TRADITIONAL GAMES

Last May 26th we developed our PE meeting. This time we were very few but, still, we enjoyed so much with traditional games. Susana, Miguel, Mireia and I showed and played different games that made us laugh so much. Miguel was our meeting reporter this time and he's made a great article. Before you read it, let me write down our next meeting highlights. It will be the final meeting and we hope every body will make it because... WE ARE GOING TO THE BEACH!

DATE: June 16th
STARTING TIME: 18:00
PLACE: Malva-rosa beach (Pans & Company)
TOPIC: Beach games

See you soon!

DIDAC

TRADITIONAL GAMES

Last May 26th we met again to have our last meeting. As usual it took place at CEIP Miguel Hernández of Valencia. Sadly, most of you were very busy and only four of us could attend to the meeting. Now, I am going to try to explain you what we did.

The topic was traditional games. Didac asked to us that we looked for not very popular games in order to learn new games. The first game was “The slipper”, Susana´s game. It is a simple but very funny game which consists in throwing a slipper as far as you can. The tricky thing is you have to throw the slipper putting your arms between your legs and trying to throw it up and ahead. When we played, the slipper went very often just up or even backwards! Mireia was the most skillful in this game. 

The next game was mine, “Pebbles game”. Each player has a pebble and three trading cards. One by one the players have to throw their pebbles trying to heat the other pebbles. If you hit someone’s pebble, the owner has to give you a trading card. The player who gets all the trading cards wins. This time Didac was the winner.

The third game was Mireia´s game, “Air, sea and earth”. The game is to pass a ball to another player and to say air, sea or earth. The player who gets the ball has five seconds to say an animal which lives in the place the other player said.

The last game was Didac´s game, “Caps game”. It is a fun game I used to play with my friends when I was a kid. Didac drew a circuit in the ground and we made a race with our caps. The winner was Didac again. Next time it will be different.

To sum up, we had a good time playing traditional games. Next meeting we are playing beach and water games. I‘m sure it also will be very fun. It will be our last meeting! So, don’t miss it!

Regards,

MIGUEL

GAMES AROUND THE WORLD

Hi, folks!

Last April 28th we developed our monthly meeting at CEIP Miguel Hernández from Valencia. As you know, we had prepared games from different countries around the World. As usually, we had a great time and we learnt and played games we didn't know at all. The bad new was four of our seminar colleagues couldn't make it because they had to attend different school meetings. Another bad new is we forgot to take pictures... We were to focused on the games! We hope next meeting we'll be altogether again. Now, before I write the report -this time it was my turn!-, I'll summarize next meeting highlights.

DATE: May 26th
STARTING TIME: 17:30-18:00hrs
PLACE: CEIP Miguel Hernández
TOPIC: Traditional games

See you next meeting!

DIDAC

GAMES AROUND THE WORLD

Eastern vacation was already pretty far from our minds but we started the meeting explaining what we did during this Holliday. After this brief introduction, we started with Marian, who explained us a game from Brazil called Joao Palmada. It's a game to play the whole class together. It's played in a circle where everybody put their hands back and palms up. This is how it works. One of the players starts as Joao Palmada and walks around the circle. When ever she/he wants has to clap somebody's hands and run in the opposite direction he was walking. When they meet, they have to say: "Bom dia" and "Obrigado!". As soon as they say so, they have to try to get back to the circle free spot before the other. The one who loses will be Joao Palmada and the game will keep on going. After this funny game, Majo showed us a game from Zimbabwe called The Chicken and the Snake. It's a dancing game where you pretend you are a big Zimbabwean chicken. The floor is plenty of snakes -colored handkerchief- and everybody dances around. When the music stops, all chickens  have to try to bite a snake and take it. If you get one, you'll get one point. And so on, so forth until somebody gets 3 or 4 points. Andrea explained next game since it was a whole court game as well. Her game was called What's the time, Mr. Wolf? and it comes from UK. It's a sort of our well known game Pollito Inglés but, at the end, it becomes a chasing game! There is a wolf and the rest of the class are goats. Goats ask the wolf "What's the time, Mr. Wolf?" and the wolf -who can't turn to look where goats are- has to answer. If he says "It's five o'clock" goats make five steps forward. When goats get very close and they ask the question again, teh wolf will answer "It's lunch time!" and he will try to get a goat. The goat that gets caught, will become next wolf. 

