping so that's why I'm outside. So I'm gonna go to number four, which is smog's treasure. Now, this is the one I've not played yet and I guess I was gonna save that for number five. That's okay. So number four, smog's treasure.
Speaker 1:I was really I think this would be really cool. So I would definitely play this in the grass because I don't want to be getting hurt and I was thinking smog from the Hobbit was semi-blind and things like that. So I'd put a couple smogs in the middle of a coned-in area with a bunch of treasure Again, tennis balls, deck rings, beanbags, and they were blindfolded, but they have noodles for tagging and they have to be on their hands and knees and move around and try to tag the treasure hunters coming in, the hobbits or whatever you want to call them coming in, and I just think it'd be kind of fun. To the other Again, this cannot be a really big group. If I were doing this I would have about six groups and I'd send one at a time from each group to try to get the treasure. If they get tagged they have to go back or they have to do an exercise, things like that. I just think it would be really cool. I was also thinking maybe you could have a dungeon master or something where they can they didn't have blindfolds on and you put a couple of kids in there inside the treasure area and they can guide them. They can say okay, you know, whatever the, you name different dragons. If you want, you know this dragon, go to the left and tag them or whatever.
Speaker 1:So I have not played this yet, but I really want to do it and I've just been thinking about it. For I don't know a year or so, so again, that is called Smog's Treasure. I don't know a year or so, so again, that is called Smog's Treasure, and I guess there's lots of different things you could add to it or whatever, but you know just something I've been thinking about. So that is number four, smog's Treasure. All right, the final one.
Speaker 1:I have not played in a few years, but I did play this at my former school. I called it Tower of Terror and I really like this. I really, really like this, and I just haven't had a chance. I don't have a lot of scooters at my new school and that's one of the things. It's definitely a scooter game Actually, though I think I have enough to play it if I really wanted to.
Speaker 1:So I'd have about six groups, again different colors in the groups, and they each get six buckets of the cup stacking, but the buckets are different colors and I have them at different levels. So round one, they just scoot down and they put a bucket down, scoot back, that kind of thing until they make a pyramid, like a 3-2-1 pyramid. And round two, they have to be blindfolded, and so the person that is sitting on the scooter does not have a blindfold on, but the person that is driving, if you want to call them that, does have a blindfold on, and they have to direct them to put it down and bring it back, or, sorry, to put it down and come back. And then again you could go by levels and say, okay, round one, the orange team won. Round two, the red team won, whatever it was, and just go like that. That could be it for the younger kids. It could just be bring it down, make a pyramid. You could even do down stacking and then add a blindfold to the mix.
Speaker 1:But I added another one where, round three, it got a little crazy. We added, like the gator skin balls, the dodge balls whatever you want to call them and they had to go collect them. They each team, got a few dodge balls I'll just call them dodge balls and they brought them back and they would be allowed to if they saw a team that was getting close to finishing their, their buckets, their, their pyramid. They, instead of bringing a it's kind of like a strategy thing Instead of bringing a bucket, they could bring a ball down and try to knock it down, and then the team would have to go back and fix it and that whole thing. So it was kind of fun. I really liked it and the kids liked it as well. I just have not played in in a few years, I'm just being honest with you but I really liked it and it brought in a lot of different strategy, a lot of different communication, a lot of different elements of trust when it comes to driving a scooter blindfolded or the person on there telling the person that's driving what to do. So that's number five. Those are five actually five and a half different blindfold games. So I hope you enjoy them.
Speaker 1:And now it is time for your cowbell tip of the day. All right, everybody. The tip of the day is to think of games you could play with blindfolds Now you don't have to, and you could also tell them well, just close your eyes Now. Will that bring in some cheating? Probably, but even blindfolds have that element that we I guess I didn't discuss earlier need to talk about, just playing fair and not peaking that kind of thing. So think of ways you could bring blindfolds into your PE program and when you could do it.
Speaker 1:Again, I didn't do it in the very beginning of the year, but I've recently finished it, in late October, early November, just. So again, the beginning of the year is definitely cooperative learning, but I have other things going on as well, because I have three total coaches myself and two others, so they get to work on other skills and I'm still doing the team building kind of stuff. So think about when you could do it and also if it's worth it to you. I think it is just as a fun again, communication, team building kind of thing. So definitely try it out. Yeah, blindfold games are cool and that is your cowbell tip of the day.
Speaker 1:Thank you everybody for tuning in. I really do appreciate it, as always. Go to supersizefizcom for more information or to join my medium and sub stack group. Click the links below in the show notes. They are something I'm trying to get more into with my writing and just a small of blogs, but also sending out newsletters of cool games and things like that you could try in your PE program. So take care of PE nation, have a great day, week, weekend, whenever you listen to this, and let's keep pushing our profession forward. Thank you.
