Creating a PE "Amazing Race"!

Let's Travel PE Nation!

Who doesn't love "The Amazing Race"? After an unsuccessful first attempt years ago, I'm bringing back a more structured, inclusive version with carefully formed teams and diverse challenges.

• Theme is vitally important
• Teams will be created to include everyone
• Challenges divided into three types: technical skills, logical reasoning, and communication
• Point system for grades 4-5 
• Younger grades focus on completion rather than competition
• Ten challenges over two weeks (about five class periods)
• Goal is team building and letting all students shine, not just athletes
• Starting in week three after establishing classroom procedures and team building activities

Take care,

Dave

Podcast with Michael Todisco

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Transcript

Introducing the PE Amazing Race

Speaker 1 0:11

Hello and welcome to the Supersize Phys Ed podcast . My name is Dave and today I want to talk about the amazing race and how I'm going to bring it back to my PE class . So without further ado , here we go . All right , welcome in PE Nation .

Speaker 1 0:40

So first of all , I love watching the Amazing Race . I'm sure some of you watch it , some of you don't , but it's fun to see a variety of teams from all over the United States I think it's mostly United States Race around the globe to compete in challenges that only one is crowned champion . It's pretty fun , right , and I've also learned new games from the show , such as foaling . So that was I originally saw that on the Amazing Race . It was one of the challenges they had to do when they were in Detroit , michigan , and I tried to do a kind of a PE Amazing Race . It was a few years ago . It was actually it was my first year at my current school and we were in between paras I have , or I had one para , same para I still have , or I had one para , same para I still have , but then my other para had retired , and so we're in between paras at the time , kind of just like rotating subs , things like that . So you know , I tried to do this and it was a lot of work and I basically did it all by myself and the paras and well , the para and the sub , they weren't really I don't know enthusiastic about it , they weren't really on board , they didn't really want to help me as much as I guess I was used to people helping , like paras helping and volunteering a little bit . So anyways , it didn't go well and I also , although I prepared or I felt like I prepared a lot , it was just kind of a mess organizationally .

Speaker 1 2:01

I let the kids pick their teams and which can be a good thing sometimes , but you know , it's just in general , it doesn't work a lot of times . So they pick their own teams that I gave them a list of things to accomplish and they kind of just went and it was just kind of a mess . It was a lot of it was a lot of classes . So now I see three classes at a time with myself and two paras , which is perfect . At the time it was four classes and three paras , so I'd always have two classes by myself and each para would have a class . You know , each person would have a class . So you know I'm used to two classes at a time . That's what I do all the time . That's what I've always done , but the past couple of years it's been just one class per adult , which has been great . So it was just a mess , though it didn't work well and I kind of gave up on it .

Speaker 1 2:52

That turned around , though , because I recorded a podcast about a year ago with Michael Tedisco , a fellow PE teacher , and he recounted his excitement and his students' enthusiasm around his PE Amazing Race and just some great ideas he had , and if you haven't heard that episode , I will put in the show notes . Definitely listen to that . He renewed my faith , I guess , in Amazing Race and what I can do with my students , so it gave me hope and just interest to bring it back this coming year . So this will be my fourth year Sorry , this will be my fifth year , wow , in my current school , and I'm excited about it . It's been a few years , obviously , so I'm going to bring it back and better . So here's how . I have a few boomers for you . So here we

Theming the Race

Speaker 1 3:38

go .

Speaker 1 3:38

All right , the first one is theme , and I like what Michael Tedisco did . His theme is like going around the world and I really like that a lot , I mean just like the Amazing Race . So he goes to different work . We're bringing in uh cultures and all sorts of things , facts and figures and whatnot , so great stuff , and I think I'm gonna do that next time . Here's me talking it up and I'm like I'm gonna change it up a little bit so things can be anything . I mean , they could be uh , outer space , like star wars , they can be the old west , they can be , you know , sea battles , um , or , like I said , around the world , um , I wouldn't make it real super gender specific as far as like barbie or gi joe , which you know , again , it's fine , if you know it does cross into whatever . So it's just , um , you know , you're gonna alienate some kids that don't like that , or , like you know , let's say it's I don't know , just something very specific and something that a lot of kids like but a lot of kids might not . So my theme is actually going to be my Webster , my mascot , our mascot . If you have not seen Webster , he is red and he is a like a . He's a pool float , but he's the wacky waving tube man that you'll see outside of like car dealerships and whatnot .