After that, was Susana's turn. Her game was called Stealing stones and Susana knew about it because her son, who explained to her. He had played this game in his school and he told her it was from Extremadura. It's played in two teams. The court is divided by two and each team has to try to get the other team's stones, which are kept in a safe area at the end of its court. Teams must stop attacking players in their court. In that case, they have to seat down and wait until some of their teammates clap their hand. Then, they will be free again. However, when a attacking player gets inside the other team's safe area, they cannot chase them any more and, therefore, the player got one of the stones. The first team that gets all stones from the other, wins the game. It's a very exciting game for kids and there are many variants which you might add in order to adapt it to your pupils' age. After this, Aida explained her game. She called it Indians and Cowboys and she "supposed" it came from USA. This is how it works. There are two teams and they are separated. In between them, there are different types of balls and every teammate has got one ball on their hands. The basic aim of this game is to try to hit the ball with your ball until it crosses to the other's team area. The game is over when there isn't any ball left in the neutral area. Again, it was a very playful and intensive game! 

After this we took a little break. Ten minutes where enough for us to recover because we were so excited about knowing more diffrent games from around the World. José Luis game was also very peculiar. It came from India and its name was Kabaddi. As he wrote on the work sheet, Kabaddi

It’s an invasion game. Two teams will score by arriving to the opponent line without being caught. It’s played by teams (7 pers. each but only 4 defenders play at the same time and one from the other team). One member of the ofence team must go to the opponent court to touch some member from that team. But he can’t be caught. Then, one of the team will score one point and a member from the other team has to leave (only until his/her team scores a point, then it is allowed to go on playing).

It's quite difficult to understand at the beginning but, once you start playing, you can't stop! For farther information, you might check this link. If you want to watch a game, you also might take a look at look at this other link.

I explained the two last games of the meeting. first of all, I showed a game called Patentero that comes from Philippines. It's very similar to a well known game called Spider or Octopus. The difference is there isn't one "araña" or "octopus" but many located in different stages. It's played in a narrow and long court and there are 4-5 stages were patenteros are located in order to stop the offense team. Patenteros can take one foot out of the line they are set on but not both feet. Every attacking player has got one handkerchief on their side. In order to make them come back to the starting point, defenders have to take the handkerchief and throw it to the floor. If one attacking player can go through all stages he's got one point. Then, teams change their rol and the team which gets more points will be the winner. After this, I explained a terrific game called Chekaya. It comes from Thailand and it has to do with Evil and Good spirits. The class is divided by two teams which are Evil (wearing red beep) and Good spirits (wearing blue beep). The court it's divided in three zones: Bad spirits zone, Good spirits and a neutral zone separating both good and Evil zones. The main aim in this game is to try to bring the spirits to your side. The fight must be on the neutral zone and, once you've been taken by either Good or Evil spirits you have to change your beep and you become a new Good/Evil spirit depending on which spirit you were. It's a very funny game to play with kids and teenagers!

That's it! See you next meeting!

DIDAC

HERE WE ARE AGAIN!

It's been a long time! After Falles and Eastern vacation we are back! this time, last meeting report (5th) comes a little bit late. It's not reporter's fault, though! It's my fault! Susana sent me the report one week ago and I forgot to upload it in our blog. Anyway, here you are Susana's great report! Before you read it though, I will remind you next meeting highlights!

DATE: April 28th
STARTING TIME: 17'30-18'00
PLACE: CEIP Miguel Hernández
TOPIC: Games of the World

DIDAC

COOPERATIVE GAMES

Last tuesday 30th of March we had our meeting. We were few people but we enjoyed a lot as always. This time we share our cooperative games. The meeting started with Miguel's game. It was called "Let's make shapes". We did 2 teams. One team had 8 bricks and the other had 8 little chairs. We had to make different shapes with the material as quick as possible. It seemed easy but it wasn't because we had to keep the balance at the same time we set the material. My team lost 3 times in a row. We realized that setting the chairs was more difficult than setting the bricks, But we also lost when we had to walk on the bricks in order to reach to the end of the court.!! The other players were smarter than us.

Miguel's game: Bricks' race!

Maria Jose explained to us her game called "How much time do you need to do it?" One team was inside a circle and the other team was around it and had to throw the ball against their bodies in order to eliminate them. It seemed very easy but it wasn't because MJose gave us only 30'' to do it. The team's success lied in their velocity and good shot because the ball could only touch from the hip to the feet. Mireia's game was very similar to Mariajo's one. This time there was a "Fugitive". A big group had to eliminate the fugitive by touching him with the ball. The main rule was that the person with the ball could not run. During the game we realized that the way to eliminate the fugitive was collaborating between us.

