Job Discussion Forums

[drumbeat]

Any ideas on PE activities or outdoor activities for chinese students / ESL ideas are accepted but I focus on sports and fitness but without much for facilities and equipment.
I teach PE at a Canadian school in Nanjing. All my students are Chinese so it often is quite like an ESL experience.
One great game if you have space (a field or a large part of a whole basketball court) is capture the flag but just use a few bean bags instead. First I used one frisbee per side but then modified the game.
It is a little complicated but you have to visualize it and teach them the layout of the court you need.
you will need about 20 cones and use skipping ropes for the center line. One each end make a "safe zone" with a semicircle about 10 yards in diameter and a "jail" in one corner of each end about 3 yards in diameter. Use the skipping ropes for a center line. Put a frisbee or a few bean bags in the "safe zone" and they have to run from their side to get the frisbee or bean bags.
I have modified it to a big square safe zone - I made it the whole width of the court instead. Well if they get tagged in the opponents end they go to jail.
The ESL can be done in some way better but for my students it is more for exercise since it is a PE class (and for fun!). I would love any ideas on how to put more of an ESL slant to this.
Oh- the object of the game is to bring the frisbee or bean bag back to your side without it touching the ground. THey can throw it. You get a point once this happens then I switch teams or after two points. I make 3 teams of 8 students since 12 aside is too much (crowded) for a width of only 40 yards/meters by a length of about 100 meters. Another rule is they can get "saved" from jail if someone comes and tags them and they must put their hand up to indicate that they are returning on a "free pass".
Also only allow 10-20 seconds in the safe zone. Have the students who are not playing watch them and time them and call any "cheating" not that that will happen???!!
I imagine after playing this they can do a journal on how to play this.

By the way if there are any other PE teachers out there please send any ideas you have about how to do games without much for facilities. I do not have a proper field but use bits and pieces of spaces with limited supplies.
I also have developed a modified type of "speed cricket" game which I use. I have done this in large class rooms too. you need a bat or a type of hockey stick and use a sponge ball of course inside. THey get points for hitting it before the ball is rolled by a pitcher through chair legs and then they must run around a cone. They get out if the ball is returned to the pitcher before they get back past a certain cone by the batting /out chair. They can have a maximum of five runs then switch to the next person.