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Weekly Tribes 2012 – Tightrope

This is very similar to ‘knots’.

Place a piece of tape (the wider the better) about 4 ft. long on the floor.  I did this with grade 1 – 5, up to 60 students at once, so there were multiple lines of tape around  the room.

Have students randomly group themselves in teams of 4 or 5, standing on the tape.

Model this.

Tell students that the challenge is to reverse the order of people, without stepping off the tape (yes, they can lift a foot…).  “Imagine this is a tightrope and if you step off, you have fallen…”

Do NOT give any suggestions!  Do NOT model any part of changing positions.

DO review agreements!

  • No Put Downs = only positive encouraging statements!
  • Right to Pass = ‘If you think this can’t be done, or if you don’t want to touch or be touched, you can pass!”
  • Mutual Respect = You will have to touch each other…ask before you do!
  • Attentive Listening – honor ideas and requests.

As I mentioned above, I did this with grade 1 – 5…almost 500 students total (no all at once!) and only 1 student ‘passed’.  Guess who was the most creative in solving the problem?  1st graders!

Lots of good reflection opportunities here about working together (with people you don’t usually work with) and thinking skills, as well as a reinforcement of the importance of the agreements.

 

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