MaJose explainning her game

Nuria's game was called "The meatball" At the beginning it was difficult to understand because we could not put it into practice. But at the end we did it. It consists in making a big meatball with the students and moving all together to the place the teacher told them without talking and separating. It must be funny. We could not play to Didac's game, we needed much more people. When he explained it, we realized that it could be very funny to play in a raining day. The game is called "The chair". I am sure that everybody has played when he was young. We must set a lot of chairs in a circle. Well, not a lot of chairs, we need one chair less than people are (difícil de traducir). Instead of using a radio player, Didac started to play the drums. We had to dance around the chairs while he was playing the drums and when he stopped, we had to try to sit down quickly. The one who missed the chair had to start crying. He had to ask to another classmate: "Can I sit with you?". The answer, of course , was "YES,you can". And he had to sit down on his legs. Each time a chair must be removed and at the end there would be a pair of chairs and brunch of students on them. All keeping the balance!!! Jose Luis explained to us his game. All the students are in a circle. It must be an odd group. The teacher gives a ball. The game consists in passing it to the second classmate on the right or on the left.The game begins with one ball but the teacher gives them more balls. I can imagine if the balls start falling down!! What a mess!!

Susana's game: Transport the ball!

And now it is time to explain my game: "Transport the ball" In teams of four we had to transport a medicinal ball. We had to use 4 sticks and we could not touch the ball. It was a relay race because we had to pass through different obstacles. Didac discovered that it was possible to play also with 3 people. So, we did two teams of three and we played a little. I think it was funny as the other games.

Susana

4th Meeting: Indoor games

Here we are again!

Last February 17th we met at CEIP Miguel Hernández to develop our 4th PE in English meeting and, once more, it was very successful and worthy! Before we started, Nuria asked to be the new reporter and she started to take some notes about the games we developed that afternoon. As I've said, it was a very interesting and worthy meeting because our topic was "Indoor games". Most of valencian PE teachers haven't got any gym at their school, not even a room where they can develop a PE class if the rain shows up. That's the reason we decided that topic. And as I've said, it was very useful to everyone. But I'm not going to say one more word because Nuria did a great report. Before uploading her words though, I would like to remind you the highlights of our next meeting:

DATE: March 31st

HOUR: 17'45am

PLACE: CEIP Miguel Hernández
TOPIC: Cooperative games

Now, it's time for you to read Nurias' great report! By the way, we were so involved and amused with the games we forgot to take any pictures this time. Too bad!

Didac

INDOOR GAMES

Oh, it's raining cats and dogs and we have P.E. class with our pupils. What can we do instead of going outside? First Aida explained on the blackboard a game called “Hung man”, we had to guess the name of a sport by spelling (vowels and consonants). For instance: Is there a B? Yes, there is or no, there isn't. Next was Andreas's game, it was “The gun man”, Miguel added that it was his game too. It was a funny and interesting game. We made a circle and the gun man in the middle shot someone. Susana's game was the “Tube message”, we enjoyed it a lot, it was also a spelling game, we worked in two groups.

Miriam explained her game, “The director of orchestra” in which in a circle we had to do the same movement as the conductor and one of us had to find him/her. My game was “the key thief”, and we tried to steal the key holder without making noise. Jose Luis explained a very similar game to hung man but with a large paper and we had to write with our feet. Finaly, Didac talked about his game called “The clap” just to pay attention. It was really funny. Some of us added different posibilities to this game.

Nuria Ballester

3rd Meeting: Sports Introduction games

Just before we started to develop our 3rd meeting -Sports Introduction Games- last January 13th, Mireia proposed herself to be the reporter. She was injured so she couldn't do barely any exercise. She kept on taking notes and pictures and let me tell you she is done a great report. Take a look! Before that though, I will remind you the info highlights of our 4th meeting:

DATE: February 17th

HOUR: 17'45am

PLACE: CEIP Miguel Hernández
TOPIC: Indoor games

Now, enjoy Mireia's great report! Bye!

Didac

SPORTS INTRODUCTION GAMES

Playing Kao (Nuria's game)

Hi my friends! Last meeting took place January 13th and its topic was Sports’ introduction games. We played several games in which we practiced different aspects of some sports. Most of them were basketball introduction games, such as Survivor (proposed by Miguel), Kao (suggested by Núria) or Superplayer, wich was organized by Dídac. The most difficult game we played was Andrea’s because we had to be bouncing the basketball while catching and pass other balls with your other hand. Then, we played the same game using our feet. We baptized this game with the name: Crazy ball.

