Indicating the paths of capture with coloured ribbons.
Learning and experimenting with the capture paths.
Interpreting capturing via motor sequences.
EQUIPMENT: giant chessboard – name cards and holders - hoops – coloured ribbons: red-4.20 metres, blue-4.20 metres, green-5 metres - soft toy on a pedestal (Boletus the Gnome)
Main instructions for the children
Go into the castle with a classmate and mark one of the three direction paths by laying coloured ribbons as instructed: blue ribbon will be used for the vertical path, red for the horizontal one and green for the diagonal.
Leave the castle.
Activity details for the teacher
In this activity, the three directions learnt previously are marked on the chessboard using lengths of coloured ribbon laid out on the three paths where capture can occur.
Use a blue ribbon for vertical, a red one for horizontal and a green one for the diagonal.
The activity is done by groups of 3: in turn, 3 children go onto the chessboard with a piece of ribbon and mark the relevant path.
Those with the blue ribbon go first and mark the vertical path and then leave the chessboard; the next group mark the horizontal path with the red ribbon and leave the chessboard, lastly, the final group mark the diagonal with the green ribbon.
Repeat the activity as needed to make sure that everyone has understood. The remaining children then do the activity.
If appropriate, three groups of 3 can do the activity simultaneously (saving time and increasing involvement by the children). After the first groups have finished and left the chessboard, bring another 9 children on to the board for their turn.
To get everybody involved and to avoid the children getting distracted while waiting their turn to do the activity, 7-8 children can go onto the board at the same time to lay down the ribbons.
Once the ribbons have been placed in the correct directions, the following activities are possible:
For the horizontal, the ribbon is lifted from the board and held up high with upstretched arms and then brought down to the chessboard with an accompanying lowering of the torso in line with the ribbon.
For the vertical, the ribbon is held high above the head and maintained in position by upstretched arms; the arms remain rigid and the ribbon is moved repeatedly left and right by means of lateral movements of the torso.
For the horizontal, the ribbon is held in front of the body with outstretched arms and repeatedly moved left and right.
For the vertical, the ribbon is placed on the longest diagonal path and the children alternately hop left and right over the it with legs together and their hands on their hips.
Main instructions for the children
I will go into the castle and say a capture direction.
Place yourself so that you won’t get captured by me.
When you hear ‘stop!’ - you must stay in the room you are in - you cannot move to another.
You cannot stand in rooms on the outside edge of the castle.
Activity details for the teacher
Go onto the chessboard holding a hoop.
Once you are on a square of your choosing, name the direction that you will
capture in, e.g. I’m going to capture on the vertical path!
The children now go onto the board to find a square where they can’t be captured.
After a short while say STOP, which indicates that the children must stay on the square they are on.
Put a cone on the start square.
Walk along the appropriate path from the square you are on (vertical in this example) and capture each of the children on your path by bringing the hoop down over their bodies.
For the first captures, only go forward from a square on the edge of the board so that your capture paths are easier to identify.
Later, place yourself on a central square, which makes identifying your capture paths more complex as you can move forwards and backwards (vertical and diagonal) or left and right (horizontal). When you are in the centre there will always be 4 capture paths when the direction is the diagonal.
The activity is done as above, but a child is the capturer.
Note this is similar to the previous activity.
Main instructions for the children
I will go into the castle and say a capture direction.
Place yourself in a room so that you won’t get captured by me.
When I call out ‘stop’ - you must stay in the room you are in - you cannot move to another.
You cannot stand in rooms on the outside edge of the castle.
If you are captured you have to jump up and down 3 times, then turn around once and sit down in your room.
Activity details for the teacher
Repeat parts a to f of the previous activity.
Then introduce different funny things the children have to do if they get captured so as to stimulate the imagination and the creativity of the children: in the example above, when a child is captured they have to jump up and down three times, turn around once, and then sit down on the ground. All of this happens on the square where they were captured.
Make a funny noise with your voice.
Freeze theatrically, as if you have come under a spell.
CLOSING CHANT: Red, green, and blue on black and white. Coloured directions are a beautiful sight! 1, 2, 3, Yeaaaaaah!
The introduction of coloured ribbons significantly increases interest and paying attention when the directions are reviewed.
The children find it fun to identify various figures that come into being through the different arrangements of the ribbons, e.g. a star or a cross. These symbols and the images help to activate imagination and facilitate in an indirect way the learning and memorisation of the different directions on the chessboard.
In some cases, the children can lie down on top of the ribbons and replicate their position, memorising through the body the direction in question (body memory). You observe also the difficulty (which should be viewed as an opportunity) of having to deal with doing an activity in front of companions and becoming an actor on the chessboard stage. The activity creates an atmosphere of silence and observation; the motto is: be silent to think better.
Capturing activates the children’s playfulness, both when it involves the teacher and companions. As the difficulty of the activity increases, some will stop when they have to think about a strategy to be safe, some will keep moving while looking for a solution, others will ask for help from the team to find the right movement.
In all cases, the game activity becomes a motor ‘unloading’ method; in other words the amount of movement required channels away excess energy: consuming excess energy allows the mind to work well in unison with the body, favouring the production of winning strategies.
As far as behaviour is concerned, experience shows that some children copy others out of fear of making a mistake, while others deliberately allow themselves to be captured to get a reaction from teachers and companions, as in doing this they become the centre of attention.
Hoops or other activity equipment used to capture should be used in a fun way but with caution as you are suddenly entering the child’s space. The children can also propose capture methods. Remember that being captured can create a certain amount of fear or anxiety. In some children it can also induce aggressive behaviour. Capturing must be the game activity stimulator and not something that inhibits action by the children.
The child who becomes the ‘capturer’ must be reminded it is just a game mechanism, and that they must not get carried away and that they must always be careful and respectful of companions.