What’s up Phys Ed Fam!
In this post I want to share with you a really helpful concept that I’ve included in my PE Program called “The Levels of Partner Acceptance“
This is a great way to help teach your students about the benefits of being able to work together with anyone in their class by demonstrating for them why it’s important and then giving them lots of opportunities to practice the skill and see the benefits for themselves.
This is a concept that I first saw on Twitter from my Twitter Phys Ed Friend Sara Wood and I thought it was pretty genius. I started testing it out in my classes and really loved the visualization it gave students and helped them realize how the different reactions they have when doing partner work has a huge impact on the class environment, the person they are partnered with, and also their ability to be successful with the activity or task challenge that I’ve given them.
The ability to work together is after all a valuable life skill 😀
Since I saw some success after introducing this for the first time, I created a poster that I put up on my wall to reference throughout the year and plan a lesson each year with my K-2nd students focused on the concept of partner acceptance and revisit it during any games or partner work throughout the year. I also reference it as needed with my 3rd – 5th students depending on the class dynamics and whether or not it’s needed.
You can download the poster for free at the bottom of this post if you’d like to use it as a visual for introducing this concept in your program.
Teaching Partner Acceptance with a Partner Bowling Activity
In the video below you’ll see me explaining this concept at a PE conference and also see an example of one game you could use to give kids an opportunity to practice working together in pairs (although there are 100s of different partner activities you could use for this).
So that’s it! I hope that was helpful, lets recap the rules I use for Partner Bowling (feel free to modify/adjust for your situation).
Partner Bowling Activity
Students are in pairs and create their own bowling alley using a pin, ball (or frisbee) and a line on the floor or a polyspot.
- Scoring:
- You can have kid play first to knock down the pin (great for Kindy) or do a first to 3 points awarding 1 point for a hit and 3 points for a knockdown (or any other scoring varitaion)
- After the game is over, create a new bowling alley and play again until the music stops
- Once the music stops – Fist Bump, say “Good Game” and line up behind your ball and pin
- On teacher signal, students in the back of the line find a new partner with the goal of having a “Level 4” partner acceptance reaction when they sit down.
- Repeat as necessary
Variations: Use a different ball, kick a ball, throw a ball, use a frisbee, use a racket and strike a ball at the pin.
I usually play 2-3 minute rounds and go for about 15-20 minutes or until I feel kids are ready for a new partner activity, for example check out another PE Classic I call Throw and Catch Tag below:
Teaching Partner Acceptance with a Throw and Catch Tag
You can check out an example of me explaining Partner Acceptance with my students in the video below and see an example of Throw and Catch Tag, which is another great game for practicing working with a partner and playing quick rounds with lots of partner switching.
As you can see in the video I go over the levels with students and then practice with them until they get the hang of quickly partnering up with anyone in their class and our goal is to have at least a Level 3 (Positive Acceptance) or even better a Level 4 (Excited Acceptance) Partner Acceptance Reaction.
Once I feel we’re good to go I teach the kids a game to play with their partner and then we swap it up every 2-3 minutes to give them plenty of opportunities to have a Level 4 reaction and work with different classmates.
The game from the video is an activity I call Throw and Catch Tag, rules below:
Throw and Catch Tag Rules:
Students are in pairs with a ball or frisbee to practice throwing and catching, demonstrate the game first and then let them play.
Rules:
- During the music you throw and catch with your partner
- Optional – you can designate how far to stand, how many steps back or give them freedom to choose what’s right for them
- When the music stops the person with the ball or frisbee (or whoever is closest to it) will be “it” and will try to tag their partner while traveling by using the designated locomotor activity until the music comes back on, when the music comes back on resume throwing and catching with your partner
- Change up partners and Locomotor Movements every 2-3 minutes
- Praise any level 4 reactions that you see throughout the game and refine throwing cues if needed
- Closing Questions:
- How did it make you feel when someone had a Level 4 reaction when you asked them to be your partner?
- Do you think that had an impact on how successful you were and how much fun you had as a team during the game?
I hope that was helpful and if you try this out, remember that you can use any partner activity where you’re frequently switching up the partner groups throughout the lesson to teach this concept.
If you want to use the poster, you can download it for free below, I keep it up on the wall of my gym for quick referencing when needed and usually take the kids over to the wall to look at it when we’re discussing it for the first time in the year.
More related resources linked up below to check out from other awesome PE All Stars:
- Barb Borden’s Partner Acceptance Video
- Kyle Bragg practicing Level 4 Acceptance with his kiddos
- Sara’s Original Levels of Acceptance Template via Becky Foelmer
A few more tips from Kyle below on how he introduces and practices the levels of acceptance with his kiddos
Inspired by @donntobin & @thepespecialist, I thought I’d share some strategies that work well with us using the hashtag #ICIH (in case it helps).
This tip is about how body language, facial expressions, & non-verbal com are all important. #physed
-Teach
-Model
-Practice
-Praise pic.twitter.com/P6KBG9La7a— Kyle.PE.Bragg (@ElemPE1) January 12, 2023