Setting: Curricular
Season: Winter
Activity Goal
Participants create and play a modified small-sided game, adapting the game to winter conditions. Participants reflect on how weather and outdoor clothing affect their movement and game strategy and how they can introduce their game to friends and family to help them stay active in winter.
For participant safety, please review the contents of the Beyond the Walls: Safety Considerations page for information on Safety Standards, Winter Safety Considerations, and Outdoor Playing Areas and Surfaces.
Equipment
- Pinnies
- Pylons
- Traditional sport or game equipment that can be used outside (e.g., balls, hoops, flags, discs, portable goals)
Before Play
- Establish the designated play area boundaries, dividing the playing area into three equal sections to create three smaller playing areas.
- Divide students into six equal groups and provide them with access to equipment that can be used safely outside on different surface conditions (e.g., snow).
- Have groups use the equipment to create a new winter game to play in the designated playing area accounting for the weather and playing surface conditions. Encourage teams to use the natural winter elements to incorporate into their game (e.g., create a channel in snow as a free zone to roll objects toward their opponent's goal, snowbanks as time-out zones for groups to pause for strategizing, draw lines in the snow to create targets).
- Assign two groups to each section to create teams. Invite teams to share their game's rules and safety considerations with their opposing team to prepare for play.
During Play
- Have teams play their games for a short period to practice the skills and strategies they require to succeed in an outdoor environment.
- Pause the small-sided games and use the following prompts for participants to reflect on how successfully they adapted a game to winter conditions and determine changes they might make to rules of play for the game to be more engaging, fun, or challenging before resuming play:
- What components of the winter environment make your game fun or more challenging to play than if you played it indoors?
- What changes might you make to your game to make it more fun, engaging, easier or more challenging?
- What do you think your team will have to do to account for weather and the playing surface to succeed in this game?
- Have teams resume play incorporating any changes into their games.
- Have teams switch opponents to learn as many of the games as time permits, encouraging teams to continue adapting the rules and their play to the outside conditions.
After Play
Use the following prompts for participants to reflect on how they adapted games to winter conditions, how weather and outdoor clothing affected their movement and game strategy, and how their game can be played with friends and family to stay active in winter.
Question prompts:
- How successful were you in creating a fun game to play in winter conditions? What worked well? What would you modify?
- How did your team collaborate offensively and defensively to adjust your play to winter conditions?
- How did you adjust your movements in the various games to adapt to the outside conditions?
- How did your winter clothing affect your ability to move?
- What should you consider to dress appropriately in winter for different physical activities?
- What did you enjoy about playing an inside game outside in winter?
- How might you change this game to play with friends and family to encourage others to be active in winter? What equipment could you use that you might find in your home? Where might you play?
Adaptations
Consider these tips to maximize the challenge and the fun for participants.
- Provide groups with time to create their games before going outside and revise the game according to the weather and playing conditions.
- Explore how the game changes when using implements or different body parts.
Modifications
Consider these tips to maximize inclusion and fun for all participants.
For participants who have limited mobility, provide an implement for them to use when participating in the game (e.g., the objective is for the learner to reach for the object) or have teams account for differing mobilities when creating their games.