Speaker 1 5:12

And I brought Webster over from my former school so I'm going to make a Webster space race . I mean , everybody loves Webster , all the kids love him and we do skits with him and you know learning with him , especially with the younger kids , but even the older kids like him and I figured the space race is going to be grades two to five , maybe three to five , I'm thinking definitely three , four and five . I think Cengre can handle it , but they will quote unquote travel from planet to planet , completing challenges . To get Webster home . I'm going to make up some kind of thing where he has to go home . He has a way of talking so he can give them messages . And I just made up some planet names , some as I'm just going right now . How about Zurb and Glick and Zano and I don't know ? I'm just making those up . So they're going to go to different planets and have different challenges as teams . So definitely have a theme . Don't just say , well , we're racing and here's some challenges . Like make it exciting and make it into a theme and that is a first boomer ,

Team Formation and Format

Speaker 1 6:18

all right . Next we have is format . So I messed this up last time Instead of letting the kids pick their own teams , which sometimes is okay , or have captains that pick , maybe like one student , and then just kind of disperse the other ones .

Speaker 1 6:32

Don't ever do that . You know kindergarten kickball thing where you know I pick , then you pick , then I pick , then you pick and some kid gets picked last and there's hurt feelings . Don't ever do that . So you know I pick , then you pick , then I pick , then you pick and some kid gets picked last and there's hurt feelings . Don't ever do that . So you know I'm going to make teams , because last time I was like here you know just make teams and go and it was chaotic . So you know what I'm going to do is make probably teams of about five and so that's about five . Let's say five times five is 25 . So it's about five teams per class and there might be some teams of six plus we get some teams that are or classes that are split , so they might get , you know , I might get three kids from this class over here , three kids from this class over here , so we might get up to 30-ish kids per class and again , I'll make teams of about five or six and I'll probably do what I usually do for , like my Chuteball tournament is , do the Team Shake app .

Speaker 1 7:27

It just mixes up the kids and shakes them up , and you can be as fair as you want . You can put them by you know strengths by gender , by keeping certain kids away from each other , by putting certain kids with each other as well , and you can do that with pen , putting certain kids with each other as well , and you can do that with pen and paper or pencil and paper as well . I've done that before too . I just take a class and I start putting kids on teams . It takes a little longer , but you can do that . So anything to make the teams fair .

Speaker 1 7:53

By the way , I would definitely put at least two or three boys and two or three girls per team . I try not to put it like four boys and one girl or the opposite , things like that , and I don't I try not to put all boys or all girls . I want a mix of teams and I want various strengths from the students . I don't want all the athletes on one team and , by the way , we'll talk about in a moment the structure and the challenges you know . I want to build strong teams based on varieties of strengths of students and make diverse teams . Where students are interacting with others . They might not even know that well or normally wouldn't hang out with . You know , I don't put all athletes on one team or all non-athletes on one team . I want to make fair teams and it's not all athletic games and we'll talk about that in a moment . So , you know , hopefully they'll make new friends during a race , they'll learn things about each other and , you know , again , get to know each other . So you know , this is , I think it's going to be a great way to do it . We're , again , we're tightening up the structure . We have , you know , set teams and they're going to work together to , you know , on these challenges

Point System and Healthy Competition

Speaker 1 9:03

.

Speaker 1 9:03

All right , so the next one is point system , and this is where friendly competition comes into play . There's going to be 10 challenges to complete in two weeks . Now I see each class every other day , so this should take about five class periods , I'm thinking . So it's like two planets per day and the adult coaches can rotate planets when the class is finished with certain challenges . If needed , we can extend the race by a week and that's okay . So each challenge will have a point system based on the following First place gets five points for challenge . Second gets fourth . Third gets third , fourth gets two points and fifth gets one point . So you know I'm going to make scoreboards , just like I do in my shootball tournament with fifth graders , and after 10 challenges we'll have a winner for the class .

