What's up PE Nation! Ever wondered how to turn a simple school gym into an electrifying sports arena? Join me as I uncover the behind-the-scenes magic of our fifth-grade Tchoukball Sport Ed unit's grand finale. This episode promises a masterclass in event planning, as students step into roles such as photographers, artists, and announcers, all working together to create an unforgettable spectacle. You'll hear inspiring stories of kids rising to the occasion, contributing their unique talents to an event that not only celebrates athletic prowess but also highlights the beauty of teamwork and creativity.
From planning every meticulous detail to assigning roles based on skills and preferences, discover how we orchestrate a Tchoukball tournament that brings out the best in our fourth and fifth graders. Collaborating with art and music teachers, managing schedules, and fostering an atmosphere of fun and camaraderie, this episode showcases the importance of practice, preparation, and community spirit. Student-led activities like poster-making and halftime shows add flair to the event, culminating in a day that everyone will remember with pride. Get ready to be inspired by the power of collective effort and the sheer joy of working together to create something extraordinary!
Take care,
Dave
This episode is sponsored by my how-to course on creating the Sport Education Tchoukball Tournament- https://gum.co/sported
What's up PE Nation! Ever wondered how to turn a simple school gym into an electrifying sports arena? Join me as I uncover the behind-the-scenes magic of our fifth-grade Tchoukball Sport Ed unit's grand finale. This episode promises a masterclass in event planning, as students step into roles such as photographers, artists, and announcers, all working together to create an unforgettable spectacle. You'll hear inspiring stories of kids rising to the occasion, contributing their unique talents to an event that not only celebrates athletic prowess but also highlights the beauty of teamwork and creativity.
From planning every meticulous detail to assigning roles based on skills and preferences, discover how we orchestrate a Tchoukball tournament that brings out the best in our fourth and fifth graders. Collaborating with art and music teachers, managing schedules, and fostering an atmosphere of fun and camaraderie, this episode showcases the importance of practice, preparation, and community spirit. Student-led activities like poster-making and halftime shows add flair to the event, culminating in a day that everyone will remember with pride. Get ready to be inspired by the power of collective effort and the sheer joy of working together to create something extraordinary!
Take care,
Dave
This episode is sponsored by my how-to course on creating the Sport Education Tchoukball Tournament- https://gum.co/sported
Hello and welcome to the Supersize Phys Ed podcast. My name is Dave and I'm here to talk about part two of my Chookball Sport Ed fifth grade unit that I do every single spring with my students, and today we're gonna talk about the final game. So if you didn't tune into part one and you want to hear it, that was the last episode I suggest you tune into that. But if not and you're ready to go, let's move. Let's go. All right, welcome in PE Nation. Just like last episode, this episode is sponsored by my sport education online course. So if you have any, you can always reach out to me. I'm more than willing to help. But the course itself goes into deeper things. I guess that I'm talking about and really shows you in video form what I'm referring to, especially during the regular season and actually the postseason as well and the final game. So today I am going to talk about the final game and, by the way, that course is in the show notes if you want to click on that to learn more. So the final game this is it. This is what we've all been waiting for, all the kids have been waiting for. So, after you've done the knockout round and this is the last episode type thing that I'm talking about. You knock your teams out, you get down to two teams. Those two teams are going to go head-to-head in the final game and it's going to be the greatest game you've ever created in your life.
Speaker 1:
As far as PE, I'm telling you Now, if it's possible, I would try to get it in a different location. So some of you have inside locations, some of you have outside, like me, what I used to do was I held it in the cafeteria and I turned the cafeteria. Not when I say I, it's we, we turned. This is a fifth grade project, so I don't want to use the word I and I just did that again. We turned the cafeteria into a small arena and it just. It's amazing. And when I talk about creating masterpieces, this to me was my first masterpiece and I actually said that to the staff that showed up the administration, the fourth graders, the fifth graders and I said this was a culmination of everything that we worked on as a team, as a group, as a grade level, and we created our own masterpiece and at first I thought it was mine, but it wasn't mine, it was ours and I remember saying that right before the first final game that we had in the cafeteria, right before the first final game that we had in the cafeteria.
Speaker 1:
Now, at my current school, it's an older school and the cafeteria is smaller, so I didn't think it would work. It was just too small. So what I did instead was we had it outside the past two seasons, the past two years, which it's still great. It's even better's, really, it's even better if you could turn a different space into the arena that I'm talking about. We just happened to make an amphitheater or an outside arena and we it's. It's still amazing. If you do it right, and even if you don't do it, perfect, that's okay. We're gonna do the best we can and we'll talk about it, you know, as we go right here. So I'm going to back up a tiny bit Now.
