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Presidents' Day Fitness

President's Day is a chance for us to integrate the curriculum with fitness education. Check with the classroom teacher. If the classroom teacher is not teaching about Washington and Lincoln, give the students some time to do some research before you actually play this game. There are some really cool web sites for kids about President's Day. They can search themselves by using a search engine like "Google." Here is a good one I found: http:// www.picadome.fcps.net/lab/currl/presidents/

Equipment:10 facts on index cards for each team of three or four players, one hoop to represent the starting line and to hold the collected cards. Optional: various kinds of balls.

The Game:

  • Write 10 facts on index cards for each team playing the game. You can use the same 10 facts over again or come up with many different facts. Half the facts are about George Washington and half the facts about Abraham Lincoln. Here is an example: BORN 1732, MOVED TO MOUNT VERNON, MARRIED MARTHA, COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF CONTINENTAL ARMY, CROSSED THE DELAWARE, VALLEY FORGE, DEFEATED CORNWALLIS AT YORKTOWN, FIRST PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES, REFUSED A THIRD TERM AS PRESIDENT, NICK NAMED: "THE FATHER OF OUR COUNTRY," BORN 1809, MOVED TO ILLINOIS, NICK NAMED: "HONEST ABE," MARRIED MARY TODD, BECAME A REPUBLICAN, DEBATED DOUGLAS, ELECTED 16TH PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES, EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, GETTYSBURG ADDRESS, ASSASSINATED BY JOHN WILKES BOOTH
  • Before the day of the game, work with the classroom teacher about the presidents. Of course you can go over the facts with the students before the game, or let them try to figure it out themselves.
  • Divide the class into teams of three or four players.
  • Assign each team either Washington or Lincoln. The Washington players will look for only facts about Washington and the Lincoln players will look for only facts about Lincoln. Tell them that they will try to collect as many facts about their president in a given time limit. If they collect all ten before the time is up, they may continue the game, but give the extra cards they pick up to another team. In this version, you have only 10 facts for each president, but you wrote those 10 facts multiple times so that each team could collect all 10. Of course if you came up with more than 10 total facts for each president, you could have the teams try to collect as many facts as they can for each president. Alternatively, if one team collects all ten, stop the game, and declare that team the winner. But check for accuracy.
  • Place the cards face down in one half of the play area. Give each team a hoop to stand behind. The teams line up relay style behind their hoop in the other half of the play area.
  • On the "go" signal, the first player runs out and turns over a card. S/he brings it back to the group. If the group agrees that the fact is about the president they are looking for, they place the card in their hoop and the next person runs out for another fact. If during the game the team already has this fact, or the fact is about the other president, the same person who brought this fact to the group brings the card back to the card area and places it approximately in the same spot. The person turning over the card always has the option to leave the card if s/he believes it is about the other president or is a duplicate. S/he then runs back and tags the next person on line.
  • At the end of the time limit - give them about ten minutes - see how many facts each team collected and check for accuracy. Play again. See if each team can collect more facts in the same amount of time. You can also add or deduct time in the next round depending upon the success of the class.

Variations:

  1. Use various kinds of balls. For example, if teaching basketball dribbling, each player takes turns dribbling a basketball to the cards. They must keep dribbling as they bend over to pick up a card.
  2. Play President Tag: Give one card to each player. If they began the game with a Washington fact, they must try to accumulate Washington facts. Anyone may tag anyone else. If tagged, give up one card. Try to get as many cards in two or three minutes as you can, but only the Washington cards count if you started with a Washington card, and only the Lincoln cards count if you started with a Lincoln card. When tagged, if you have more than one card, you may choose which card you give up. You may not be tagged while you are surrendering a card or taking a card from someone else.
  3. Same as above, but if you give up your only or last card, you may go to the side an take another card from the pile.