Speaker 1 9:49

So with the younger grades , especially second grade , maybe even third , I'm probably not going to keep score , it's just finishing the challenges and , you know , showing teamwork and sportsmanship and you know that kind of thing . That's what's most important and it is anyway , even with fourth and fifth . I just know that fourth and fifth might like a challenge like this and you know this is where we talk about this stuff . It doesn't have to be , we don't have to do points , but you know it's nice for them to learn these lessons . No-transcript give out webster coins . They're just little plastic treasure coins for every to everybody for participating and doing a great job . So you know I believe in healthy competition , but completing the race with fair play and fun is the most important goal to me .

Speaker 1 10:58

And now let's move on to the next one .

Team Building and Challenge Diversity

Speaker 1 11:04

So the final one of the main format is team building and this is really the ultimate goal of the race . So my plan is to start this I think week three , because weeks one and two will be more like rules , procedures , expectations and simple games . Just simple things to build teamwork , camaraderie , just team building games . We're definitely not going to sit there . We're going to play and we're going to move , but we're going to learn and I'm also going to get to know certain personalities that I might not know as well , to figure out what teams are going to work . So I'll discuss the race , probably in week two , and begin to form teams . Then , as we approach week three , they can name their teams . We might . I don't think we're gonna do posters , but you could do that . Like in the Chookball tournament we do team posters . I don't want to spend too much time on that , so , but they definitely can name their teams , which I think is always fun . The kids always show a lot of creativity with that . My daughter still remembers her team name from Chookball and she's going into eighth grade . So you know things like that . I think it's a lot of fun .

Speaker 1 12:06

So my goal again is to diversify the games into challenges so all the students can shine . So I'm breaking them down to about three different types of challenges . One is technical skill , so that's like students are good at , like bowling and putting and throwing and catching , things like that , and hopefully that's everybody . But you know that's one type of challenge , like technical skills , okay . So number two would be logical reasoning . So I'm gonna have puzzles for them to solve . Some of them are pencil and paper , some of them are like riddles , some of them be like question and answer sessions about like health , nutrition , games , skills , and they can earn points for their teams , things like that . So again , this brings into the non-athlete or maybe the athletes as well .

Speaker 1 12:50

So , and just trying to diversify different games for different students . And the third one is communication . So they can , students can lead and encourage their teams to victory , like we're going to do some blindfolding games , some stacking and building games , things where they can talk more and they can lead the group and they can just be a communicator and an encourager . And you know so my goal is to , you know , give every student a chance to do some different things in the group . I don't want kids just sitting there doing nothing and everybody else does everything , and hopefully this will work . I'm hoping . You know it's not perfect , but that's my goal . But I want every student to feel like they're part of the team and to be able to help with different aspects of the race .

Speaker 1 13:42

And now let's go to your cowbell tip of the day is to maybe think about doing this as well for your classroom , your class , your program . You know I'm excited about this . I know the students will enjoy the challenges , the teamwork , and they enjoy Webster . So hopefully they'll get to know their teammates , appreciate the variety of talents on their team , personalities on their team . And you know , it's not just about sports , specific skills and PE . It's about , you know , nurturing the entire child . It's about making and helping grow good people , not just great athletes . I've always said that . So that's my hope for this unit and , you know , I hope that you will give it a try and let me know if you , you know , want to try it and you need some help with it . Reach out to me always and we'll . You know , I will send you any information I have after I do this especially . I haven't done it yet , but in a few weeks I will . And uh , yeah , that is your cowbell tip of the day

Closing and Call to Action

Speaker 1 14:56

day .

Speaker 1 14:56

Thank you everybody for tuning in today . I really do appreciate it , as always . Go to supersizefizedcom for more information and definitely follow me on Substack for more articles and links to my podcast . They are free articles and I send them out twice a week . It's either a link to a podcast or it's an article that is PE-specific and hopefully gives you value . As always , I've asked you recently if you could leave a hopefully five-star review for the podcast . It'll take you , I said I think the thing says 10 seconds . It might take you three . Just click on the link and give me a hopefully five star if it's worth it . If not , let me know . I'll work to improve as best I can . But I appreciate all of you listening in today and have a great day , week , weekend , whenever you listen to this PE Nation . You guys and girls are awesome . Let's keep pushing our profession forward , forward . Thank you .