Speaker 1:
What I did was I created and this is in the course as well I created a Google sign-up form for students when they got knocked out of the tournament and I guess, again, I've talked about this last episode. Yes, there are sometimes hard feelings or hurt feelings, and I don't want that, but I want to give them a chance to pick a fun job and still be part of the final game Because, again, it's a whole project. It's like a fifth grade third quarter project is what I really refer to it as and it's part of the grade. I mean it's a big part of the grade because they're working on this for a couple months and they do other things as well, like when they're not playing chook ball, they're playing other games with the other coaches, things like that. But it depends on your situation. I mean, this is a big thing, this is a big project, a big unit, and the kids usually rise up to the challenge. They really do.
Speaker 1:
I always tell them about a student I had at my former school that wasn't a quote, unquote PE student. I think I've said this before on a different podcast and when I say that I don't mean I just mean he didn't like PE. Basically is what I'm saying? He didn't, pe wasn't his thing, and that's okay. I mean, some kids like other things and that's all right. Our goal is to try to get them to enjoy it as much as we can and to get them to learn and all that stuff. That's again a whole, nother episode. But but he took his job of photographer so seriously and did such a great job with it that I made him like the, the director of photography for the final game. I he was the one who set up the cameras and told people where to go and and you know what angles and things. I mean he just took it so seriously. It was awesome. And some students are really good at artwork Um, I'm not they, they they created most of the posters, or the majority of the poster.
Speaker 1:
Um, when you know, the other team or the other part of the team can work around it and do their part, but you know, but they get into the real creation of it. So everybody, I think, can find a role. And that's what makes this so much fun, I think, is everybody is hopefully included and feels included and can find a job or thing they like to do. So the jobs they can sign up for. Now, again, this is one of those things they might sign up for. I tell them they can sign up for. Now, again, this is one of those things they might sign up for. I tell them they can sign up for three or four jobs. They might not get any of them, but I try to give them the job they want. The problem is, one of the jobs is announcer. I've expanded this role to four announcers two main announcers and two halftime announcers, because I created a halftime show, which I guess I'll talk about in a bit.
Speaker 1:
So the other jobs are like DJs. I usually pick two or three DJs that will use my phone or another device and just create a soundtrack or a playlist. They'll create a playlist and it's got to be appropriate, it's got to be you know all that stuff. I told them it's got to be like you know, at a sports arena. So they'll put some sporty type song or jock jams kind of thing, those kind of things and some other songs. And they also will go to each team and ask them what is your walk-up song going to be? What do you want to come out to?
Speaker 1:
I think the one this year, because they were called Spider-Man, it was that Post Malone Spider-Man song. And the other one was, I think we Will Rock you or something like that. No, I know what it was they came out to it's whatever Michael Jordan's come out to the Ellen Parsons project, the Chicago Bulls, they would come out to that. So you know that kind of deal. But they get to choose. And again, the creativity is amazing. It's really cool to watch, really Just the creativity and the involvement of the students that really take ownership of this.
Speaker 1:
And it's true, in a class of like 150 kids total or I'm just giving a round number you're going to get I don't know 10 to 20 kids that really don't care that much about it. I'd say less than that, actually more like 10. They really don't care, they're not trying. You know that kind of deal and it's hard to motivate them, but hopefully usually the team, because they don't want to let their team down. They usually try their best. Okay, so other jobs are referees. Now, if I see them do a good job during the tournament, they can maybe be a referee in the final game and they have to be unbiased, they have to call it fairly. They also can't be in the tournament in the final game, and that's what happened this year. My best referee was actually playing on the Spider-Man team, so obviously he couldn't referee because he's playing and they end up winning.
Speaker 1:
The other jobs setup, cleanup, photographers, timekeepers, scorekeepers, all that stuff. I also have greeters. They will help the classes come in and they'll create a VIP section for the administration and the teachers to sit at. Sometimes we hand out actual tickets and we'll do raffles and things. We didn't do it this year Again. Sometimes it just doesn't work or whatever. I guess this year what I noticed was our microphone isn't loud enough sometimes and the kids couldn't even hear the numbers when we raffle off things.
Speaker 1:
In the past I'd have kids throw things into the crowd, like at an actual like I work at the local arena hockey game. They'll throw T-shirts to the crowd or they'll throw little trinkets and then what would happen is there would just be a mosh pit of kids fighting for stuff, and I don't want that. But I've learned a lot. That's what I'm trying to tell you. I've learned a lot from my experience and so I've learned to cut things and add things. We've also added we have a halftime show and that means the kids have to just do some choreographed dance to a song that we always practice to get the crowd going, get the crowd pumped up, have them do the wave, things like that. They can do flips and stuff. My daughter is in gymnastics, so last year her and another girl did some flips and things on the grass. You know, things like that, just things you'd see at a maybe a small venue, a sporting venue, a sporting arena. So I added another thing a halftime show.