Playing Everybody run! (Susana's game)

Susana shown us a game related to baseball. It was called Everybody run! It was interesting because in this game, when an offensive player shot the ball all the team had to run. When you play baseball in PE class, pupils usually have to wait their turn to run and that means they are not active most of the class time. Susana gave us a clue to keep them active all the time! Majo proposed a game called Doesn’t fall it!, in which we set in a row and, with one contact to the ball of each one of us, the ball couldn’t fall down to the floor. José Luis showed us a game related to handball, and specially to practice the extreme position thrown, called Around the goal.

Playing  Superplayer (Didac's game)

Finally, I explained a game that we couldn’t practice because we remained five people and we needed more players. The game was called Tower balloon. I explained that I use to play this game when I start practicing any invasion’ sport, in order to learn basic offensive and defensive actions involved in this kind of sports.But we cannot finish this report without telling the funnier action that Susana made. She scored a goal in her own goal. It was very funny!

See you next meeting!

Mireia

2nd Meeting: As good as 1st!

Hi, folks!
Christmas Holliday is practically gone... Tomorrow, right at this time, we'll be surrounded by a mess of kids asking for playful games to play. Well, I hope you all enjoyed your 15 days off... It's not that bad! Come on! It's time to go back to school and make our students work on their bodies and minds!

 As a matter of fact, it's also time to start activating ourselves because next January 13th will be our next meeting! Remember the highlights:

• Place: CEIP Miguel Hernández
• Time: 17'30hrs (try to be on time!)
• Topic: Sportive introduction games

And now, having this said, I will publish Andrea's report about our last meeting which was as good as the first one! Enjoy Andrea's refined English!

Body Expression (2nd Meeting Report)

In our second “practice class” we worked upon body language. It was a challenge for all of us. Nevertheless we had a lot of fun because we all gave our best! Didac started the class with a funny game called “NumberBomb”. This is a big group game. We all were walking around the court. The basic goal was to count from 1 to 10 without saying any number at the same time. There was no order but nobody could say two numbers in a row. If two of us said a number at the same time, we shouted “Bomb”, and we all felt down, like in a explosion. After this initial game, Marian introduced a game called “Follow the King/Queen”. In this game all of us played together. We were in a circle, and the teacher told who was the King or Queen. He or she had to choose body or face and start to do movements, and all others had to mimic the King or Queen. MªJosé’s game was “How much times I can use it?”. We got groups of 3 or 4 and the teacher gave each group a different thing to develop our expression skills. We had to create a story using that thing in three different ways, that is: it had to "convert" in three different objects along the story. For example, a wheel was used as a bonfire, animal, and pillow in the same story. It was amusing.

Prepearing the stories

When it was my turn I explained a game called "The figure". We used the same groups as before. It consisted in mimic with your eyes blindfolded the figure that one of your partner had created. The other component of the group corrected the second figure. When we finished the game, we talked about how different ways to play “figure” games. In pairs, in small and big groups… The next game was “Run-perform-sit down” explained by Susana. In this game we need four benches, forming a square. There were four teams, each team sit on one bench. Teacher shout a number from 1 to 4. We had to follow these commands:

• Number 1! All the teams must stand up, run to the bench on their right and sit down as quick as possible. But they must walk as BIRDS and chirp as birds do.
• Number 2! All the teams must stand up, run to the bench on their left and sit down as quick as possible. But they must walk as COCKS and crow as they do "cock-a-doodle-doo".
• Number 3! Only the teams that are sat on the benches with the yellow cone can move. They must stand up quickly and sit down on the bench that is in front of them. They must walk and meow as CATS: "meow, meow, meow".
• Number 4! Now the teams on the yellow benches have to run and move as if they were THE INVISIBLE MAN.

It was very funny  because you have to think what to do when you were in each benches, and did it as fast as possible.

Playing RunPerforme

After that, Jose Luis presented a very simple but amazing game called “Invent a language”. We were sitting in pairs. Jose Luis told us that one of us had to invent a language while our partner was trying to follow a conversation. We had a lot of fun in this game. For example, we started to talk like a Russian but then like a Chinese people… we cannot continue the conversation because we laughed so much. Later we were dancing with Nuria and her activity “how to move your hips”. She taught us some movements in order to dance the song “All about the bass”. She explained before the movements without music, and when we cached, we all dance to the music.

Following Nuria's dancing orders

To cool down, Carles told us a “relaxing” game. We were lying on the others in a line. And we made a nice massage to the others. Finally, as a conclusion, I think that we are lucky to have this opportunity to show the others our “best” games, and learn from each other. Also, the best way to know if we like or not one game, and to learn how to explain to our students is playing!!!!

Andrea