The first Outdoor Education classes at NIS

On Saturday 10 October we had our very first Outdoor Education classes at NIS.

The Outdoor Explorers- for students in Grades 1 and 2- was one hour long. We started with a problem solving game where teams searched the school grounds for bands of different colors and competed to tie them together into the longest possible rope. This game was all about the values of communication and cooperation. I was really pleased and impressed with how well the teams talked to each other to encourage, share tasks, and give information! A really good start to the lesson and to the course.

The Explorers then spent some time working on their knots. We learned the first of five Essential Knots- the Reef Knot. We'll practice it again next week.

The Outdoor Athletes started their session with a new game called Captain Tag. This game is fun, fast, and a little bit rough, involving chasing, catching, and holding. It is all about the values of communication, resilience, and respect for others. The catching team must communicate if they are going to catch all the runners. The runners must be ready to keep running and evading right through the game. Everyone has to take care not to let the game get too rough and make sure everyone is having fun.

We then continued with the problem solving game described above. This is a longer game than we normally play in PE. The kids showed great resilience in keeping up enthusiasm and effort right to the end. The also showed real creativity in solving some of the problems, reaching bands that were hidden in tricky places. I heard a lot of excellent communication.

We practiced the Reef Knot and the Figure-8 Knot. We'll work on these again at the start of next week's class, combining them with an orienteering game in which they have to try and tie the right knot for a series of different tasks, in different places.

After knots, we played Ghost-in-the-Graveyard and then held a knotting-and-climbing challenge at the very end.

I really enjoyed both classes! Looking forward to next week.