Wednesday, November 25, 2015

How to Use an Obstacle Course to Give Thanks


How to Give Thanks with an Obstacle Course


"We need to hang a pumpkin from the tree."  On a recent bright fall day we had some friends visit. They kindly brought us lunch, and T-Rex was excited to set up this Thanksgiving obstacle course our friends to try. Of course a hanging pumpkin was high on his list of obstacles.




How do you help active second graders get excited about counting their blessings?

Each player received a paper airplane, representing the Mayflower, and the start and finish were marked with branches.

How do you help active second graders get excited about counting their blessings?

Obstacles included, the hanging pumpkins, some sitting pumpkins, rocks and a sea of leaves. 

The participants flew their airplanes through the obstacles.  As they passed each obstacle, they named one thing they were thankful for.

How do you help active second graders get excited about counting their blessings?

We lost one participant to an unfortunate insect injury, but otherwise everyone enjoyed this active way of giving thanks.

This activity would be a great way to burn off some energy after dinner tomorrow.All you need is a few paper airplanes, and some obstacles. Then fly your ships through the obstacles giving thanks at each stop. Ask your second graders what obstacles they would like to use.  We recommend a leaf ocean, rocks and of course, a hanging pumpkin.






For more ideas on fostering gratitude in the second graders in your life, check out what the rest of the Second Grade Blogging team is up to this week.

Give Thanks Acrostic Poem from School Time Snippets

Gratitude Conversation Starters from Creative Family Fun





Other posts from Thriving STEM you might like

How to Set Up a Pumpkin Engineering Task Your Second Graders Will Love



4 comments:

  1. I think this is wonderful! Sometimes Thanksgiving (and other family events) can seem very long for the kiddos. Burning off a little steam while maintaining the spirit of the holiday is a great idea.
    :-)
    Traci

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a cool idea to show thanks and work off the big lunch!

    ReplyDelete

I can't wait to hear what you have to say! Thanks for sharing.