Speaker 1:
As far as not just the performance, that is because they would do that as well, but they also we'd have two announcers call out kids from the audience and they do a 2v2 basketball shootout kind of thing and we give them prizes. I usually have extra prizes laying around from various things. A lot of it's from, like, the American Heart Association, just extra prizes and things that we just give out at the end. And, by the way, at the end, instead of raffle, every student got a little trinket from them or from another thing. I got Just everybody that attended. We get a little yeah, again, trinket's the best word, I guess Like a little key chain and things like that.
Speaker 1:
The other job is slideshow presentation. So they'll create a slideshow at the end of the tournament that will be shown in like the cafeteria during lunch and just like yeah, the kids really enjoy that Putting pictures together from the season and showing the winners and things like that, so everybody can see it, and in the whole school, even kindergarten. So those are some of the things they could sign up for and I'll add and subtract things as we go, but I'll take it home over the weekend, like I 'll tell them as soon as their team gets knocked out. They have to sign up for a job. They don't have to, they can just watch if they want to watch, because I don't have 140 jobs or whatever to give them. So and, by the way, another job I just thought of is advertising. So that's advertising. They can draw pictures Again, the kids who like to draw, and things like that.
Speaker 1:
They can post posters or put posters up around the building saying you know, here's the final, you know the final game. Spider-man versus who was it? It was the pink alligators this year. Here's what time it's at, you know. And they'll put up things like you know, go Spider-Man or go pink alligators, and they'll put them up all over the school. That's the advertising crew.
Speaker 1:
And I'll go home over the weekend and I'll just take that, I'll put in a spreadsheet and I'll start picking jobs for people based on what they did over the. If they were a good referee, I'll pick them. If I think they'll be a good announcer, I'll pick them, and I'll give out the jobs on the following Monday. And a lot of this is kind of like the backwards design, where I'll pick a day and I'll say this is the final game for Chuk Ball and I'll put it out to the fifth grade teachers and the fourth grade teachers and here's my final game and I'll work backwards from there and I'll make sure the tournament is over by a certain day and they can sign up by that. Whatever Thursday or Friday, I'll take it home and I will give out the jobs on Monday and if I don't see them on Monday, I'll see them on Tuesday. I always see classes either on that day or the next day. They never have art and music two days in a row and I'll give them their jobs and they practice those jobs.
Speaker 1:
Then during the week, and let's say the game's on Friday, they'll have a few days to practice. They'll have a few days, in this case, to make posters and the referees can talk about you know they'll do hand signals or you know where they're going to be positioned and the halftime show can work with my well, in this case they will work with my female para about. You know what they're going to do to pump up the crowd and what dance they're going to do, and you know exercise, dance kind of thing. And so they'll go over all this stuff. My announcers. I'll give them a script and they can kind of mess with it a little bit, but they'll go over all these things and the DJs, like I said, can create a playlist. So all these students are working on their jobs during that week and then the final game is usually on a Friday In this case it was in the last two seasons and that morning it's just kind of chaotic, but it'll all be planned for in advance. So what I do is I have In this case I had it depends on your schedule fourth grade switched with a different grade level to make sure they were out in the morning.
Speaker 1:
I have in the morning because it's outside and I want to make sure it's not too hot, so I have in the morning and the fourth grade comes out and watches it. I'll have fifth grade out first to get set up and to talk to them about hey, we're not booing anybody, we're cheering and we're being kind and we're. You know all this stuff and you know all this stuff and you know here's how it's going to go and here's, you know we're going to do this, this, this, this, this, and then the fourth grade comes out along with. You know, if the teachers want to watch, which a lot of them do, and the you know if administration was invited, if they can make it, they usually come out. So I make sure they're out at the same time. But I want fourth grade to watch the game because I think it's important for them to see it. So they know hey, this is us next year and the first thing we do is you know, I'll do a little introduction, I'll talk about hey, this is the fifth grade team and they did a great job this year. And here's my announcers. I'm going to turn over to them and I do, and they they're the ones who they get the microphone and they say please stand for the National Anthem. And we all I just play a recording National Anthem we all stand and do that.
Speaker 1:
In the past I worked with a music teacher and they would have a National Anthem group come out and sing it Like a not professional I'm talking like fifth graders would sing it. The fifth grade choir, of course. Course we've had a little turnover in our music department, so I haven't done that yet, but I did it with my former at my former school, with my music teacher. So it is good getting them involved, like the art teacher would help with some of the advertising if they wanted to. Now they don't have to, but getting everybody involved is is really a. It's a great thing.
Speaker 1:
And after the national anthem we, you know, we start play. The announcers um can say, you know, point to this team or not, or whatever. Um, I think it kind of got. I think I stopped that after a while because people couldn't hear and everybody's cheering and uh. But the djs can play songs during the game, kind of low, not super loud, but they play it during the, you know, as they're playing it. And originally when I started this tournament, I didn't have music on during the play, just during like the halftime and things like that before and after. Oh, and I forgot to say this the teams come out before, before everything. Sorry, this is not the. I wrote all this down and I forgot to say this. The teams come out, we announce them. This is before the National Anthem. The announcers announce them and they come busting out of a high school football game like a banner but make sure you rip it, by the way, a little bit so it rips and they rip the banner and they come out to their song and then the National Anthem and everything. So again, they play the game.
Speaker 1:
I usually do for the final game um two, I think, seven minute halves it. By the way, during the season I do a seven or eight minute games, depending on how much time we have. So this is like double that time, uh, with a halftime show, of course, for them to get drinks, the teams and everything to regroup. Again, the halftime show is about five to ten minutes. We do a little song and dance kind of thing the spirit squad, I call them and then it's more like ten minutes and then the halftime announcers do the 2v2 shootout. What I did was I picked two fifth graders and two fourth graders to come on up and they actually the fourth grade won. They get a minute to see how many baskets they can make as a team. So we've got the fourth grade rooting on the fourth graders, fifth grade rooting on the fifth graders, and then they all get a little prize at the end. And then after that we have the second half, and I did forget to mention this as well.
Speaker 1:
I order medals for the winning team. They're really cheap, but I haven't put our logo, our school logo, on it and, like in this case, it said, second annual Chuk Ball tournament, so it's. I mean to me, if you find somebody locally in the area, this guy charged us like it's like three bucks or something per medal and I get 10 of them let's say there's about eight on the team Then I'll give one to the teacher and I actually this year I gave one to the other teacher the final two teachers in it and I keep one for myself always and put it on the bulletin board. I just pin it to the bulletin board in my office, so things like that. So yeah, at the end we do an award ceremony, but everybody's kind of going crazy, it's a great thing to see. And they shake hands.
Speaker 1:
At the end we do an awards ceremony, but everybody's kind of going crazy, it's a great thing to see. And they shake hands. At the end of a Stanley Cup Finals they shake hands with the other team and it's really a good thing and the kids really enjoy it. I've had a lot of students come up to me that I've seen in Target or at my other job and oh, I love that Chookball Tournament coach. That was awesome. You know things like that. It's just a good time, it's a good thing to learn and, yeah, that's the final game and I hope you learned a lot from that.
Speaker 1:
Hey, let's do a Cowbell Tip of the Day. Here we go, all right, everybody. So your Cowboy Tip of the Day is to think of if you'd like to do this. Basically, I think it's such a great thing. The kids love it and it's something they'll never forget. It's an experience they'll never forget Win or lose, they will not forget it. It's an experience they'll never forget Win or lose, they will not forget it and it's good for them. Like I said before about finding a little thing they like to do. Some of them, yes, they're athletes and they want to play, but I have so many kids that are artists and or can sing really well or, you know, just want to. They do the photography and they really take it seriously. Things like that. They're priceless memories and I just want you to consider that as you plan these units or a unit like this, think about what sport you can do it with.
Speaker 1:
Now again, I've obviously chosen chute ball. It doesn't have to be chute ball. It could be any sport or just an activity. It could be Frisbee, it could be Frisbee golf, it could be as far as sport education unit where they have jobs. Now, that might not be the most exciting as far as action-packed, but you could do anything. Again, you could do volleyball. I wouldn't't do volleyball, though, because I just don't think the skill level is there. Even in fifth grade we do things like nitro ball. Yeah, you could do that. So it doesn't have to be an invasion unit. In this case, you could do it with a modified baseball game or whatever unit you want to do with. You can do it. I would say definitely give it a try. Though. The sport education model again, I'm not an expert on it. This is my hybrid model of it. There are books out there, there's, you know, better, podcasts out there on sport education and lots of really good people like Dr Stephen Harvey and Dr Shane Pill. They are the gurus of it and I've learned a lot from them, by the way, and I actually interviewed both of them about this. So definitely look for good resources out there and if you have any questions, reach out to me or you know again, I have the course out there if you want to go really in depth with it, so that my friends is your cowbell tip of the day.
Speaker 1:
Thank you everybody for tuning in. I really do appreciate it. Pe nation you are amazing. You're awesome. I see you out there. You're working out the gym. You're driving your car. You're doing some stuff around the house Like I do. I don't know You're just doing the gym. You're driving your car. You're doing some stuff around the house like I do. I don't know You're just doing some random stuff. I appreciate you listening into me talking Really. I do appreciate you listening in. So have a great day, week, weekend, whenever you listen to this and let's keep pushing our profession forward. We'll see you next time you
